The 6th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Maryland Terrapins

Maryland Terrapins

Location: College Park, Maryland

Nickname: Terrapins

Reason For Nickname: In 1932, then-president Curley Byrd suggested that their athletic programs be known as the Terrapins. The name has stuck ever since.

Colors: Officially - red, white, black, and gold

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference

Arena: Comcast Center (built 2002, capacity 17,950)

Postseason Appearances:

NCAA Appearances: 22 Appearances, two Final Fours, one National Championship

NIT Appearances: 7 Appearances, one Championship

The 7th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky

Nickname: Hilltoppers

Reason For Nickname: The location of Western Kentucky University, which is located on a hill in Bowling Green.

Colors: Red and White

Conference: Sun Belt

Arena: E.A. Diddle Arena (built 1963, capacity 14,277)

Postseason Appearances:

NCAA Tournament Appearances: 20 Appearances, one Final Four.

NIT Appearances:13 Appearances, three Final Fours

The 8th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: North Carolina State Wolfpack

North Carolina State Wolfpack

Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

Nickname: Wolfpack

Reason For Nickname: In 1922, a disgruntled fan said that the student section behaved like a “wolfpack”, therefore giving the nickname to the NC State program.

Colors: Red and White

Conference: Atlantic Coast Conference

Arena: RBC Center (built 1999, capacity 19, 722)

Postseason Appearances:

NCAA Tournament Appearances: 22 Appearances, three Final Fours, two National Championships

NIT Appearances: 11 Appearances

The 9th Greatest Basketball Program In The South: Arkansas Razorbacks

Arkansas Razorbacks

Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas

Nickname: Razorbacks

Reason For Nickname: The Arkansas athletic teams has been called the Razorbacks since 1910 after a student pep rally led by then-football coach Hugo Bezdek, who said that the football team played like a band of “Razorback Hogs”.

Colors: Cardinal and White

Conference: Southeastern

Arena: Bud Walton Arena (built 1993, capacity 19,200)

The Pride of Arkansas: One of the south’s greatest basketball programs, the Arkansas Razorbacks have a long storied tradition of excellence. In its history the Razorbacks have gone to 28 NCAA Tournaments and five Final Fours, including a National Championship over Duke in 1994. Along with that, the Razorbacks have won 22 Southwest Conference titles in 76 years of competiton and two SEC Championships since joining in 1992.

Blast From The Past

As most of you know by now, Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols won the tournament…AGAIN. And they got to cut down the nets…AGAIN. Making the 8th time Coach Summitt and Tennessee has accomplished this feat and the second time in as many years.

Below is a post from this very site dated April 4, 2007 — one year and five days ago. It was the 9th overall post ever and the 7th by me, of which only six had any real value — assuming ANY actually have real value to begin with.

Now granted I am lazy and slightly hungover (see: excessively), but the simple fact that I can conveniently recycle a post a year later — and probably could have used it for Tennessee’s other six Championships as well — combined with the shear absence of parity is why I refuse to follow women’s basketball. Oh yeah…and also because it sucks.

Summitt’s Seventh As Unexciting As First

Posted by Matt on April 4, 2007

Let me preface this article by saying that I am by NO MEANS taking anything away from Pat Summitt, she is a wonderful coach, the type that only comes around once in a lifetime. She deserves all the credit for all of the success that she has had. That being said, even though she has as many National Championships as a coach as the University of Kentucky has as a school, I still don’t care. It is women’s basketball, and it doesn’t excite me. I cannot name one player outside of Diana Taurasi or “Shamika Holdslaw” (quotes because this is what Charlie Hustle called her and I found it funny…plus, I don’t want to get anymore hate mail) and I don’t think they play college basketball anymore.

Furthermore, there are a few teams that are good year in and year out and the rest of the competition pales in comparison. These teams mainly being Tennessee and Connecticut, with another random BCS Conference school thrown in here or there. It may be seem like an amazing feat, for Summitt to win seven, but it really isn’t. There isn’t enough talent or parity to go around and the same teams will always win, and the more they win the more these teams will draw all of the talent and continue to win. It is like NCAA Men’s Lacrosse, does anybody care about men’s collegiate lacrosse outside of a few prostitutes in the Duke University area? I didn’t think so.

