'You got the best player:' How Tennessee basketball landed Chris Lofton and stuck it to Kentucky forever

Buzz Peterson rested against a tree; a big old tree.

The Tennessee basketball coach listened as Frank Lofton spoke, a father in the front yard of his home in Maysville, Kentucky, having a celebratory chat with the coach he was entrusting with his son.

“You know what, Coach: You got one of the best,” Lofton told Peterson. “You got the best player. He is a really good player.”

That player was Chris Lofton, who committed to Tennessee that night to cap a frenetic final stretch after an otherwise confusingly quiet recruitment. That union would lead to one of the best careers in SEC basketball history and a Vols legend who will reach rare status Saturday when Tennessee retires Lofton’s No. 5 before facing Kentucky (noon, ESPN).

How Rodney Woods pointed Tennessee toward Lofton

Rodney Woods couldn’t believe it.

The highly regarded Kentucky high school basketball coach and former Vols guard had called Mason County coach Kelly Wells, Lofton’s high school coach. Woods wanted to know how Lofton’s recruitment was wrapping up in March 2004 after seeing Lofton light up his Wayne County team in the Sweet 16 of the Kentucky state tournament.

Wells told him it wasn’t wrapping up at all. It was sputtering. Woods made another call, reaching out to Vols assistant coach Ed Conroy.

“I said, ‘You guys need to get to Maysville tonight and lock him up. You can get him,’” Woods said. “I was just looking out and wanting to get him to Tennessee because I knew what kind of player that he was.”

Woods had seen Lofton in 2003 at Rupp Arena when he led Mason County to a state title. Then Woods had to coach against him a year later, seeing a no-doubt high-major player who didn’t have high-major offers. Louisville had been in the picture, making an offer that later vanished. Kentucky barely factored in, the rumor being Wildcats coach Tubby Smith expected transfers to open spots. That never happened. Lofton took an official visit to Valparaiso, one of the mid-majors chasing him.

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Woods pitched Lofton to the Vols, who had long finished their 2004 recruiting class but were scrambling with a sudden opening when sophomore guard John Winchester transferred.

“If we don’t have a scholarship open up, we never have Chris," said Peterson, who coached at UT from 2001 to 2005. "If John Winchester doesn’t leave and go back home, we never have him.”

The Vols had a profile of what they wanted: a high-school two-guard and not a transfer who would have to sit out a season. Lofton fit — and Woods was a master salesman.

“Rodney knew what it took to play at Tennessee,” Peterson said. “He was saying this kid can really do it. You have to listen to that and think carefully about it. He knows.”

Tennessee found the best high-school shooter available

Lofton ranked in the mild category of Tennessee’s recruiting board, which utilized tiers named after chicken wing sauces — a system devised by assistant coach Chris Ferguson.

UT saw Lofton at the ABCD camp at Farleigh Dickinson in New Jersey before his senior season. He was good, not great. That seemed to be the consensus, much to Wells' dismay.

"I got to the point where I was sitting at home thinking maybe I am that dad who can’t see anything but good from their son," Wells said. "Maybe I have got rose-colored glasses on."

The Vols circled back to Lofton with the open scholarship. Peterson called Dickey Nutt, then the Arkansas State coach and one of the few coaches actively recruiting Lofton. Peterson posed a question: Who is the best shooter left in high school basketball?

“Without a doubt, he said Chris Lofton from Kentucky,” said Peterson, now an assistant general manager with the Charlotte Hornets. “He is the best shooter and we are going hard after him. He said, 'Tell me you aren’t going after him.'”

Tennessee was. Peterson reached out to Wells and the Loftons. Ferguson made a visit to Maysville. Lofton was so good that Ferguson told Peterson he needed to get to Kentucky immediately, backing up Woods’ recommendation.

Peterson took a Tennessee jet to Maysville to see Lofton. He watched him play at the YMCA against older players and Nutt’s scouting report about Lofton’s shooting proved true. Tennessee's initial evaluation on Lofton missed. There was nothing mild about him; he had been playing out of position in AAU, at point guard instead of the two.

"I think the knocks on him were his defense, possibly his explosiveness at the rim," said Wells, the athletics director and basketball coach at University of Pikeville. "That is what you hear. But I saw it every day. We never lost a game when the ball was in his hands. I was a firm believer that he was going to be successful. ... To see his career go the way it did affirmed that I hadn’t lost my mind and I did know talent."

Late recruit to Vols legend

Peterson had heard parents make wild claims about their kids. He briefly brushed off Frank Lofton’s comments as a parental bias.

The Vols coach saw the potential in Lofton’s tape. He was enamored with Lofton after his second visit to Maysville. The UT staff wondered how his skill set would translate to the SEC.

“That guy can get a shot off in a phone booth,” Woods recalled saying. “He will be able to score. I don’t care who it is against.”

Lofton dazzled as a shooter the moment he arrived in Knoxville and never stopped, especially tormenting Kentucky. He made an SEC-record 431 3-pointers in his career. He scored 2,131 points in four seasons at UT to rank fourth in school history. He was named the 2007 SEC player of the year and earned All-American honors three times.

The barely recruited then highly coveted Lofton is the fifth Vols basketball player to be permanently honored in the Thompson-Boling Arena rafters. He joins Dale Ellis, Ernie Grunfeld, Allan Houston, and Bernard King.

"He found the place that filled his cup up," Wells said.

All those banners were removed Thursday, making way for the newest addition, 18 years after Peterson stood in that front yard and listened to a father make a prophetic promise.

“After a while, you look back on it and say he was right,” Peterson said. “That kid was pretty special.”

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Tennessee basketball landed Chris Lofton and Vols legend was born