March in Kentucky means it’s basketball frenzy time. Even for those who don’t eat and breathe the sport, there’s no escaping it.

When it comes to high school hoops, most are familiar with legends “King” Kelly Coleman and Richie Farmer from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, but there’s another legend who for some reason hasn’t attained the status he probably deserves.

You would think that if a player held the scoring record for every gym he ever played in, his name would roll off your tongue when naming the all-time greats. And what if that same player owned the national two-season scoring average mark at 50.5? His senior year average of 53.7 ranks second nationally, and 47.2 the previous year solidifies his standing as an all-time great. And it was all done in an era before the 3-pointer.

By now, basketball purists might know I’m talking about Ervin Stepp, who played at tiny Phelps High School in Pike County.

On a timeline, Stepp’s career was sandwiched between Coleman’s and Farmer’s, but for numerous reasons he’s usually not mentioned in the same breath.

Even with his incredible scoring numbers, Stepp’s potential as an NCAA Division I college player came under suspicion while he was in high school. Doubters said he was a step slow, then claimed he played no defense. Others believed his numbers were jacked up against inferior competition from other small mountain schools.

But no one could deny Stepp’s ability to create a symphony of string music when shooting a basketball.

Stepp came from a basketball family. His dad, Joe Sr., was a pretty fair player, as was his uncle Orville, who made all-state. But it was two older brothers, Joe Alan and Jimmy, who ultimately became a part of Ervin’s college recruitment.

Joe Alan led the state in scoring in 1972 and played at Ohio State before transferring to Morehead. Jimmy did it in 1979 at Sheldon Clark High School and was playing at George Washington. But their numbers paled in comparison to Ervin’s.

By Ervin’s junior year, Joe Alan had become head coach at Phelps, 55 miles from where his mom and dad lived in Inez. Because of the family connection, Ervin and a younger brother, Gary, were able to transfer. The package included a mobile home a few feet from the gym’s back door.

The Stepps were all about family. It had started when Joe Sr. cut down a rim on their outdoor goal from 18 inches to 16 for his boys to practice on.

“Dad was a welder,” Ervin said. “And the first rim he did was actually 13 inches.”

With Joe Sr. in charge, he was in search of a recruiting deal that could keep his three sons together at the same school.

“We were a family deal,” Ervin said. “What we did in basketball was all about family. It was about Joe Alan becoming an assistant coach, Jimmy transferring from George Washington and me.”

As his skills and potential at the next level were being evaluated, Ervin was being heavily recruited, and the Mr. Basketball title upped his status enough that he was selected to play in the prestigious Derby Classic that featured some of the best prep players in the nation. At 6 feet 2 inches with a 36-inch vertical leap, he had offers from Auburn, Morehead, Marshall, Western Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky and serious interest from Kentucky.

“UK and Western weren’t in for the family deal,” Ervin said. “But several were, and I selected Eastern.

Then-WKU coach Gene Keady “came here a couple of times and I really liked him. He threw out one cuss word, and when he left, my dad said, ‘You’re not going there.’ ”

Though Ervin didn’t have a stellar career at Eastern, he said going there with his brothers was a great decision.

“Joe and Jimmy both found their wives there,” he says. “Eastern had a head coaching change that didn’t do me any good. Max Good replaced Ed Byhre, and Coach Good rode me hard to make me look like one of the guys. I couldn’t deal with verbal abuse … wasn’t used to it … my dad was also a Baptist preacher. I transferred to Alice Lloyd College.”

Looking back on his college career, Ervin second-guesses himself a bit, wondering how things might have worked out if he had gone to Auburn to play for Sonny Smith.

“Who knows,” he said, “I just wish I had been a little meaner and tougher back then, but I had more glory in high school than most have in a lifetime.”

After all, how many 18-year-olds have a CBS News team come to their high school and film a segment on them for their nightly news show. And what about the eight-page spread with Ervin on the cover of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal Magazine on March 23, 1980. Surprisingly, he was not on a basketball court, but instead in a field of weeds leaning against a rail-thin tree wearing jeans and a blue high school jacket. In his right shooting hand he held a basketball.

His pure love for basketball never waned after college as he continued to play in several leagues throughout eastern Kentucky and the Huntington, W.Va., area. On July 16, 2005, after playing in the finals of a 3-on-3 tournament near Huntington, where he had hit nine 3-pointers, Ervin climbed behind the wheel of his red, soft-top, door-less Jeep to head home.

“It was getting late. I was tired and nodded off,” he said.

That’s the last he remembers. The wreck was so horrific that he broke his back in two places, nearly had his left arm severed, lost part of a thumb and index finger on his left hand and was in a coma for several days. He was 43 years old.

“I still love the game as much as ever,” the now 55-year-old said. “I don’t play as much as I once did, but I still love to shoot.”

Does that surprise anyone?

Get up, get out and get going!

– Gary West’s column runs monthly in the Daily News. He can be reached by emailing west1488@twc.com.