INSIDE COVERAGE: I ENJOYED MY FOUR YEARS HERE By Chris Horton If I could sum up my career in one word it would be legendary. I say that because of everything I've done and everything I've been through in my four years here. Sometimes I really don't like talking about the accolades, but then sometimes, I have to say it. There's a reason why I'm the 13th player to reach the 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds, 300 blocks club. It's not because I'm just out there. I actually put in work to reach that point. There's a lot of people out there who can score, but how many can score, rebound and block shots? I feel like I've done a lot here and the one word I can lead off with is legendary. In my first year, I had to learn how to play college basketball. We had a rough year that season. There were some good points, some good wins, but it was a rough year altogether. In my sophomore year, things looked bright. We almost made the tournament. We were kind of in the same position we were in this year. A team had to lose for us to get in, but it didn't work the way we wanted it to. That year, things were promising. I started to get a better feel for the game. Junior year was a rough year team-wise and record-wise, but it wasn't a rough year because that's when I started to grow into what I am now. That's when I felt the stages of my game started developing, when I had more responsibility on the team and a bigger role. This year was just THAT YEAR. Where everything came together, everything was complete. We started playing better towards the end of the season. We showed signs of how good we could be at the beginning of the season, but nowhere near a complete team that we needed to be to do what we did. Once we got the opportunity to make it to the OVC Tournament, that's when everything clicked. From where I came from four years ago to see how I am now, I'm a completely different player. Making history on top of that just capped off a legendary career for me. The NCAA Tournament was crazy. Just actually being there and seeing what the hype was about. Being able to do that, alone, is amazing. I'm so happy I was able to be a part of that. Getting to see a lot of new people, play against the top team in the nation. A lot of people won't be able to say they did that. I feel like I showed the world what I can do against them. People might look at my numbers and discredit them because I did it against smaller schools, but I almost had the same numbers against the number one team in the nation. That just shows I can play with anyone. I really want to thank my teammates from my freshman year. My teammates now get the whole, complete player and have put me in positions to be where I am now. But development-wise, I put that on my teammates from my freshman and my sophomore years. Those guys are the ones who pushed me every day in practice when I didn't know anything. I couldn't get nothing off and they taught me the ins and outs, especially Will Triggs. He taught me how to dominate in the post and learn different ways to score over bigger opponents. Travis (Betran) helped me work on my free throws after practice, and that whole group just really helped me develop. And all of my coaches – Bub (Bubba Wells) who kept me going and working with me on angles to be the post player I am now. I've got to thank Coach (Dave) Loos for even putting me in a game. None of this would have even mattered if he didn't put me in a game. Thanks to Coach (Corey) Gipson for staying on me, because sometimes I wasn't playing defense and he always wanted the best of me out of that. I want to thank Coach (Bret) Campbell. While he was here, he taught me how to think more instead of going out there and being crazy. Coach (Kevin) Hogan encouraged me to think more and try to outsmart your opponent. Coach (Julian) Terrell helped me polish my offensive game, and Coach (Jay) Bowen just always told me to find a way to get it done. I thank everyone who has dealt with me in the past four years to help me to get to this stage where I am now. From Sonya (Bain), to Jessica (Cowan) and Michelle (Noland) when she was here my first two years. Those three really helped me out academic-wise, putting me in the right classes and making sure I stayed on top of everything. As for my family, my mom and grandma always made sure I ate every day. My grandma always wanted to send me soup and brownies and cake. It was always 'Did you eat today? Did you eat today?' I just want to thank her for always making sure I'm alive, first of all. My mom always made sure I was healthy, constantly asking if she needed to come up here. My dad was one of the biggest critics I had. He always said there was something else I needed to work on. That made me get better, because I wanted to go work on this. But he said that wasn't good enough, so it went back and forth. I thank him for just staying on me and not being complacent. Finally, I want to thank the fans for not getting tired of me and always coming out to support me. Thank you for sticking with us these long four years. I know it hurt watching us these four years and going through a lot of tough games, but I'm glad we were able to reward you with a trip to Iowa. I enjoyed my four years here. | 
