Kentucky Blues

I was born and raised in western Kentucky and learned to be a UK Wildcat fan early. I remember watching games on TV with the sound turned off so we could listen to Cawood Ledford call the game on the radio. There wasn't anything else to do during a Kentucky winter other than follow the CATS and hope for a snow day to cancel school. 

Kentucky has a long and proud basketball tradition. It isn't perfect, nothing is. My parents taught me the value of sportsmanship and how to win and lose gracefully. That wasn't an unusual lesson back in the late 1970s. UK basketball united farmers, bankers, coal miners, hippies, and men and women. The stain of the Old South, racism, wasn't addressed until 1971 by the basketball program when it finally integrated. My parents taught me what a momentous event that was.

There have been good times and bad, but I stayed loyal through the years as a fan. Coaches have come and gone, and all have had periods of success. The past few years have left me detached from the team and the fanbase.

I'll start with the team and the coach. John Calipari arrived in the UK and won immediately with a unique, at the time, approach of recruiting the best young talent available and then molding them into a team; at least, that was what I thought happened. It turns out that Calipari captured lightning in a bottle for a short period, and the last several seasons have disappointed me with the team and his coaching. 

I know the COVID-19 season was excusable to a degree, but since then, Calipari no longer has the fire to coach at this level. His peers consistently outcoach him, and the team lacks toughness and the ability to handle adversity. He is still a great recruiter, but his teams perform at a high level early in the season but then fade away as March approaches. Calipari is more interested in producing NBA topics than in winning championships. This year's team is just the latest example of the trend; even with a stronger conference around them, Calipari's teams are getting pushed around and lack maturity.

Now to the fans, Big Blue Nation (BBN). I have lost my patience with the juvenile behavior that BBN consistently shows before, during, and after every game. They believe that the CATS can do no wrong and that there is some vast QAnon-type conspiracy out to get the UK. I'll leave that sentence alone because it perfectly sums up their behavior. There was an NCAA Tournament game several years ago when BBN was so convinced that the referees were against them that BBN members called and harassed the referee and his family. That was when I officially cut my ties with BBN in the emotional sense. I cannot believe that adults act that way. No wonder their children turn out just as bad as their parents. The lessons about sportsmanship and grace while winning and losing weren't taught to those people, and that is sad because it means that they live a life of paranoia, that everyone and everything is a conspiracy to get them. I wish I could help them, but that behavior is almost impossible to correct, especially when it involves large groups of people.

I know society has changed since the 1970s, but it doesn't seem to be a positive change. Compromise is a lost art today. Everyone has to get everything they want all the time, and hatred and intolerance have sprung up again. Greed and selfishness intruded into the world of spirits, which bothers me the most about this whole subject.

I can be disappointed with the results from each game and each season, but I don't let those things consume me. I. no longer get emotionally involved. I sit and watch the game clinically and accept the result without complaint. The program and BBN have fallen, and they can't get up without tantrums and crying. I remember the good times I had watched as a child and wondered what the hell happened.

Yes, the UK lost another game Saturday night. The team wasn't aggressive and fell behind early. They never showed enough fight to catch up. They went through the motions, and Calipari was outcoached again. It was the same old thing happening once again. It's very depressing, only if I let it bother me. I wrote this to try and explain how I feel about the entire experience of being a sports fan all these days; The joy is gone.