Just like none of us can name any female basketball players, we can’t name any men’s lacrosse players either. Why did I bring up men’s lacrosse, you ask? Well, one of Virginia, John Hopkins, Syracuse, Princeton, or North Carolina has won the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship for the past 29 seasons dating back to 1978. Just as either Tennessee or Connecticut has won the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship 9 of the last 12 times. It just isn’t impressive if it comes down to the same two teams every season. It makes me wonder why we even have seasons for these sports. Why not cut to the chase and let Tennessee play Connecticut, best of three, and whoever wins is the National Champion for the next calendar year and we can all get back to something more important, such as Cheers reruns on TV Land.

Destiny Or Fate, It’s All The Same

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Thursday night, hours before the Tigers were set to play the UCLA Bruins in the Final Four, I sat in my Christian Theology class hearing one of my professors, who also doubles as Crichton’s soccer coach, talk about general revelation and why sometimes we as people wind up in the right place at the right time.

Listening to what Coach Jeremy Iwaszkoweic was saying about general revelation and why certain people are picked for certain things, it made me as well as what most Tiger fans around the Mid-South think about one word.

Destiny.

Fate could be added as well because for whatever reason, the dream ride that the Tigers have been on throughout the season, which continued with a convincing win over UCLA Saturday night in San Antonio behind the outstanding play of Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts, who gave another clip to be added to the great NCAA Tournament highlights of all time by dunking on superfreshman Kevin Love. It has given my hometown something to be identified with in a positive manner.

When the Tigers chalked up win number 38, which is now the new single-season record in NCAA history, it was not only a win for the critics (that means you, Dick Vitale) but also a win for the city of Memphis — a town that always got confused with being a backwater town on the banks of the Mississippi River.

That has constantly remained in the shadow of Nashville with its country music and beautiful skyline on the Cumberland River for many years.

Well, from the last time I checked, wasn’t Vanderbilt upended by little Siena in the first round?

Uh, yeah.

And wasn’t it a while back that Tennessee, coming off its best regular season in school history, punked again in the Sweet 16, this time losing to Louisville convincingly?

Uh, yeah.

While it has been a banner year for basketball in the state, where five teams made the NCAA Tournament, two made the Sweet 16, and one sits 40 minutes away from the first ever men’s basketball NCAA championship in Tennessee’s history (sorry, NIT titles don’t matter), you can honestly say that this magical season of basketball wasn’t because of an accident of epic proportions.

It was in the cards for a long time.

And destiny, real or imagined, played a role in it.

Twenty Years And Worth The Wait

Twenty years ago, my mother began her tenure as supervisor in the Physical Plant and Planning at what was then known as Memphis State University.

Back then, the Tigers were coached by hometown hero Larry Finch, who led the Tigers to their greatest basketball moment back in 1973 when they faced UCLA and Bill Walton at old St. Louis Arena — an arena which I had the opportunity to witness the demise of nine years ago on a chilly late-winter afternoon while recovering from a broken ankle.

At the time, the Tigers were practicing in what was then an old and dark Fieldhouse, once home to players like Forrest Arnold and Win Wilfong in the 1950’s, and playing their games at the Mid-South Coliseum, located near where I grew up.

Many times during my formative years, I sat in some of the basketball practices, even sometime shooting baskets with Elliott Perry, Russell Young, Penny Hardaway, and David Vaughan, something that none of the people that knew my mother seemed to care about.

It was there that I learned to hate the University of Louisville, the University of Cincinnati, and later on, the University of Alabama at Bumpkinham-which employed Gene Bartow, the guy who took the Tigers some two decades ago to the Final Four.

By the time I entered fifth grade, I had watched the Tigers make a pair of Sweet 16s, an Elite Eight appearance against Cincinnati in 1992, and a Great Midwest Conference title in 1995 with Lorenzen Wright.

Once I reached middle school, the same Tigers program I grew up watching became a mere shadow of its former self. Larry Finch was gone, the Tigers moved into Conference USA with Cincinnati and Louisville and a guy by the name of Tic Price was now in charge of the program.

By the midpoint of Price’s first season, my grandmother, who would sit and watch Tiger basketball with me on cold winter nights during much of my childhood, was in a battle that Larry Finch or Tic Price could not coach her out of.

Cancer.

She lived long enough to see the Tigers lose in the first round of the 1998 NIT against Fresno State, which would be the last Tiger basketball game she would see in her lifetime.

By November she was dead at the age of 64.

