jpg”
With little to no recruiting news going on and basically no basketball news happening, I am going to answer a question posed to me on Twitter: “Why do UK fans have this obsession with John Wall. He was only there for 1 year.” The question was posed because today is Wall’s birthday (Happy birthday), and there has been an outpouring of support for him throughout the Big Blue Nation.
Now, my friend is an Indiana fan, gross I know, but he compared Wall to former IU 1 and done guard Eric Gordon. Lets take a look at why John Wall became a sensation that UK still loves and Eric Gordon has not for IU.
John Wall was the last piece to a recruiting class that was ranked #1 overall in 2009. He was the last superstar to sign from that class which immediately made UK fans go crazy. He was seen as the missing piece for UK and even with Eric Bledsoe in the fold, Wall was seen as the savior at point guard. All of this coincided with John Calipari becoming head coach and ushering in a new era in UK basketball that followed an NIT appearance and 3 horrible seasons (by UK standards) in a row. The pieces were set for an unbelievably exciting season.
Then came Big Blue Madness. The excitement was unreal for that team to just take the court and practice, more so than maybe any year I can ever remember. Then came this:
That dance changed everything. His YouTube videos had already made him a high school legend and people were dying to see him play, then before he even took the court he did that dance, which came to be known as the John Wall Dance. Everyone started doing it, just type in John Wall Dance in YouTube and you will see hundreds of videos of UK fans doing the dance. After seeing the players Tubby recruited and Gillispie was recruiting, seeing a guy with this kind of athleticism and speed along with a showman sense of basketball made people want to see him that much more.
Don’t forget, he, Cousins and Patterson along with the other players on the team were out hanging out with the people camping out for tickets to the practice all week. They hung out with the fans and put on dance competitions and even played a little scrimmage with some of the kids in front of the fans. They made the connection with the fans that others before them seemed to not want to make.
Then came his suspension. He was suspended for the first game of the season because of an improper benefit from his junior year of high school related to his AAU coach. So his debut was delayed a game and fans excitement to see him grew. Then in his first game with UK tied with 6 seconds left all of the hype that preceded him showed to be true with this shot:
Then during the UNC game he scored 16 points and had 7 assists including several highlight plays leading UK to a win even while fighting dehydration and having to be taken to the locker room to get an IV for fluids during the second half. Then the UCONN game, this game was truly his coming out party. He had 25 points, most of them in the 2nd half in which he just took over. He also had 6 steals and put the team on his back on basketball’s biggest stage: Madison Square Garden.
UK hit 20-0 that year which was unbelievable considering the seasons that had come before them. Wall was not the only star of this team, with DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson also starring, but he was the unquestioned leader on the court, and he had the showman mentality to make spectacular plays which ignited the team and the fan base. He even had a shot named for him at Two Keys Tavern (a popular college hangout spot on campus). All of this was reinforced when ESPN’s College Gameday came to town for the Tennessee game, this piece was a feature they did on Wall:
Wall lead UK to a 32-2 regular season, and a SEC Tournament Championship sealing it in overtime with an off balance 3 as the seconds ran off the shot clock. Wall also led UK to an Elite Eight, its first time getting that far in the NCAA tournament since 2005.
He then became the programs first #1 overall draft pick in the NBA. He broke the freshman scoring record for UK (until Brandon Knight broke it a year later), and was on the cover of several magazines including Sports Illustrated and Slam Magazine. Not to mention you have videos of various celebrities doing the John Wall dance when they came to Rupp that year to watch games including Drake, Magic Johnson and Ashley Judd. Not to mention during their conference call with President Obama for the Hoops for Haiti project that raised over $1 million dollars for relief efforts President Obama said to Wall “I’ve been watching you superstar, and need to get a scrimmage and I will make sure you’re on my team.”
All of these factors played a role in UK fans admiration of Wall. He was the catalyst that brought the program back to the top after being in a downward spiral for a few years, and he played with Pete Maravich type showmanship. Also, after him leaving UK he continues to tweet about how BBN is his family and how much he loves UK. He has been back at UK to be the “Y” and talks often about how much he loves UK as evidenced in this video:
So to my friend who mentioned Eric Gordon, he was a great player at IU no doubt. He averaged a few more points than Wall, but not the rebounding or assist numbers. But look at the impact, IU went 25-8 in Gordon’s one year including a first round loss in the NCAA tournament. IU also went on probation and hasn’t had a winning season since. That obviously was not all Gordon’s fault but he never really did anything there, and his year was the year that IU got buried by probation. It was the coaches fault in that case, but Gordon wasn’t the top player in the nation either, he was the #7 pick unlike Wall w
ho was the #1 pick.
The differences are one is a superstar in every way who brought the program back to the top of college basketball and the team has continued to be great after him, he was a media sensation and was the talk of college basketball that year that included a dance that is known across the country because of him. The other was a star, but nothing really shined about him, and he left the program when they needed him most, about to be riddled with probation and the program has been an afterthought since he left. Fair to Gordon or not, he came in and left at the wrong time to be remembered fondly, and Wall came in at the perfect time with the perfect swagger, and did I mention the dunk on IU? I will link that one for you here:
So happy birthday John Wall, and continue to shine for UK in the pros, I will leave you with the John Wall Song by Troop 41 (did I mention he had songs written about him?) with a highlight video of Wall from UK since we all love them:
You can follow me on Twitter and maybe I will answer one of your questions next time: tyleradkins_
Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans