‘A humbling experience.’ UK basketball great reflects on his career as new chapter begins.

Fifteen years after one of the most magical individual seasons in Kentucky basketball history, the man responsible for the memories is coming back to his college home.

Jodie Meeks will be inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame this weekend, a career-defining honor, as well as — for a player known for his even-keeled, focused demeanor on and off the court — an opportunity to reflect on what he accomplished during his time as a Wildcat.

“It’s definitely a humbling experience,” Meeks said this week, a couple of days before his planned arrival in Lexington. “After my career was over at UK — I know I had a pretty good season — but I’m always someone that just keeps looking forward. And I really didn’t have time to kind of reminisce over that season until, like, I would hear from some people that came into the league after me. …

“Because when you’re in it, you always focus on, ‘OK, the next game, the next game.’ So I definitely appreciate it more as I get a little older versus when I was younger, because you’re always worried about the next game or the next part of your career.”

Meeks thought back on his time at UK in bits and pieces after he left.

Sometimes, he’d cross paths with a fellow Wildcat who came to the NBA after him — like John Wall or DeMarcus Cousins — and they’d bring up the mind-boggling stats from his junior season.

Occasionally, he’d come across old footage of one of his games at Kentucky, which didn’t get as much national TV treatment at the time. And the technology was a little different, too.

“Kind of looks like you’re watching through a fishbowl now ,” he said with a laugh. “We didn’t have a lot of HD.”

Meeks also came back to campus each summer following his departure in 2009 to finish his degree — one class at a time — before a final return to UK for his graduation ceremony in 2014.

Each of those experiences was a reminder of his time as a Wildcat, but the past several weeks — ever since the news came last month that he would join the UK Hall of Fame — have given him more of a chance to relive those memories.

There were many over his three seasons at Kentucky. One tops the list.

“Obviously, the Tennessee game,” Meeks said while recounting the highlights.

For anyone paying even the least bit of attention to UK basketball at the time, those three words — “the Tennessee game” — surely conjure visions of a night that still seems surreal 15 years later.

The Tennessee game

It was a cold night in Knoxville on Jan. 13, 2009, and Meeks still remembers not feeling like himself on the way into Thompson-Boling Arena. The weather was frigid. His body was tight. He recalls telling his father that something just didn’t feel right.

“Well, I hope you feel like that more often,” his dad told him after the night was finished.

Meeks was already in the midst of a special season , something that probably didn’t get the attention it deserved due to UK’s disappointing start — a shocking loss to VMI in the opener and a 19-point defeat to North Carolina four days later — bringing questions about second-year head coach Billy Gillispie’s future and a lack of national TV exposure.

Stephen Curry, James Harden, Blake Griffin and Tyler Hansbrough were among the biggest names in college basketball. Anyone not paying attention to Meeks by that point in the season had no excuses after the Tennessee game.

That night in Knoxville, the UK junior set a school record with 54 points and did so with amazing efficiency. He was 15-of-22 from the field, 10-of-15 from 3-point range and made all 14 of his free throws.

During one stretch late in the second half — when the Vols had trimmed Kentucky’s lead to 71-64 — Meeks put the game away. In a matter of a little more than a minute, he tied his own school record with his ninth 3-pointer, managed a steal at the other end — Meeks was known as a top-notch defender, too — and then set a school record that still stands, his 10th 3-pointer of the night.

After sinking that shot from NBA range, Meeks backpedaled down the court and offered the slightest of smiles before that cool expression returned to his face.

A few minutes later, he hit two free throws to break Dan Issel ’s school record of 53 points — one that had been around for 39 years — and Kentucky beat Tennessee 90-72.

“For whatever reason, I got locked in,” Meeks said. “And it ended up being a memorable night, to say the least.”

That’s one memory he has reflected on over the years.

Meeks has looked back on some of those highlights via YouTube videos, but he also managed to get a DVD copy of the full game broadcast — “Kids today don’t even know what a DVD is,” he says with a chuckle — and he tries to watch in once a year, around the anniversary of that night. His dad does the same, calling him up each January with the same question: “Did you watch it?”

The Tennessee game is the one that Meeks is remembered for, but there were plenty of other incredible performances that season. He mentioned a 79-63 win at Arkansas the following month — 45 points and a 17-for-24 shooting performance that night — and there were several spectacular scoring displays before his trip to Knoxville.

“I was proud of myself just for having a lot of big games before that, but people didn’t really recognize it, because we weren’t on national TV as much,” Meeks said. “So after that game, we started being on TV. And just being able to maintain the mental aspect of that — because as much fun as it looked and as fun as it was — it was hard mentally to keep doing that over and over and over again. If I had 18 points, people would say, ‘You had an off game.’”

The Tennessee game provided one of the few bright spots in an otherwise turbulent season.

A couple of weeks later, the Cats started a stretch that ended with eight losses in 11 games. They missed the NCAA Tournament — for the first time in 18 years — and got knocked out in the NIT quarterfinals. Gillispie was fired after just two seasons. John Calipari was hired to replace him. And Meeks — with one season of eligibility remaining — had a decision to make.

Meeks leaves Kentucky

Calipari made quick work of putting together a formidable roster for Kentucky’s future.

The new UK coach brought in a star-studded recruiting class that featured John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe, as well as Daniel Orton, who had originally signed with Gillispie.

Calipari convinced Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins and others to stick around.

Meeks would’ve been the biggest returnee of all, but he’d already had a tumultuous three years in college.

Tubby Smith , the coach who had brought him to Lexington, left for Minnesota after his freshman season. Meeks was limited to only 11 games as a sophomore due to injury, and his new coach, Gillispie, was criticized for the way he treated his injured players. Even his magical junior season was marred by the team’s overall struggles.

By the end of that 2008-09 season, Meeks had scored 854 points — still second only to Issel’s 948 in 1969-70 — made a school-record 117 3-pointers, earned consensus All-America honors and worked his way onto NBA Draft boards.

Ultimately, he decided to leave school a year early.

“It was a big decision for me, because I didn’t know really what to expect,” Meeks said. “My first year I played with Tubby, and so when he left, it was tough because I really didn’t know who they were going to bring in. And my next two years were tough, obviously, because it was a tough coach that they brought in. But it worked out for me. And then when Calipari came in, it would have been my third coach in four years.

“So that was my biggest thing, because I didn’t really know what to expect. And I had just had an injury season my sophomore year. So that was a big risk for me. And I didn’t want to take a chance.”

It obviously worked out for Meeks, who was selected with the No. 41 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft and played 10 seasons in the league . Meanwhile, the Wildcats enjoyed a resurgence under Calipari, with the star recruits leading the way. UK’s dream season came to a sudden end, however, with a stunning loss to West Virginia in the Elite Eight.

The Cats were 4-for-32 from 3-point range in that 73-66 defeat, leading to one of the biggest what-ifs in Kentucky basketball history.

“I do think about … we probably could have won a national championship. I think I was the missing piece, as far as the shooting, right?” Meeks said. “But you never know. You know, maybe something bad would have happened. Maybe it would have been something good. But I didn’t want to take that chance after the season I had.

“But it would have been fun, for sure.”

Coach Jodie Meeks

Meeks played 539 games in the NBA, appearing for seven teams over his 10 seasons in the league. He averaged a career-best 15.7 points per game as a starter for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2013-14 season, twice received votes as the league’s most improved player and played his last game in the 2019 NBA Finals, where his Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors to give Meeks a championship during his final run.

He made a brief return with the Raptors’ G League team in 2022 before announcing his retirement a few months later. As soon as the door to his playing career closed, another one opened.

That summer, Meeks ran into T.J. Saint , who had been the video coordinator for the Detroit Pistons during Meeks’ time there, at a Summer League shootaround. Saint told Meeks that he was about to become the head coach of the New Orleans’ Pelicans G League affiliate — the Birmingham Squadron — and said he’d like the recently retired player to join his staff.

Meeks, who didn’t envision himself as a future coach early in his playing days, had started to consider it more and more over the years, and by the time he retired, he knew that’s what he wanted to pursue next. The timing couldn’t have been better.

“I think just staying around the game — that’s what started it,” Meeks said. “I still wanted to help younger guys in different situations. Because I feel like my career, I faced pretty much every situation. Traded. Waived. Started. Coming off the bench. Sixth man. Won a championship. End of the bench. So in pretty much every situation, I can help guys and give advice. …

“Basketball is a big part of me, and I wasn’t ready to just be done with it.”

Meeks spent the past two seasons with the Squadron. Over the summer, he got the call to big leagues. Starting this season, Meeks will join the New Orleans Pelicans staff as an assistant coach, a return to the NBA and the next step in the 37-year-old’s basketball journey.

The former Wildcat said his goal is to have a long career in the league, possibly even climb the ladder and become a head coach at the highest level somewhere down the road. “I know it’s hard to get there. But just like anything else, I’m embracing that challenge.”

As far as his coaching style?

“I think it’s similar to playing,” he said. “I’m pretty even keel. I think I would be a players’ coach. I’m not saying I would take it easy on anybody, but always be truthful but always show them that you care. Whether that’s, make a mistake and you get on them or pat them on the back or whatever. But be truthful. Always show them you care and be honest.”

Meeks said his high school coach, Georgia legend Eddie Martin , had a big impact on him, even saying then that he would make a pretty good coach himself someday, though Meeks didn’t think much of it at the time. Martin will be in Lexington this weekend for the Hall of Fame ceremony.

Smith, the coach who recruited him to Kentucky, was a major influence, too.

“In my life, I’ve had so many coaches that I’ve kind of taken different things from each person,” Meeks said. “My high school coach had a really calm demeanor, but when he got on you, you knew it. Like, ‘Dang, I disappointed him.’ Tubby was more fiery, but it definitely helped. Kind of like the militant part of him. Being on time. Don’t be late. Be respectful.”

Smith is also planning to be in Lexington this weekend to watch his former player go into the UK Hall of Fame.

Meeks said this will be his first time back in town since coming to see Smith’s jersey retirement ceremony in Rupp Arena on Dec. 31, 2021, and perhaps the most special part of this trip will be the presence of his travel companions.

This weekend, the former Wildcat will be accompanied by his wife and two kids — 4-year-old twin daughters — and it’ll mark the first time any of them have ever been to Lexington.

“I’m really excited for my family to be there,” Meeks said. “My wife has never been there. So she’ll get to see kind of like what I was experiencing. See some of my posters on the wall. My little girls, the same type of deal, you know. I’m excited to share that with them.”

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