LEXINGTON, Ky. — When fans packed Rupp Arena to the rafters two Sundays ago for Mark Pope’s public introduction as Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball coach, ex-UK star Vernon Hatton, 88, and his wife Suzanne were among those in the crowd.

“I wouldn’t have missed that, hardly, for anything,” Hatton said Wednesday.

Though Hatton and Pope have never met, they share a link in UK men’s basketball lore: The two are the most prominent members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have been associated with the Wildcats hoops program.

Hatton was the leading scorer (17.1 points a game) on Adolph Rupp’s 1958 NCAA title team. A former Lafayette High School star, Hatton also hit what, even now, might be the most famous shot in Kentucky’s storied men’s hoops history.

At Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 7, 1957, with UK trailing Temple 71-69 with one second left in overtime, Hatton arced in a 47-foot set shot that sent the game to a second OT. UK eventually prevailed, 85-83, in triple overtime.

For good measure, Hatton also hit the game-winning bucket, a reverse layup with 17 seconds left, as Kentucky beat Temple again, 61-60, in the 1958 Final Four at Louisville’s Freedom Hall. In the following night’s NCAA championship game, Hatton scored a game-high 30 points as UK defeated Seattle, led by the great Elgin Baylor, 84-72.

Pope, of course, was the captain of Kentucky’s 1996 NCAA championship team, averaging 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds for Rick Pitino’s team in 1995-96. At age 51, Pope has now become the UK head man after successful coaching stints at Utah Valley and BYU.

I asked Hatton if he thought Pope’s having attained the UK coaching job moved the ex-BYU head man ahead of the late-1950s-era star guard for the distinction of “most-prominent Mormon in Wildcats men’s hoops history.”

“Well, he’s a later time,” Hatton said of Pope. “They’ll never beat my one-second shot” vs. Temple.

In Hatton’s journey to becoming a Kentucky Wildcats men’s hoops icon, his religious faith played an interesting role in his story.

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