EVANSVILLE — In some ways, Walter McCarty was the prototype for the modern basketball player.
Long and lanky at 6-foot-10 — yet a Parade All-American as a Harrison High School senior — McCarty didn’t fit what used to be the common big man’s archetype when he arrived on campus at the University of Kentucky. He was skinny, and he also could handle the ball, pass and shoot from the perimeter.
Rick Pitino elected to use McCarty to his strengths rather than place him down in the post to get pushed around. He became a stretch-4 before they took over the game, a big who flourished under the freedom to pick-and-pop and put the ball on the floor.