Wildcat Woes Turn to Whoops

Let's be honest, Kentucky Basketball has not had the season everyone hoped for. With Billy G arriving in Lexington last April, hopes were set high for a return to the old glory days. He immediately was on the recruiting trail and was able to snatch up two more prospects before this season - Patrick Patterson* and Alex Legion. The anticipation for this season was greater than it had been in the past 5 seasons, ever since Tubby Smith had lost his luster in the Bluegrass State.

The wildcat faithful enjoyed a great season in football - an exciting come-from-behind win against our hated rivals, Lousyville, an impressive road win against Arkansas, beating #1 and the eventual national champions LSU in triple overtime, then pulling out the victory against FSU in the Music City Bowl. Rich Brooks had finally turned the football program into something respectable, which then placed even greater expectations on BCG to turn around the basketball program.

Well it didn't exactly pan out that way. No more rainbows and unicorns for Coach Gillispie; the 6 month honeymoon period ended quickly. UK fell to Gardner-Webb (who?), UAB, and San Diego all within the first month of the season. Losing to UNC or IU is one thing, but those other losses were difficult to swallow. Things got even worse when Legion decided to transfer in December. The frustration only culminated with the embarrassing display of basketball that UK had against UofL. Lexington was in shambles, about to implode. Kentucky basketball used to be the highlight of the year, what Kentuckians lived for, the pride and joy of the Commonwealth. Now the Wildcats were entering conference play with a record of 6-7, fearing that they were about to fall prey to the stacked SEC.

Then to the shock of everyone, Kentucky defeats then-undefeated, #13 ranked Vanderbilt at Rupp Arena. Although hesitant to enjoy the victory too much (fearing it was a fluke), Kentuckians did at least get to experience a couple of days of euphoria before the next game. The next week UK faced Mississippi State and Florida, both on the road. They came out of the road swing 0-2, which many would find discouraging, yet surprisingly, it was not. MSU was a tight game to the very end and UF was an over-time loss. The boys were playing with more energy and heart than they had all season. Things were starting to look up.

Then last Tuesday, Kentucky matched up against that ugly orange team south of the state border, Tennessee, ranked #3 in the nation and boasting one of the best point guards in the country, Chris Lofton (born and bread in Kentucky, but Tubby didn't think he could cut it in the SEC so he didn't recruit him heavily). The Wildcats fought the entire 40 minutes, diving across the floor for lose balls, double teaming on defense, attacking the rim for rebounds, and eventually pulled out an incredible 77-62 victory in front of 24,000 screaming fans at the magical Rupp Arena. Besides, no one wearing that color orange deserves to win at anything.

Kentucky was back to 2-2 in the SEC, with two massive wins over highly ranked teams. The state of Kentucky was celebrating that victory like they had won the National Championship. In the O.R. of the UK Hospital, Dr. Raleigh Jones stated that "Everyone here is talking like we are going to win the SEC now since they have figured out what Billy G wants. I think that is way too far personally, but I don't expect more losses like Gardner Webb." A true blue fan in Michigan believes that "this is where we start to turn the season around and make the tournament", while another UK enthusiast in Charleston, SC went as far to say that he has a "man-crush on Billy G".

With another win over South Carolina this past Saturday, the Wildcat faithful are starting to come out from hiding. The Cats are currently 9-9 on the season, 3-2 in the SEC, but even more importantly, they are starting to play Billy ball. But let's see if they can win on the road, because so far, they have only been successful at home. Even though UK will probably not make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years, it's great to see the boys having fun out there and to finally see Coach Gillispie smile while wearing blue.

Needless to say, the future is bright. Gig 'em Wildcats.


*I would like to now take partial credit for Patrick Patterson being on UK's team. As you know, Billy G and much of his staff came from Texas A&M (my beloved school), so when I went home to Kentucky for the month of May, I called up one of my friends, Chris Walker, who is on staff and asked if he wanted to hang out since he didn't know a soul up there yet. He said he was slammed with work so he couldn't, but a few hours later he called begging for a favor. I arrived at the UK Basketball offices to find out he was given the task by Coach G to write 500 hand-written letters to Patrick Patterson by the next morning. So me and a few friends willingly helped Chris and some of the other assistant coaches and wrote letters for the next few hours. I personally wrote Patrick Patterson 100+ letters, telling him how awesome he is and how he will be "King of Kentucky" and the "main man on campus". I promised him a starting position, told him he would be SEC Conference Player of the Year and an All-American as a freshman, and how Kentucky would be the necessary step for him making it into the NBA. Well it obviously worked, because he committed 4 days later and he now wears the #54 jersey, and looks pretty darn good in it.