Mike Rose
No college basketball player in the state is off to any better start this season than Eastern Kentucky’s Mike Rose.
The 6-foot-3 senior from Napierville, Ill. is not only averaging 20 points per game, he’s shooting 51.7 percent from the floor, including an impressive 53.3 percent (32-of-60) from three-point range.
Rose scored 33 points in the Colonels’ 93-50 blowout of Covenant College on Tuesday night in Richmond. He made 11 of 20 shots from the floor, including six of nine from three-point range. In his last two games, the win over Covenant and a win over UT-Martin, Rose has drilled 11 of 18 tries from behind the three-point line. Even before the Covenant game, Rose ranked 19th nationally in three-point percentage.
Not that any of this is a surprise. Rose was a first-team All-OVC selection last year, averaging 15.3 points per game for Jeff Neubauer’s team. He was the MVP of the 2007 OVC Tourney. But this year, the Illinois native appears to have taken his game to another level. He’s averaging 6.7 rebounds, is shooting 80 percent (24-of-30) from the free throw line, and has scored 20-or-more points in six of Eastern’s nine games. He registered a double-double with 24 points and 11 boards in the win over UT-Martin.
His one dud came last Thursday when Murray State held Rose to just two points on one-of-six shooting as the Racers escaped Richmond with a 58-50 victory.
Eastern (6-3) travels to Ball State on Saturday.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
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