Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Keep Calm and Bleed Blue … in moderation

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

ORDER HAS BEEN RESTORED AND ROBERT MORRIS HAS BEEN DEFEATED

I’m not your typical Kentucky basketball fan. I always thought this rematch of the NIT game was kind of silly. But seeing it was part of an event to honor Bill Keightley, I kept quiet on it. John Calipari always has a soft spot for schools in his hometown area and this game probably would have happened regardless of the NIT game.

I would say the bigger story to me rather than Kentucky playing Robert Morris is the large amount of students that do not show up for games. I’m just saying that in my day, there never would have been empty seats at Rupp in the student section. I also had a 12′ black and white TV with rabbit ears in my dorm and not a 50″ flatscreen. It does not seem to be a Kentucky thing though, but more of a college basketball epidemic.

One way that Kentucky can solve this “problem” is to cut off student sales 24 hours before a game and release those student seats to the public at regular price, however. I guarantee that section would be filled for every game.

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

JOHN CALIPARI AND THE NEW YORK KNICKS RUMORS

This will stay a rumor. All season. With Worldwide Wes and the CAA angles. it will give writers something to speculate all year-long while Calipari is trying to bring home number nine. It will be a distraction, but I do not see John Calipari leaving UK for the NBA for one main reason. Rick Pitino.

If Kentucky can deliver UK another Final Four or even title number nine, he will be at probably the same crossroads Pitino was at after the 1997 season. To this day, Pitino has lamented leaving Kentucky and still refers to Lexington as his “Camelot”. And you can argue that Calipari is more beloved by the BBN than Pitino was at that time. Of course, twitter and social media play a big part in that. But Calipari realizes that Kentucky is his Camelot too and he will not leave. I truly think that Calipari will stay here until Pitino leaves Louisville. It is too good of a rivalry to just walk away from and Calipari, for once, is not the outsider like he was at UMass and Memphis.

Calipari realizes that he is college basketball … and he will not give that up for a chance to coach a bad NBA team.

Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

LOUISVILLE, LOUISVILLE, LOUISVILLE

Finally, BBN … if we are to call ourselves BIG BROTHER … can we act like how a real big brother acts and generally ignore little brother?

The Kentucky/Louisville rivalry hit a low point this week with the Kevin Ware situation.  I realize that Kentucky fans are going to comment on Louisville because Rick Pitino coaches there … and Pitino’s banner hangs in Rupp.

But must we become as obsessed with the Dirty Birds as they are with us?

Matt Jones has made a living by trolling the Cardinal fans for page views and now radio ratings … but Mr. Jones is not the voice of the BBN and his tactics are not the way most Kentucky fans feel about little brother.  It has gone from a playful rivalry to one filled with animosity and scorn … and it is not going to be long before physical violence breaks out one side or another.  And I’m not talking dialysis center cartoon violence either.

Earlier this week, Jones was playfully tweeting pictures of Louisville players in expensive cars that they had posted on Instagram.  Then, the middle-aged man who runs Card Chronicle took it one step further by misconstruing tweets that Drew Barker had sent out at UK Fan Days … in which he joked about taking Mark Stoops’s Benz for a joyride.

Of course it did not happen.  No head football coach is going to let recruits take their car and common sense should have prevailed.  Yet it did not and the head Card Chronicler tweeted it out to 14K followers and then Louisville fans harassed a HIGH SCHOOL kid over something totally not true.

Think about that.

Granted, Louisville is national champs and every traffic stop is going to make news.  Just like it does when a Kentucky player past or present runs afoul of the law.  But to publicly accuse a high school kid of something you know is wrong just because Matt Jones is doing it to Louisville fans is simply wrong.

Enough “monkey see, monkey do” antics in this rivalry.  Let’s leave it to the teams to settle and not childish Twitter wars that become so ponderous.  Yes, I get roped into them as well, but am trying to give them up like I tried to lose weight as a New Years resolution.  The intent nis good, but I don’t always follow through.  But it has become exhausting.

Kentucky and Louisville fans need to get a cooler head and get a grip on this now.

Simply put, there is too much good basketball to enjoy to get caught up in all of this BS.  Relax and enjoy the ride.  And don’t let it stress you out.

And let this be resolved on the court December 28th.