Mike Casey was one of Coach Adolph Rupp’s favorite University of Kentucky players because he loved to compete, always played hard (in games, at least), and had an innate “feel” for the game that Rupp called “having a nose for the ball.” He meant that somehow Casey always was as the right place at the right time to scoop up a loose ball or get a garbage basket off a rebound.

Besides that, Casey was a Kentuckian through and through, and Rupp always was partial to state kids who grew up dreaming of playing for him. So when Casey led Shelby County High to the 1966 State tournament championship in Freedom Hall, there wasn’t nearly as much drama over where he was going to college as over whether Rupp was going to be able to recruit a big man.

When I learned that Mike had died last week at 60, waiting for a heart transplant in Nashville, I had a vision of him wearing his blue No. 34 on the white Kentucky jersey, running in that bow-legged way of his as he probed defenses for openings. He knew how to move without the ball, how to position himself for rebounds according to the angle of the shot, and how to get the ball to the open man.

While Casey was teaming with Bill Busey in the backcourt for Coach Bill Harrell’s Rockets, Rupp was basking in the love feast that had come to surround his 1965-’66 team. Known as “Rupp’s Runts” because no starter was taller than 6-foot-5, the Wildcats were ranked No. 1 in the nation and advanced to the NCAA title game before being upset by Texas Western.

Much was expected of the Wildcats the following year, mainly because Pat Riley and Louie Dampier, the leading scorers for the “Runts,” were back for their senior seasons. But Riley hurt his back so badly in an off-season water-skiiing accident that the Cats stumbled to 13-13 in 1966-’67, their worst record in Rupp’s storied 42-year career in Lexington.

Had freshmen been eligible for varsity play in those days, the season would have been much different – and much better – because Casey’s freshman class also included Dan Issel, a 6-8 center from Batavia, Ill., and Mike Pratt, a smooth 6-4 forward from Dayton, Ohio.  Their presence gave UK’s fans something to take their minds off the dismal varsity season.

Desperately in need of a big man – 6-5 Thad Jaracz started at center for the second straight season – Rupp’s chief recruiter, Joe B. Hall, avidly pursued a couple of kids named George Janky and Dick Broderson. But when Janky went to Dayton and Broderson to Iowa, he concentrated his attention on Issel, who didn’t seem quite tall enough to be a center in the classic sense.

Casey wasn’t much of a practice player. But when the stands were full, he always was ready to go. Once, as the story goes, the Cats were trailing Vanderbilt in the second half when, during a timeout, Rupp said, “OK, Case, this is where we need you.”

He went out and scored nine straight points to put UK into the lead and the Cats rolled on to win. Afterward a writer asked Rupp what he thought of Casey’s play. “He only did what he was told to do,” said The Baron.

At 6-4, Casey was tall for guards of that era. He had good range on his jumper, loved to crash the board for rebounds, and had a knack for getting the in the passing lanes on defense.

With Casey, Issel and Pratt all in the starting lineup, the Wildcats opened the 1967-’68 season with a victory over Michigan and sophomore star Rudy Tomjanovich in the dedication game for the Wolverines’ new Crisler Arena. Led by Casey more than anybody, the Cats breezed to the Southeastern Conference title and a berth in the NCAA Mideast Regional, which was to be played on their home floor in Memorial Coliseum.

I was The Courier-Journal’s UK beat writer that season, and I remember doing a feature about Casey’s sweet life on campus. For awhile, he dated one of the Barnstable twins, the cheerleaders who became almost as well-known as the players. The girls loved Mike’s dimpled smile, and the guys admired him as the guy who made the Cats go.

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He, Pratt and Issel were as close off the floor as on it. They joined the same fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, which had an old red fire engine sitting on its front lawn. Knowing a photo opportunity when I saw one, I talked the three of them into posing in the engine’s front seat. I’m sure the caption had to do with how red-hot they were as sophomores.

The Cats seemed a lock to make the Final Four in Los Angeles. But after an emotional victory over Marquette and its brash coach Al McGuire in the semifinals, the Cats came out flat against Ohio State and were denied the chance to advance to the Final Four in Los Angeles. Rupp was bitterly disappointed because he wanted to personally deny UCLA Coach John Wooden a fourth NCAA title that would tie Rupp’s all-time record. He seethed in Lexington while Wooden got it, thanks mainly to other-worldly junior center Lew Alcindor.

Back for his junior year, Casey sacrificed some of his scoring to feed Issel, who had developed into a point-making machine. Once again the Cats advanced to the NCAA Mideast Regional, this time in Madison, Wis., but they got whipped by a trash-talking Marquette team bent on revenge for the previous season’s embarrassment in Lexington. The Warriors had five black starters to Kentucky’s five whites, and McGuire later told me that he had used the “race card” to get his team fired up, a fact he deeply regretted in his later years.

By the summer of 1969, when Issel, Pratt and Casey were headed for their senior season, I was worked for Sports Illustrated in New York and had just about convinced the college basketball editor to make UK the preseason No. 1. After all, with Alcindor finally gone after three straight titles, UCLA looked vulnerable. But then came the news that Casey had suffered a broken leg in a car accident, putting him out for the season.

In retrospect, there’s no doubt in my mind that Casey’s accident cost UK the 1970 national title. Even without him, Issel averaged more than 33 points and the Wildcats spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the polls. But they again fell short of the Final Four, losing to Jacksonville and 7-2 Artis Gilmore in the Mideast championship game in Columbus.

Although Bob McCowan, Jim Dinwiddie, Stan Key and others did an admirable job of filling in for Casey, none had Mike’s combination of talent and instinct. He was the sort of player who seldom practiced as well as he played in games. He seemed to feed on the energy of the crowd, and the bigger the game, the better.

After sitting out a year, Mike returned for his senior year in 1970-’71. The team’s center that season was 7-1 sophomore Tom Payne, the first African-American signed by Rupp. Casey made Payne a better player, even though he obviously wasn’t quite as good as he was before the accident. He looked like the same old Case, working hard to be in the right place at the right time, but he seemed a step slower.

His final game at UK came in the semifinals of the ’71 NCAA Mideast Regional in Athens, Ga., when Western Kentucky, a team loaded with 7-1 center Jim McDaniels and four other African-American starters from the state,  handed Rupp a 107-83 defeat, the worst NCAA loss of his career.  Sadly for Casey, he was no factor, scoring 12 points (4 of 11 from the floor) with six rebounds and four assists.

Even before the injury, Mike was a shaky NBA prospect. Other guards were taller, quicker, and better jumpers – and the NBA, even then, was a league where sheer athleticism was prized above all other qualities. But on the high school and college levels, Casey was one of the state’s all-time greats. He was a perfect fit for Rupp’s system and a perfect complement to Issel, Pratt, and his other teammates.

Over the years, I often ran into Mike at games or golf outings. He always had a big smile, a kind word, and an opinion about the state of the UK program. As much as he loved the Cats, he would say so if he didn’t think the team was playing up to its potential.

Just this past season, when interviewed by a UK fan publication, Casey ripped Coach Billy Clyde Gillispie. He didn’t do it for spite or out of meanness, because Mike wasn’t that kind of guy. It was just his honest opinion that Gillispie was in over his head and was damaging the UK program – an opinion that was born out when Gillispie was fired after the season and replaced by John Calipari.

The new coach, like Rupp, appreciates guys who stay cool under pressure, who play with pride and intelligence, and who always find a way to get the job done. That was Mike Casey, who symbolized the essence of Wildcat basketball as well as anyone ever has.