Tonight marks the start of a new season. Our team in no way compares to last year's squad, but a team like that only comes along once in a Kentucky blue moon. However, being a true fan does not entail cheering solely during the victorious stretches, but rather it demands loyalty through thick and thin.
Midnight Madness is a great tradition in NCAA basketball, especially at UK. I remember going every year to watch it in Memorial Colosseum, after camping out to get tickets for it (which are free, but sell for hundreds). I remember witnessing Rajon Rondo win the dunk contest during that year's Midnight Madness, and I was blown away by his explosiveness. I knew right there that he was destined for great basketball endeavors (he is now probably the best point guard in the NBA).
I wish I were able to be there tonight, but thank goodness for espn3.com. In honor of the tradition that is Kentucky Basketball, I watched the 1998 NCAA Championship game vs. Utah. Yes, I frequently watch the classic games that took place during my lifetime, and it never gets old. I love seeing Utah crumble and the Comeback Cats triumph. Envy our past, fear our future.
UK basketball stirs in me emotions that nothing else can. A combination of pride, enthusiasm, hopefulness, and love fill me to the core. Some call it over the top, I call it passion. And life without such passion, is no life at all.
So until the next post, I'll leave you with some highlights of that glorious 1998 championship game:
-Doleac struggling to get down the court towards the end of the second half, as his bowl cut is matted to his forehead.
-Wayne Turner never making two consecutive free throws (consistent with his 56% free throw average).
-Scott Padgett and Jamaal Magloire always looking Bad A with some sort of bruise or cut near the eyes.
-Rick Majerus rumored to have burned his "lucky" sweater after the game due to its failure to bring luck as well as its pungent odor and yellowed armpit regions.
-Cameron Mills being the man and making two threes when UK was, up until that point, 0-7 on three point attempts. As the final buzzer sounds, he then becomes the man that falls to the ground in tears (prompting pal Jeff Shepard to follow suit).
-Kentucky wins its seventh NCAA title. 'Nuff said.
