Entries Tagged 'Fans' ↓

Even before tip-off Tuesday,  the influx of Kentucky fans made a big difference in the Cancun Challenge.
In last year’s inaugural tournament for men and in the six years of women’s games, the court set East-West or perpendicular — in the rectangular Galactic Ballroom. That meant little room beyond the end lines.
Tournament officials set bleachers along each sideline with plenty of empty space to the walls. The crowd for last year’s Wake Forest-Virginia Commonwealth final was no more than 300, said Robert Hoffmann, a facilities manager for the sponsoring Triple Crown Sports.
Because Kentucky fans bought almost 500 ticket packages, tournament officials moved the court to a North-South configuration.  The rectangular court sets in the middle of a rectangular ballroom. That provided room for seven rows of bleachers behind the benches, six rows behind the opposite sideline and seven more rows behind each end line.
Capacity is 1,300 this year, and could have gone up to as much as 2,000 had morer UK fans bought tickets.
UK fans will have to be rowdy to match fans for Connecticut’s women’s team. Facilities director Jeff Jamison said UConn brought about 450 fans when it played in the Cancun Challenge.
“And they were wild,” Jamison said. “Great fans.”

During the hour-long television program devoted to Kentucky’s 2009-10 schedule, new coach John Calipari kept going back to one thought: Fans should have fun and not dwell on any setbacks this coming season.

Perhaps someone told Calipari about UK’s demanding fans, who booed the home team in Rupp Arena more than once last season. Maybe most memorably, the fans booed a Rick Pitino-coached UK team that eventually beat Mississippi State by 29 points.

“Enjoy the path,” Calipari said near the end of the show. “I’m going to have fun. If you want to be miserable, don’t come around me.”

Calipari seemed to slyly make the same point with a tongue-in-cheek response to a question about what he thought the Cats could do this season. Calipari “predicted” a 40-0 record with no margin of victory smaller than 25 points.

Highlights (or lowlights) of the show, which appeared on the Big Blue Sports Network (WKYT-TV, channel 27 in Lexington), included:

– Usually exuberant, Calipari seemed oddly subdued.

– Odder still, Calipari was not on the same set with the four co-hosts. He was in the Craft Center while the hosts were in a television studio.

– Calipari said UK will play in such places as Cincinnati, Louisville and Nashville.
“And I’d like to go to Atlanta and St. Louis to really spread the wings of this program.”

– Calipari on the North Carolina game:
“Roy (Williams), I love. He says I’m not afraid of Kentucky. Bring it.
“It’s an exciting series. We want to continue that series.”

– Calipari on being a favorite in SEC East:
“Everybody seemed to have players put their names in the draft and come back. Except us.”
He lauded Tennessee, South Carolina and Vandy having veteran players.

Kentucky will be playing in Cancun, Mexico in an event Nov. 18-25.

There will be no ticket sales to the public. But ticket information can be gotten through a travel agency.

Here’s a paragraph from a news release on tickets:

Seating is limited for this exclusive event, and all fans must book travel packages through Triple Crown Sports or a designated travel agency for admission into games in Cancun. Games in Cancun will be played November 24 and 25. For travel packages and information, contact Melissa Koza at 970-672-0567 or Melissa@triplecrownsports.com or visit the website at www.cancunchallenge.net.

Kentucky will renew a former tradition of conducting an open practice in conjunction with the annual “home” game in Louisville’s Freedom Hall.

The open practice will be from 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. Friday in Freedom Hall. Admission is free.

Kentucky plays UAB in Freedom Hall on Saturday afternoon.

By the way, tickets are available for the game. Tickets can be bought by calling Ticketmaster at 866-448-7849 or UK Athletics at 859-257-1818 or 1-800-928-2287.

Tickets can also be bought on the UK website.

UK will stage a pep rally Saturday in Louisville prior to the game against UAB in Freedom Hall.

The pep rally will start at 11:30 a.m. and run until the 2 p.m. tipoff. The rally will be at the Kentucky Expo Center North Wing.

The first 3,000 to enter the pep rally will receive a “Go Cats” spirit towel.

It took two games for a noisy segment of Kentucky fans to change Big Blue to big boo.

