Ralph Beard and Wah Wah Jones were Olympic gold medalists.

Frank Ramsey and Cliff Hagan would end their careers in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Vernon Hatton won an NCAA title and Dan Issel is Kentucky's all-time leading scorer.

All that basketball royalty notwithstanding, it is a hard-nosed competitor from Shelbyville, Ky., who was proclaimed by Kentucky legendary coach Adolph Rupp as "the best money player I ever had."

More than 30 years later, Mike Casey is still taken aback by the Baron's edict.

"It was a very complimentary thing for him to say," Casey said. "There weren't many compliments from coach Rupp, so if you got one, you must have earned it."

Clutch baskets helped earn Casey the moniker.

"I guess I made a couple of big shots," Casey humbly offered, "and before long you develop a reputation for wanting to take the last shot, for wanting to have the ball in your hands for the last few seconds of a game.

"Some players want the ball in that situation, some don't. It's part of your makeup. I thrived on it."

Clutch shooting only scratches the surface to explain why Rupp was enamored by Casey. The 6-foot-4 guard had a refuse-to-lose attitude and leathery psyche that withstood the demanding coach.

"He tore you down to build you back up," Casey explained. "Of course, as 18- and 19-year-old kids, we didn't understand that. We couldn't know that he was doing it so he could build you back up his way. And that's one thing about coach Rupp, it was his way or the highway."

Casey had the advantage of the toughness that comes from growing up on a farm and calluses on his pride from spending much of his youth around adults who could unmercifully pick at a youngster.

"Coach lit into me several times," Casey said. "But you couldn't take it personal because he never meant it personal. If you didn't understand that, it could really get into your head."

Rupp, after all, was Rupp.

"He never lost a game, it was always us players who lost. He'd say, 'If the boys had just done what I told them,'" Casey said, unintentionally slipping into an impression of Rupp's drawl.

"Every team had its clowns who could imitate coach Rupp, or mock his routines of the same pre-game meal or finding those bobby pins for good luck," Casey said. "But never, ever where coach Rupp might see you. Not even inside Memorial Coliseum. No way."

We now know that Casey came to Kentucky as one of the great recruiting classes in school history that included Dayton, Ohio, guard Mike Pratt and Batavia, Ill., center Dan Issel. But in those days, attention on recruiting was non-existent, even between the players.

"I didn't even meet them until July at freshman orientation," Casey said. "I had heard of Mike, but I had never heard of Dan Issel. I knew UK was looking at three big men, but that was it."

In those days, college freshmen were not allowed to participate on varsity, but there were complete schedules for freshmen teams. UK's "Kittens" were 17-2 in 1967 while the varsity labored to a 13-13 record during a season of rebuilding following the Rupp's Runts team. It was the worst record in Rupp's 42 seasons.

The following year, the trio moved up to varsity with little fanfare.

"One of my favorite memories of playing for UK is my sophomore season when we won the SEC championship," Casey said. "We were picked to in preseason to finish fifth in the SEC but ended up winning it."

Low expectations were appropriate. The 13-13 team returned only one starter in Thad Jaracz, a 6-5 senior. By year's end, Jaracz was the fifth leading scorer behind the sensational sophomores – Casey, 20.1 points per game; Issel, 16.4; and Pratt, 14.1. Junior Phil Argento averaged 12.3 and Jaracz 11.3

A preview of what was to be came in the season opener where Kentucky helped open Michigan's Crisler Arena with an 86-79 win in Ann Arbor. In the game, Casey scored 28 points in his varsity debut, a school record.

"I am surprised it's still standing," Casey said in 2003. "I know there aren't many freshmen or sophomores who get to start, but some hot shot will come along one of these days. It'll be broken. I'm sure of it."

Kentucky closed that 1968 season with a 15-3 SEC record and 22-5 overall mark, including a heartbreaking 82-81 loss to Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament.

The following year Issel moved to the forefront and began his assault on UK's all-time scoring record by averaging 26.6 points per game. Casey was at 19.1 and Pratt 16.9.

Thanks to a new offensive set Rupp designed specifically for Issel and Casey – a 1-4 stack – the Cats rolled to another SEC championship at 16-2 and an overall 23-5 record.

By the time Casey & Co. reached their final go-round, basketball fever was a pitch in the Commonwealth. Kentucky was a solid pick to battle UCLA and Lew Alcindor for the 1970 NCAA championship.

But all that changed over the summer when Casey was seriously injured in a car wreck on Interstate 64 near his home in Shelbyville, an event that led Rupp to proclaim, "We've just lost the national championship."

Casey explained that his left rear tire blew on the exit ramp and his car spun in a circle before slamming into concrete barriers. A slab jammed through the driver's door, breaking Casey's leg in three places and pinning him inside the car.

As damaging as the broken leg, Casey said, was the fact that is ankle was "frozen in place" during the three and a half months he was in a cast so that the tibia and fibula could heal properly. Casey missed the season and was still slowed when returned in 1971 without Issel and Pratt.

"In basketball, your first step is the quickest," Casey said. "I lost that quickness when they decided to freeze my ankle. I was able to get that quickness back after college while I was playing some AAU ball, but by then there was already the stigma that I had lost my first step."

Lost also was Kentucky's shot at the 1970 title, a reality that has been difficult for Casey to endure over the years. Not because of the lost opportunity, but because of the constant reminders that pop up even today.

"It's tough to have that notoriety, to always be remembered as, 'We'd have won the title if Casey hadn't broken his leg.' Yes, we had a legitimate shot had I been able to play, but I couldn't," Casey said. "That, alone, was tough to overcome. But as an adult, I understand now that something like that is just part of life.

"I was able to live my lifelong dream to play for Kentucky," said Casey, who admits he often pretended to be Vernon Hatton in the backyard of his youth. "I choose to remember the good things."