Rod Strickland a NBA veteran of which most all basketball fans know or at least remember his name. Strickland as I have mentioned in previous posts attended Oak Hill Academy before playing college ball and then NBA ball. Strickland played for Depaul University and made a great name for himself there. As a junior, he was a First Team All-American after averaging 20.0 points and 7.8 assists. A 1987 and 1988 All-America pick, Strickland helped lead the Blue Demons to four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1985-88, including Sweet Sixteen showings in 1986 and 1987. The four-time Blue Demon letter winner ranks among the program’s career leaders in scoring average (8th; 16.6 ppg), assists (3rd; 557) and steals (2nd; 204). He also averaged 3.4 rebounds while shooting 53.4% during his college career. In Strickland’s NBA career he scored over 14,000 points and neared 8,000 assists. Strickland was a very talented guard who was very exciting to watch and should be a great mentor and coach to all of the incoming players especially the point guards.
As UK has most likely taken the place of Memphis now being considered “Point Guard U”, Strickland will have a lot of talent to work with. I am very interested to see how much of an impact he has on the players basketball abilities as well as how much his presence will matter in recruiting. Coach Strickland is a great person to have as a member of the University of Kentucky and we should look for a lot of positives to come out of this.

Here are some interviews and highlights of Strickland as UK Assistant and while he was in the NBA…..