Boos and grumbles could be heard repeatedly during UK’s 84-68 loss to Gardner-Webb in Game 2 of the Billy Gillispie era.

As Gillispie noted in his post-game news conference, you could not miss the boos. Gardner-Webb Coach Rick Scruggs certainly didn’t.

“I told my assistant, I’m just glad they’re not booing us,” he said. “It sort of surprised me. It surprised me they left early.”

For even casual observers of UK basketball, it was no surprise. Fans booed Sheray Thomas in one game last season. Joe Crawford heard boos in another.

Not that Kentucky fans stand alone as boo birds. Coming off a national championship, Florida’s football team heard boos as it left the field at halftime against Auburn this season.

But you have to wonder if any other fan group would boo in a game their team won by 29 points. That happened in 1997 when Mississippi State threw long passes over UK’s press for layups on back-to-back possessions.

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College basketball commentator Dick Vitale has a message for panicky Kentucky fans: Don’t push the metaphorical panic button. Back away from the edge of the metaphorical ledge. Calm down.

“Don’t panic,” Vitale said. “Billy Gillispie will get them rolling.”

With tongue in cheek, Vitale expressed unhappiness with UK veterans Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley, plus freshman Patrick Patterson.

Vitale is pseudo mad because all the preparation he did for Kentucky’s games in New York this week are out of the window.

“I can’t use those notes,” he said. “Now all I do is prepare, prepare, prepare for Gardner-Webb.”

Former Kentucky star Chuck Hayes confessed that he’d never heard of Gardner-Webb until the Runnin’ Bulldogs beat UK Wednesday night. When he heard the name, he thought it was the name of a children’s book.

Here’s an interview The Associated Press conducted with Hayes on Thursday.

Q: How big a loss?
A: “It’s really bad, because in March, when they stack up wins and losses and who you lost against, this one is bad.:

Q: Is it as bad as Appalachian State beating Michigan?
A: “The only thing that makes the Michigan game a little bit worse than this one is Michigan was top-5. Still, the programs are the same. I’m going to make a phone call or two down to Lexington.

Q: How do you think the media up there will treat Gillispie?
A: “I’m pretty sure his e-mail is pretty stacked up. I’m pretty sure the guys didn’t want to go to class today. When you lose in Lexington, it’s like the whole world is looking at you and pointing the finger at you like, ‘How could you? You don’t lose at Rupp.’

Q: What was your worst experience?
A: “We lost to Louisville my junior year at Rupp. Me and a couple of guys went out to eat afterwards. The service was terrible. It went like an hour and a half just for like my appetizer. You lose at Rupp and we lost to Louisville, that was bad.

“A couple of guys probably didn’t go to class today. They probably did not want to show their face in that psychology class, because people are going to ask ‘em, ‘What happened? How could you?’

“It’s a long season. But it just looks bad. Man. If it could’ve been anybody else, I would’ve been fine with it. It just looks bad.”

I received an e-mail today from a fan who basically suggested that I couldn’t handle the truth. He wanted me to blast Kentucky as “terrible.” Of course, this was in regard to the loss to Gardner-Webb.

My response:

“I’m not going to blast Kentucky. There’s no need. Gardner-Webb was quite eloquent on the subject.”

I keep hearing how intelligent UK fans are. In fact, Billy Gillispie made that very point on Tuesday when asked what the fans should look for to know the Cats are playing hard.

“Our fans are very, very, very, very, very knowledgeable,” Gillispie said. “As knowledgeable as any that have been part of college basketball.”

So how to explain the voice mail message I heard when I arrived at the office Wednesday morning. A man who described himself as a UK graduate from 27 years ago was distressed about the starting lineup for the Pikeville College game proposed by Gillispie.

The fan, who didn’t give his name, said Joe Crawford and Jared Carter should start.

Perhaps Gillispie will use the lineup to support his message that those with great practice habits will be rewarded in games.

Perhaps injuries to Crawford (coming back after being sidelined for weeks because of a knee) and Carter (shoulder surgeries) explain why they’re not starting.

Perhaps starting in an exhibition game is meaningless.

Shouldn’t basketball-savvy fans know this?