Leaving on Top – a theory developed by the late philospher George Castanza. Once you’ve reached the peak or best part, stop what your doing and walk away. The goal is to be remembered for that high versus enduring the long ride down the other side. If it’ll never get any better, should you really keep doing it?
Knowing when that peak has been reached is difficult however. You want to enjoy the high and never experience the lows. It takes a keen eye and skill. Skills that are developed through experience and training.
It is like the stock market. You want to keep ownership until you’ve maximized profit. A second too late and you’ve lost money. Too many seconds too late and you’ve lost everything you made on the other side.
Here are a few situations we Kentucky fans have had come through our tenure of fandom:
Rick Pitino (UK) – Rick jumped ship after taking his team to the second straight final game. He sold his stock in one of the best basketball teams ever to Tubby Smith, who cashed in on 9 more seasons.
Tubby Smith (UK) – The Vanilla Ice of Kentucky basketball. Vanilla Ice Ice Ice Babied his way into my internal MP3 player, but that’s all I’ll ever thank him for. In fact, his other albums (including his time as Rob Van Winkle) have detracted from that success. Well, Tubby came in on a high with his 1998 championship team but a couple 20 twenty ‘hits’ is all he would see again, cashing in 3 Elite 8s.
Heshemu Evans – If you know me outside of this blog, one of the stories I will tell you many times is my encounter with Steve Francis. Sitting, having drinks, watching the girls in the pool and talking with a few others. Steve (we’re friends I can call him that) looks at me and challenges my fanhood with the statement “don’t worry girl, he doesn’t know who I am either”… I smirk and say “Steve, I know who you are – I’m a Kentucky fan. You were drafter #6 overall to the Rockets, were traded to the Magic for Tracy McGrady, then signed with the Knicks, you’re back with the Rockets and that leaves me with the question – why are you in Phoenix wearing New York shorts at the pool?” Steve looks at me in shock and just replies with “#2… I was #2 overall”. We talk more, now ignoring the on-comers of women and talk about his trip to Lexington. He tells me that that was the hardest and most hostile crowd he’d ever played in front of. Then he recalls Heshemu Evans. Evans scored 31 points in that game. Evans, a career 10pts a game player never topped 20 points the rest of his career. Had Evans Castanzad after that Maryland game… well, the world will never know.
Rekalin Sims – During Tubby’s final few years, players became legendary prior to stepping on the court. Sims was one of them. During his third game as a Cat, Sims played an Iowa team. He found his stat line with 22 points at the end of the night. Sims scored no more than 11 during the final 26 games. Had Sims transferred after that game, he’d go down averaging 13.3 points a game instead. Would he still have been arrested for drug trafficking… well, who knows?
Billy Gillispie- He took his Texas A&M team to the Sweet 16 after beating Louisville in the second round. After that… it was all… down… hill. Sure, that was the peak game, but the moment came at Rupp Arena as BCG was announced during Big Blue Madness. After BBM, BCG should have walked away. It was a sloppy win against Central Arkansas before a horrible loss to Gardner Webb days later.
Rick Scruggs – Scruggs was one of many coaches that managed to get a W at Rupp during the Billy Clyde days. The head coach of Gardner Webb managed to pull out the V in Rupp, the highlight of his career as a head coach. It only went south from there for Scruggs as his GW team finished 16-16 that year, and 13-17 the next before Scruggs in his final season as head coach. Scruggs is now an assistant at Appalachian State.
That’s it. I’m out. It’s time to walk away…