by Paul Jordan
I have to admit I cringed a bit when I saw Alan Cutler’s article “John Wall is frustrated”. Anyone that watches the Wildcats games lately can see that Wall has not been his usual, jovial, smiling self and like most of the Big Blue Nation figured that the pressure of a number one ranking and a perfect season were starting to wear on the 19 year old.
These type of things happen all the time in sports. Players get frustrated. All the time. And usually these things are worked through with the help of the coaches and teammates. Now, we have taken what should be an internal matter between Calipari, Wall, and his team mates and turned it into public discussion fodder for the Big Blue Nation, which it should not be.
Now, I am as big a Kentucky fan as there is. I graduated from UK and wear my blue and white proudly, even in the heart of Gator country. Hell, I am so obsessed by Kentucky basketball, I started my own blog to write about it. But even in all my fanhood, I kind of know the limits of what a fan should and should not do.
Earlier this week, there was a mini-controversy when it was learned that UK fans were going to the social media pages of Patrick Patterson, John Wall, and others and well, voiced their opinions about Kentucky’s loss to South Carolina on Tuesday. Voiced them so much that Patrick Patterson and Wall spoke out about it and voiced their displeasure with the “advice” they were getting from the fans.
I admit, as a Kentucky fan, that we have our “lunatic fringe” faction of fans. And as Calipari and Joe B Hall recently said, 99.6% of the Big Blue Nation do NOT fall into these faction. However that .4% minority took to their keyboards, and made their displeasure known and directed their poorly written (I assume) hostility at random 19 year olds they do not even know. But now that Cutler and other are picking up on Wall’s frustration and writing stories about it, I am concerned that some of the other 99.6% will try to “help” and send along advice to Wall and help to ease his frustration.
I know I am going to piss some people off here, but Wildcat fans. Stay out of this. The last thing Wall needs is to get a couple of thousand emails from well meaning fans saying how much they appreciate him and to keep his chin up and that everything will be OK. Even though your intentions are good, it will be very overwhelming to a 19 year old. John Wall knows that you appreciate him and he knows how well loved he is by the Big Blue Nation. But an outpouring of support is not what Wall needs.
Right now, he needs his coach and his teammates. John Calipari is a master at this type of thing and since it is his words (supposedly) that is leading to Wall’s frustration, Calipari will be the one to smooth this over. John Calipari has been coaching college players for 18 seasons and Wall is not the first high profile player he has mentored. This is why John Calipari was hired. We saw very well what can happen when a coach mismanages his players personalities. And trust me, Calipari is light years ahead of Gillispie when it comes to calming a frustrated ego. Calipari will get to the root of what the real problem is and we will see the old smiling Wall back very soon.
Even if Calipari were not at Kentucky, Patrick Patterson is. No player knows about the frustration of Kentucky basketball than Patterson, Ramon Harris, and Perry Stevenson. And while Patterson has taken on more of a leadership roles with UK, I would not doubt that he and Wall have not already had a sitdown to discuss the rigors of being a “rockstar Wildcat.”
I do not doubt that some of Wall’s frustration consists of the other teams making their whole game plan based on stopping him. Well help is definitely on the way for Wall in that aspect as both Darnell Dodson and DeAndre Liggins have stepped up their games and if pressed into the starting lineup will offer another big target and take some of the pressure off of Wall.
And yes, I admit that I miss the smile and charisma that Wall brings to the court. I decided that my getting involved when Wall has the resources of Calipari and Patterson would probably not help that much. Seeing that I did not even know the kid … well that kind of made my mind up for me. Don’t get me wrong. I love the passion of the Big Blue Nation and love how we banded together to raise a million dollars for Haitians when college coaches in states with a much higher Haitian population that Kentucky (like Florida) sat idly by. The passion of the Kentucky fan is what sets us apart from the Florida’s, the Kansas’s and the Duke’s of the basketball world.
But we need to learn when to get involved and when to let a coach handle his team. And for John Wall, this is an internal matter.
Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans