Cue music: Its the most wonderful time of the year. Ohh, Thanksgiving? No. Christmas? Closer. It is the start Kentucky basketball season, and Kentuckians already have a 9th championship on their minds.
If you've never been to a game at Rupp Arena, you may not fully understand. It's the chill you get when the lights dim and Big Bertha begins to play Bittersweet Symphony during the historical highlight reel. It's the sound of 23,500 people simultaneously chanting "Go Big Blue." It's the crowd joining together to sing the national anthem before the game.It's the fireworks that go off for the starting line-up. It's Kentucky Basketball.
Kentucky basketball is different because of 3 things: we have the greatest tradition in college basketball (*cough 8 national championships *cough), we continually have successful teams and players (over 20 Kentucky alums are currently in the NBA) and we have a fan base that is, what some would say, die-hard.
People outside of Kentucky probably think we're crazy. Rupp Arena is loud, it's rambunctious and it's awesome. We go to great lengths to stand behind our team. We consistently have the largest travel crowd out of almost any program. We even travel to Hawaii to see the Cats play.
Example A:
Walking down the streets of downtown Lexington (and surely at any bar), you will likely hear the "Ohhh C-A-T-S CATS CATS CATS" chant more than once. It isn't to be obnoxious, or to rub it in everyone's faces that we are the best (even though we are), but we just can't get enough of it. Fans paint their faces, shave their heads and have entire closets full of Kentucky blue outfits. It isn't weird. It's weird if you don't join in. Kentucky is good and we know it.
Both of my parents went to UK and my dad was raised in Lexington. To say Kentucky basketball is in my blood is an understatement. When I was a kid, I chose to wear my Kentucky cheer leading outfit in public. I went to a home game for the first time when I was around 8 or 9. My dad bought me a blue and white Pom Pom and the U.K. players program. I studied long and hard, and from then on out, I knew every player and where they were from, and what their majors were. I was hooked and there was no going back. It became something more to me. Something that my dad and I were both passionate about and that we bonded over.
During my senior year of high school, Kentucky was undefeated going into the Indiana University game at IU. My dad and I made the drive and spent all day in Bloomington. I had dreamed about this my whole life- going to a big game on the road. The game was dramatic and intense and awesome. After leading off and on the whole game, Kentucky lost on a last-second 3 point shot by IU. I was crushed. My dad and I left as quickly as we could and we checked right out of the hotel we hadn't even stayed a night in yet. I've never been more angry about a sports game, and hopefully I never will. I still hate IU. Irrationally, really. It's hard to even get me to go to the state of Indiana, actually.
That year, Kentucky played IU in the South Regional Semifinals in Atlanta. My dad surprised me with tickets and I knew I had to go. I couldn't sit back and let the bad taste in my mouth hurt my passion for Kentucky basketball. Kentucky beat IU 102-90 and ended up winning the national championship later that year. It probably wasn't rational to miss so much school for Kentucky basketball, but it was necessary.
Heck, I love Kentucky basketball so much that I asked one of the players to senior prom.... (but thats a different story for a different time).
The one downside (if you can really call it that) to being a Kentucky fan is that it makes you a lot of enemies. Oh you're a Duke fan? You can leave now. UofL? Yikes. With a long tradition of winning comes a long line of enemies. But the contest only makes us love the game more.
Kentucky fans: we may not be normal and you may think we are obnoxious, but the truth is we just really love our Cats, and we don't care who knows it.
Kentucky basketball is more than just a sport because the fans are more than spectators. We live, breathe, sleep, and eat Kentucky basketball. We don't have football (really) and we don't have any professional sports teams in the state. Kentucky basketball is the "is" and "was" and the "will forever be". It's (right) here and (right) now, it's next week and next year. Kentucky basketball runs in my veins and it beats in my heart. Go cats.
“I am more than just a serious basketball fan. I am a life-long addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky and I learned, early on, that Habitual Domination was a natural way of life.” – Hunter S. Thompson
Let's do this, team.
