UK basketball visits local elementary school

Dominique Hawkins had been here before, in a room full of grade-school children watching in awe as a group of towering college basketball players shared with them the importance of education.

"When I was a little kid, we didn't have Kentucky come to our school, but we had Eastern (Kentucky) come to our school, and I wanted to be just like those guys," Hawkins said. "It definitely made my day, and I still remember it now."

Thursday, Hawkins turned the tiny tables and joined UK teammates Aaron Harrison, Alex Poythress and Dakari Johnson at Cassidy Elementary School in Lexington to talk to the kids about the value of their studies. The players also packed and delivered several after-school snacks for children in need to take home.

"It's very important," Hawkins said, "because as UK basketball players, everybody in Kentucky is going to look up to us. Definitely the children. … I'm pretty sure as we talk to these kids here, they're going to remember it for a long time. Hopefully we get school stuck in their heads, how important it really is."

Assistant coach John Robic joined the players, fielding questions from the students – "Do you guys dig history?" one especially adorable little boy asked – and sharing that Poythress will graduate in May, earning his degree from UK in just three years.

One student asked how tall each of the players is and when Johnson said 6 feet 11 ½ and Harrison said 6-6, Robic said both might be fibbing. He said Harrison is really 6-5. In other breaking news: Harrison's first love was football, but growing up in Texas "it got too hot outside."

Another child wondered: Who's good at soccer? Johnson was the surprise former futbol star.

"It was fun," Hawkins said. "I felt like that's an example we just gave to those kids."

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