Euton: no regrets, no hard feelings

Like Samson and Lady Godiva, former Kentucky recruit Dakotah Euton’s hair reveals a lot about his life.

Euton sported a goatee while playing in the adidas-based It Takes 5ive basketball camp in Cincinnati. It’s return to his chin marked a positive development in his basketball development.

“I had it,” he said. “Then my dad made me shave it off.”

When asked why his father wanted to goatee gone, Euton said, “After a bad game. That’s all I’ll say.’

Euton’s father also ordered a haircut.

“Then he let me grow it back out,” Euton said of the goatee.

So presumably, Euton had been playing well going into the It Takes 5ive event, which marks a fresh start in his recruitment.

Until Michael Avery’s commitment as an eighth grader, Euton set the standard for robbing-the-cradle recruiting by former UK Coach Billy Gillispie. Euton committed as a ninth grader. In the ensuing two years, he watched UK “recruit over him,” to borrow basketball parlance, by getting a commitment from Dominique Ferguson, then saw UK fire Gillispie.

“Looking back on it, if I had a chance, I probably would have done it,” he said of committing to UK as a freshman. “Because that was the coach I wanted to play for and the college I wanted to play for.”

Euston saw Gillispie as that rare coach who favored his style of play.

“He told me he loves players that just play hard,” Euton said. “That’s rare these days. A lot of coaches want athleticism and the flashy and the dunking. He likes players that get after it and play as hard as they can. He said that’s who I am. So I really liked that about it.”

Before Euton got within a season of playing for Gillispie, UK hired one of those coaches who favors athleticism and the flashy and the dunking.

“I was pretty hurt because I really wanted to go there and I really wanted to play for him,” Euton said. “At the same time, I was OK with it. I knew things would open back up and I’d be all right.”

The UK coaches told Euton’s father that they’d honor the commitment if the player still wanted to play — or sit — for Kentucky. But Euton declined.

“He likes athletic players,’ Euton said of Calipari. “And that’s not me at all.

“I knew I didn’t fit their style of ball at all. So I just went ahead and decommitted.”

The hurting subsided. Now Euton looks forward. “I jsut want to go somewhere and the main thing is get an education out of it,” he said. “That’s what I want to do.”

He said such schools as Akron, Oregon State, Eastern Kentucky and Wofford have offered scholarships. He’s also heard from Notre Dame, Nevada and Davidson.

Euton came to Cincinnati with nothing more in mind than playing basketball.

“Try to go as far as I can and jsut have fun with it in my last year,” he said. “You really can’t worry too much about it or you’ll get nervous or you won’t play well. You just have to go out there and play hard.”

Euton learned that the hard way playing for Scott County last season. Althuogh the school, coaches and teammates made him feel welcome, opposing fans were not so accommodating. His commitment to Kentucky made him a target for those who questioned whether he was good enough. For instance, the Prep Stars recruting service does not rate Euton among the top 100 prospects in the high school class of 2010.

When asked if he felt like fans were judgmental last season, he said, “A lot of nights, especially when fans started chanting my name, saying bad things about me.”

Euton acknowledged being “a little shocked” at first by being singled out. But because it happened so often in the two seasons since he committed to UK, he got used to the verbal abuse.

Now Euton hopes he’d beyond such concerns as he embarks on the post-UK portion of his basketball career.

“Going into my senior year, I’m used to it,” he said, “because I’ve been doing it my whole life.”