Kentucky Wildcats Sports: Greatest Saturday Ever?
By Vinny Hardy
Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
In our lives there have been many great Saturday afternoons and nights spent either watching Kentucky in person at Rupp Arena or Commonwealth Stadium or from the comfort of our own homes.
It goes without saying that a win on Final Four Saturday which leads to playing for a title the following Monday night will always be special. They are on a different level of special altogether. Let’s take a second and reflect on some other recent special UK Saturdays.
Saturday December 3, 2011.
Anthony Davis secures the first signature win for the eventual 2012 national champs with his swat of North Carolina’s John Henson.
Saturday September 15, 2007
Stevie got loose indeed and turned a dejected Commonwealth Stadium into a frenzied, ecstatic crowd in the blink of an eye.
Saturday October 13, 2007
More Commonwealth magic as UK takes down the eventual national champion LSU Tigers. We were watching and still couldn’t believe our eyes.
There are many more memorable Saturdays that could have made this list if we had gone back farther. These are just a few from recent years.
However, there is still one underrated Saturday that I put above these.
Saturday November 26, 2011
As great as the 2007 season was the dreaded streak to Tennessee has still found a way to survive several close games that maybe it shouldn’t have. Randall Cobb felt the same way we all did. Finally! The streak was no more.
This particular Saturday is also special because the end of football season meant that basketball had gotten cranked up as well. Had the 2007 Louisville and LSU football games coincided with a UK home basketball game then they would probably top the list in a first place tie.
With Kentucky ending the streak that afternoon it allowed fans time to get to Rupp Arena to watch the eventual national champs play host to Portland Saturday night.
Let’s be honest, this a game everyone knew that Kentucky was going to win. A lot of fans in attendance had also been to the football game that afternoon as well. To be honest it was a bit of a ho-hum game like you would expect with Portland being an inferior opponent.
Say what you will about Rupp Arena not being as loud as many would like at times or the location of the student section. I think in this case everyone had put so much into cheering the Cats on to beat the Vols that they were lacking the energy for the basketball game. People were still in awe and disbelief about what they had witnessed over on the gridiron.
The fact that Matt Roark was under center and the offense was limited had folks winding down and reflecting on every facet of the 10-7 win.
Maybe Michael Kidd-Gilchrist sensed it, maybe he didn’t. Either way MKG did something about it.
The steal and lob to Anthony Davis on the previous play was nice as well but MKG took it to another level. It was the play of the game and one of the best plays of his UK career and was the cherry on top of one of the greatest Kentucky sports Saturdays that we’ve ever seen.