PROs
Road games are the gut check of sports. With raucous fan tantrum, a friendly whistle, and overall comfort, even a horrible team can overcome an elite opponent on their own court. During the regular season, home games are the agent of upsets for blue bloods like Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky. Unless you hold top-25 standing and are a cream-of-the-crop ball club, you aren’t beating Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse, Duke is going to crush you at Cameron Indoor, and Rupp subdues every un-worthy opponent. But each of those teams falter on the road at least a couple of times every season. Then, Boston College’s, Alabama’s, and Oklahoma State’s of the world have a shot. Elite programs hitting the road generates the most exciting games.
Kentucky’s hitting the road, Jack, for a rare battle with the Texas Tech Red Raiders and their offense may not come back alive. Once Chris Beard took over, Tech bulldozed foes and soared to national relevance chiefly on the back of their phenomenal defense. Dribbling past half-court against Tech is like walking into the farmhouse from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Beard just snagged a handful of crazed maniacs, injected a few growth hormones and taught them how to shoot. That’s his team! An utterly relentless faction of basketball rottweilers. Their fans bark with venom while their crew sinks its teeth deep into the flesh of opposing offenses. (How is this a pro?).
This is a fantastic test for what will be another young Kentucky Basketball team and is sure to garner national media attention. John Calipari is our coach. He quite literally lives to soak in the spotlight. A trip deep into Texas–where, conveniently, there are sure to be awesome future recruits–to face America’s darling head coach Chris Beard and once again play the role of the Big Bad Wolf for a growing piggy by the name of Texas Tech has College GameDay written all over it.
This game will be an event; a clash of styles: one-and-done versus the grit and grind. The last time Kentucky ventured into enemy territory against a Big 12 opponent, Kevin Knox summited the Blue Ridge Mountains with a 34-point performance en route to a legendary 17-point comeback against West Virginia that the Shenandoah River won’t wash from my memory any time soon.