And the Tigers would have one of its worst seasons in my lifetime, bowing out in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament to South Florida, which I’m pretty sure was a watershed moment in my time as a Tiger fan.

Towards the end of my 9th grade year, and 12th as a Tiger fan, the city of Memphis and Tiger basketball would change forever as John Calipari came to Memphis, rolled up his sleeves, and began to pump energy into a once-proud basketball program.

Given the fact that in my 14th year as a fan that Memphis would win the NIT against South Carolina, it was not something that Calipari was going to settle for.

And when C-USA disintergrated, it gave the Tigers a chance to do something that hadn’t been done in two decades.

Dominate the conference.

And dominate they have, winning three straight Conference Championships, with three straight 30-win seasons, and undefeated in league play this season for the first time in school history.

Sunday as I, along with several hundred Tiger fans sat, in the Roane Fieldhouse, no longer the dank that it was when I was a kid, I thought about all those times of seeing the Tigers come up short.

And when the clock struck zero, I knew that those days of waiting until next year was over.

Over and out.

Mr. Wildcat Has Passed

The long tenured equipment manager for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team, Bill Keightley — who was more affectionately known as “Mr. Wildcat” — has passed away at the University of Cincinnati Hospital after a fall from a bus at Great American Ball Park, home of his beloved Cincinnati Reds, WKYT in Lexington is reporting.

For those of you who don’t know Mr. Wildcat or his legendary status in the Kentucky program, I liken it to Joe Nuxhall passing away recently and his relationship with the Cincinnati Reds. Keightley’s tenure goes all the way back to the Adolph Rupp era of the Wildcats and he has been the equipment manager for every Kentucky head coach since then in the team’s illustrious history, winning three National Championships in the process.

The 81 year-old Keightley had just finished his 48th season with Kentucky after starting as assistant equipment manager in 1962 and then as equipment manager a few years later. Mr. Wildcat has become a Lexington icon and a stalwort on the bench for every game, home and away. It is a tough, tough loss for Big Blue Nation.

Link: WKYT

Tennessee Or Louisville?

Editor’s Note: Discuss this article NOW over at ACC vs. SEC! - Tennessee Or Louisville?: A Nasty Boy’s Perspective

This:  or this:  ?

For a Kentucky fan, choosing between the University of Louisville and the University of Tennessee is a lot like kissing your sister; no matter what the outcome is, it is still the worst experience of your life.  I liken it to a death-row inmate having the choice between lethal injection or a firing squad.  The end result is the same. 

Can’t one just root for Charlotte Bobcats Arena of Charlotte, North Carolina to collapse in on itself like a dying star or to be sucked in to the fiery depths of Earth by some act of God?  I mean, it’s nothing too personal…

Do I root for in-state arch rival Louisville? Or do I root for up-and-coming rival and in-conference Tennessee? 

Ricky P. committed the ultimate blue-blooded sin when he returned to the college game as the coach of Kentucky’s little brother, but the ever annoying Bruce Pearl shoves pictures of his co-eds and that eye-burning orange blazer down the throats of Kentucky fans every chance he gets — not to mention I’ll likely vomit the next time I hear any form of Chris, Lofton, Chris Lofton, or “he’s asking Kentucky, ‘why didn’t you recruit me?’”.

Do I root for the advancement of basketball in my current home state, the state of Kentucky?  Or do I root for the advancement of basketball in my current home conference, the Southeastern Conference? 

Common thought may tell you to tell me to root for Tennessee because I hate them slightly less than I do Louisville and it makes the conference Kentucky spends most of their games in look better; however, Las Vegas and my brackets — as bad as they are — tell me that Louisville is where to place my bets.

I haven’t yet revealed my alliance for this evening and by my count I still have well over two hours.  And two hours just may be ample time to get drunk enough that the game, and the outcome, are indistinguishable and irrelevant.

One can only hope.

Commonwealth Of Kentucky: Still The Basketball Capitol Of The World

Editor’s Note: Discuss this article NOW over at ACC vs. SEC! - Basketball Capitol Of The World

Everybody knows the storied history of the Kentucky Wildcats and, while they’re down by their standards in very recent history, the ‘Cats will no doubt be back at the top in the very near future under the tutelage of one Billy Clyde Gillispie.

Everybody knows of the successes of the Louisville Cardinals under Denny Crum, of which is being resurrected by Rick Pitino.

