Best of all, he had a sweet roundhouse hook he could toss in with either hand. His set shot from the corner was unerring, his knack under the offensive glass such that it would catch taller men by surprise. He learned there to run and rebound and score in an array of ways and in a style that today would have a sort of quaintness to it. But Vince was robust earlier, and he was tougher sooner.Ī hotheaded kid raised in Springfield’s hardscrabble North End, he was schooled on the suffocating second-floor court of the local Boys’ Club. Vince Del Negro, Vince the Prince, later just Vin to distinguish him from Vinny, grew to be 6’5″ and wiry, just as his boy would one day. Vinny’s father once made a mistake passing a basketball, and it changed his life. Left school part-way through spring semester of 1961.įrom Sports Illustrated, January 18, 1988, an article about Del Negro and his son of the same name. But it is likely he will have to be the Wildcats’ center at the start, barring fast rounding into form of 6-9 veteran Ned Jennings. Coach Rupp would like nothing better than to play Del Negro at forward, where he would not have to give away as much height and weight to his opponent. Also has good speed and agility that adds to the effectiveness of a deadly hook shot. He also has a good touch and a variety of shots that make him dangerous all over the court. Del Negro has a lot of good moves around the basket and a knack of being in the right place at the right time for rebounds. Del Negro and Pendygraft were on opposite sides for the three-game North-South Junior College All-America Classic last winter and wound up in a near-standoff for scoring honors, notching 54 and 51 points, respectively. He bucketed 1,748 points in 54 games for a two-year average of 32.3 a game. The 6-5 1/2 former Massachusetts All-Stater and two-time Junior College All-American was the nation’s leading junior college scorer both years while playing center for Coach Bonner Arnold at the Booneville, Miss., school. Along with Doug Pendygraft, who joins the team after two years at Lindsey Wilson JC, Del Negro joins a select list (five previously) of junior college transfers at Kentucky. This school also produced Adrian Smith, who was a guard on UK’s last national champion team three seasons back and a star of the victorious USA Olympic team last summer. One of a pair of junior college All-America transfers imported this year by Coach Rupp to bolster Kentucky’s chances of getting back into the national limelight, Del Negro comes from Northeast Mississippi Junior College. From the 1961 University of Kentucky Media Guide:
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