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CHAPELHILL— Jason Parker enjoyed a fairly quiet visit to the Smith Center on Saturday, and in more ways than one.
His Kentucky teammates made plenty of noise in a 93-76 romp over the sixth-ranked Tar Heels, stunning much of the crowd of 21,750 except for those who had come from Charlotte to see Parker play.
They didn’t see much. Two early fouls limited Parker to 12 minutes of action, in which he scored six points and grabbed three rebounds.
Perhaps most disappointing, no one got to hear what Parker thought of his return to Chapel Hill, the city that was supposed to be his home for the next four years.
Wildcats coach Tubby Smith put a gag order on his freshmen this season, so after the game, Parker walked out of the arena with the Kentucky sports information staff making sure no one got through. The only glimpse into what went through Parker’s mind Saturday came from Carolina big man BrendanHaywood.
“At the end of the game I told him we could have used you out there,”Haywood said. “He smiled and said, ‘Yeah, I wish I could be here.’ ”
In Parker’s prior appearance at the Smith Center, he tallied 38 points and 12 rebounds in West Charlotte High School’s Class 4Achampionship game. That March 1999 date was supposed to be followed by countless others — Parker committed to the Tar Heels and was considered the ACC’s top incoming player.
But this fall, North Carolina announced that Parker’s final qualifying score on the SAT was 45-percent better than any of his previous attempts. That type of jump is regarded with suspicion, and when UNCasked Parker to take the test again, he refused. Later, a mistake was found in the calculation of Parker’s high school grade point average and an earlier test score was high enough to qualify. That’s when Parker settled on second choice Kentucky.
The 6-foot-8, 255-pound forward has started every game this season for the Wildcats and came in averaging 10.5 points and 7.8 rebounds.
Carolina fans offered a big round of applause for his introduction. Less than five minutes into the game, Parker showed everyone what the Heels were missing when he took a pass from Cliff Hawkins and went from two feet planted firmly on the floor to a one-handed rim-rocking slam in the blink of an eye.
An offensive foul at the 12:28 mark sent him to the bench for the remainder of the half.
“You could tell he was a little bit emotionally tight out there today, but he gave us what we needed,”Smith said. “He gave us a lot of energy all week long.”
Parker scored Kentucky’s first basket of the second half on a tip-in, then collected his final two points on a dunk identical to the first. He got his third foul with 7:25 to play and No. 4 two minutes later, fouling Haywood and Kris Lang, players he only should have been guarding in practice.
Smith pulled Parker after that fourth foul with Kentucky leading by 11. The lead stretched as high as 23, so Parker stayed on the bench.
During the postgame handshakes, all the Heels could do was wish Parker the best of luck in Kentucky. They’ll see him three more times in the regular season if he stays through his senior season thanks to a new home-and-away series the two schools signed. But Carolina would love to see him every day wearing that paler shade of blue.
“Jason Parker is a great player. He’s got big hands, he knows how to use his body well,” Lang said. “He’s very strong and quick. He’s got a bright future ahead of him.”
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Steve Hanf covers ACC basketball for the Post.
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Steve Hanf