It's that hard for you to get tickets? Hmm maybe basket ball just isn't overly popular at my school, I can more or less show up 15 minutes before tip off, flash my student ID, and walk right in.
Wow, even when I was at Western Kentucky I still had to pay $5.
At the University of Kentucky basketball is king, a religion, pick your analogy. Nothing, and I mean nothing, comes before basketball. It was not uncommon for night classes to be skipped on basketball nights.
Student tickets are done in a lottery style a week before they go on sale to the public, then in the in-between time the alumni association members get first pick, then they go on sale to the public.
How hard is it to get tickets? For Big Blue Madness, which is just our celebratory first practice that fans are allowed to attend for free, people camp out on Wednesday for Saturday ticket sales. They would camp out earlier but the university won't allow them to. Then we sell out Rupp Arena (rated for 24,000 although we can squeeze in 27,000) in less than a day.
And if you want season tickets when you have the time and money for them get in line now. They just increased the number by 4,000 this year and there is still a multi-year waiting list (rumor is 20 years). When a person dies their next of kin get first offer for those tickets, so a family can hold on to season tickets indefinitely.
So, yes, it is hard to get tickets. Oh and we nearly sell out our 65,000 seat football stadium every week, even when we have a 3-9 record.
Coaches vs. Cancer Classic
* You doubted Kentucky under the rule of Billy Gillespie. Well even though their opponents were cupcakes, the Kentucky Wildcats put up 27 points on Central Arkansas' Bearcats 67-40. Everything's bigger in Texas... even beatdowns. So you may have something there in Lexington with Gillespie. And don't worry. He's been here in Texas, so I know how to pronounce his last name pretty well, FoolKiller. Just that you Kentucky folk will have to get used to Gillespie. Thing I'd fear is if the Wildcat fans will run Gillespie out of town like they did with Tubby Smith. * Richmond and Memphis went at it in a possible upset deal.
First, is it spelled Gillespie or Gillispie? I keep seeing it both ways. I am currently running with the ukathletics.com spelling of Gillispie, but that easily be wrong too. Oh well, on to my game coverage.
Woohoo! I made it to the official season opener. Patterson got into early foul trouble and part of his issue is that he is talented and he knows it too well. He acts cocky and I am afraid that when we play a good team (Memphis perhaps in the CvC tournament final?) he will learn his place. Coury, so he got a double-double, but he looked sloppy to me. He isn't afraid to try, but he needs some refinement and to think before getting himself into a trap. Joe Crawford sat for the first 24 minutes of the game and then got the highest score on the team. Not being 100% after an injury has kept him from earning a start in practice, but I think he showed that he doesn't need to be 100% to show that he is still top dog.
The rest of the team looked good but Gillispie is still working on it. They don't mesh perfectly yet and they are trying out a lot of different things.
The sixth man: This is the first time I have been in Rupp since they put in the eRUPPtion Zone, which is a section behind the right (on TV) goal. This is filled with members of the Student Athletic Committee (SAC). It is like the group in the movie Rudy that painted the helmets. These students pay to be a member, get new shirts every game, help take tickets, lay out the 3s on all the seats, and get as rowdy as can be during the games to get the crowd motivated. The band is also in this section. I immediately saw their efforts when Central Arkansas' starting lineup was being announced. The entire section turned their backs and then yelled comments like, "loser" and "nobody" when they called the names.
Officiating: What are these refs smoking? At one point it was so bad that Gillispie called a timeout and motioned for the ref that had made nearly all the bad calls to come talk to him. He spent the entire timeout talking to the ref. The crowd went insane. I believe that this is the point when I decided I really like our new coach. Then the poor ref made the mistake of standing under the goal directly in front of the eRUPPtion Zone for the last bit before play started back up. Needless to say they were a bit hostile.
So, aside form bad calls, which were constantly replayed on the screens so we could all see it was bad and let them know, it was a good game that showed we still have work. The coaching staff and players are still working together to find the best fit and the best strategies, but it was good to see Gillispie working on it instead of playing out a plan and then making adjustments once for the next game. I've seen that and by the time the coach finds what works best it is nearly January.
EXTRA: John Honors the Kentucky Cancer Center
A commercial aired during the commercial breaks talking about the University of Kentucky's efforts to help treat (or at least cure) rare cancers. I usually think of Louisville in regards to prominent health care. But if UK's medical department can help treat rare cancer, they've earned my respect. It's a good deal by the University of Kentucky in keeping with the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.[/COLOR]
This was built while I was a student and so they are just now beginning to turn out some good results. They always had a cancer center, but they were just a section in the hospital. Now they have their own building attached to the hospital where they do research and work toward finding cures and whatnot.
EXTRA: My Thoughts on the Duke/Kentucky Match in 1992
Christian Laettner stomps on a Kentucky player and gets a Technical Foul. He'd later be the one to send Kentucky home sad. I think Laettner should have been ejected. It's because you don't stomp on a guy when on the ground. Even more so, he ends up being the HERO of Duke after playing a VILLAIN to Kentucky. I can't think of any real figure in literature that was evil to another party while ending up a hero for his own party. How he wasn't ejected after ending up being the hero... at some point, Duke and Kentucky are going to have to meet again. That's even if Kentucky joins the ACC or Duke joins the SEC. I'm sure FoolKiller hopes this rematch of about 15 or so years is played at Rupp Arena to provide an evil awakening towards Duke. Could it happen? I don't think Duke even wants to take on Kentucky ever again unless in the playoffs.
In honor of TMQ I will call this my buck-buck brawk!!! section.
Why did you mention that game? That shot is forever burned into my brain and now I can see it as clear as day.
Now for the buck-buck-brawk!!!
As for a rematch....ever since this game Kentucky has tried to get a regularly scheduled game with Duke. Every year Coach K has said no. Why? We play North Carolina every year. We enter these charity tournaments where we commonly have one or two ranked teams to face. Kentucky only turns down regular games against small teams that refuse to come to Lexington every year, because Kentucky knows a small venue will lead to some ugliness when you can barely get 8,000 people in. We have a large fan base that travels with the team and a small venue will not work. But we are willing to go back and forth with Duke. We WANT to take on Duke. We WANT to get a shot at them every single year. We WANT to wipe the smirk off their faces when not even a last minute miracle shot can save them. We WANT the rest of the basketball world to know that we will never forget or forgive. Duke and Coach K want to hide and keep that pure luck shot on every highlight reel from here to eternity. They want to cushion their schedule with teams like Eastern Kentucky University. Coach K can just do his little chicken dance. We all know who the better team really is.
Dick Vitale's Final Four (this early in the season)
North Carolina - Memphis - UCLA - Louisville... North Carolina champion
Imagine the 'Ville getting into the Final Four. Louisville knows what being part of the Final Four is like having been to 8 Final Fours and winning two championships. And is it possible that Dick Vitale. a Duke grad, picks North Carolina to win it all?
If Dick Vitale says it, BABY, then it is most likely wrong. Sorry, he annoys me too much for me to truly accept that he does know basketball, even if he is a Duke fanboy.
EDIT: I nearly forgot - College Hoops 2k8 (sponsor of the CvC tournament) will have a recreation of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament in the game.
I like the way he thinks.
