Pettigrew a great ‘get’ for WKU

Western Kentucky basketball coach Darrin Horn said he never felt helpless or stressed over the last few weeks as the recruiting saga of Mr. Basketball Steffphon Pettigrew dragged on. Horn had offered the Elizabethtown star a scholarship months ago, and felt confident the Hilltoppers would get him, even when Kentucky started stringing Pettigrew along before and after the signing date. “When you’re commited to a recruit,” Horn said yesterday, “you show patience. That’s what we did. We felt good the last few weeks. It was just a process Steffphon had to go through. But we had built a good relationship with him, and there was a comfort level he had with us.”

Since he became WKU’s coach, Horn has made it clear he wants to lure the best players in the state to Bowling Green. “There’s no question two years in a row we’ve gotten the best player in Kentucky,” he said, referring to A.J. Slaughter of Shelby County last year, and now Pettigrew. “That’s really good because it means our program is being viewed by in-state kids as a good place to be. And the fact that Steffphon is Mr. Basketball is important, because that hasn’t happened in 23 years here.”

The last Mr. Basketball to sign with WKU was Steve Miller of Henry Clay in 1984. The Hilltoppers got three other Mr. Basketball winners — Terry Davis of Shelby County (1968), Jim McDaniels of Allen County (1967) and Harry Todd of Earlington (1958).

Pettigrew, a solidly built 6-foot-5 swingman, led the state in scoring (33.6 ppg) this season. UK wasn’t sure he was big enough to bang inside, or that his ballhandling and shooting were good enough to make it as a perimeter player. But Horn told Pettigrew the Toppers weren’t concerned “about what you’re not.” Instead, Horn sees Pettigrew “playing for us very similar to how he did in high school. He’ll be out there producing. He’s one of those guys who just goes out and makes things happen.”

When Horn was a senior at Tates Creek High School, he had early scholarship offers from WKU and Navy, while some other schools, such as Minnesota and Northwestern, told him they’d keep an eye on him. Horn decided to sign early, in Nov. 1990, with WKU. “I wanted to go someplace where I could be a factor, where we could win, and that was fairly close to home,” he said. “I also really believed in Coach (Ralph Willard).” Pettigrew apparently had the same laundry list of needs, including a belief in Horn.