All the while Murray State, Morehead State, and even Eastern Kentucky have seen some intermittent success in the Ohio Valley Conference with former Kentucky Wildcats Kyle Macy and Travis Ford coaching at Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky, respectively, at some point throughout their coaching careers.

This year sees both the Louisville Cardinals and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers advancing to the Sweet 16 of the men’s NCAA Tournament which gives the state of Kentucky two Sweet 16 participants to tie California, North Carolina, and Tennessee as the most representatives per state.

There is, however, two less talked about teams also making their own way in the NAIA from the state of Kentucky in the form of Georgetown College and Campbellsville University. Both teams made the NAIA Fab Four that was played in Kansas City last night, and while both teams lost their respective games, the feat marked the first time that two Kentucky teams made the NAIA Fab Four in the same year.

Campbellsville University is a program that was sparked by the aforementioned Travis Ford and his 1997-2000 head coaching run that culminated with an NAIA Tournament appearance in his final season and a 67-31 overall record. Since then, Campbellsville has gone on to win the Mid-South Conference Tournment in 2006 and see NAIA Tournament appearances in three straight years from 2006-2008, with Sweet 16s in 2006 and 2007 to add to their Fab Four run of this year.

As good as Campbellsville has been, Georgetown has seen even more success over the years. The Tigers of Georgetown have reached the NAIA Fab Four eleven times to add to their four NAIA Championship Game appearances, with a National Championship in 1998, and an overall record of 1637-830-1 (.663). Head coach Happy Osborne has been at the helm for 12 years and has built an overall record of 371-66 (.849) during his stay.

Whether it be in distant history or recent, many states have made their case for basketball supremacy. From California to North Carolina and even Tennessee in the past few years, at some point all have had multiple teams fighting it out at or near the top. But from top to bottom, from large schools to small, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is still the ‘Basketball Capitol of the World.’

Renetria Drake Is A Hilltopper Fan, I Think

Four days ago, I wrote a column about how my big sister’s imparting wisdom served as the backdrop for several teams that made the Big Dance.

Little did I know that as the school year resumed in North Highland Park and the Tigers survived a horrible day at the charity stripe against the Bulldogs of Mississippi State, that Western Kentucky, Villanova, and West Virginia would all be in the Sweet Sixteen as well as Davidson College, a school that until last week hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1969.

When everyone least expected it.

Western Kentucky’s run to the round of 16, the first run for the Hilltoppers since 1993, was not something anyone expected from the pride of Bowling Green.

They had to take fifth-seeded Drake to overtime until Ty Rogers joined Bryce Drew as a fixture on NCAA Tournament highlight reels by hitting a 26-footer to send the Hilltoppers to the second round, their first such trip since 1995.

And then two days later on the same floor, the Hilltoppers nearly blew a huge lead against fellow Cinderella San Diego but managed to survive with a 72-63 win behind the play of Courtney Lee, who will without a shadow of doubt receive some All-American honors from various publications and Tyrone Brazleton to head to Phoenix and a date with top-seeded UCLA.

When everyone least expected it.

My Bracket

After a mediocre Day #1 on Thursday it seemed as if the Selection Committee might have gotten the seedings more right than ever despite the reported parity this year; then came the weekend. Two sets of 12 and 13 seeds, each from the same region, won on the same day for the first time in history. A San Diego Torrero squad that had supposedly handed Kentucky their most embarrassing home loss in recent memory saw Sunday play and fell just short of the Sweet 16 thanks to a streaking Western Kentucky team. We said goodbye to two #2 seeds, only the East saw the top four teams advance to the top four spots of the regional, and two 12 seeds and a 10 seed made it to the Sweet 16.

After starting out strong on Thursday and early Friday, I am left with a bracket that is one of my more pathetic offerings in sometime with my money bracket going a robust 9-7 in the Sweet 16. I can still go 6 for 8 in the Elite 8 and have all of my Final Four teams remaining so I am certainly looking forward to next weekend despite how boring the tournament was shaping up to be by late Thursday, but I can’t help but to wish bad things upon my bracket after the first four days.

MARCH MADNESS

UPDATE Sunday @ 11:28AM by Matt: Well, Day 4 is here…as I stated before, updates are inversely proportional to the number of beers I drink so you do the math.  The wheels came off of the Beasley Bandwagon, Pitt blew my bracket out of the water, and UCLA looked like shit.  

But what does all of this mean?

Well, all of the upsets and close calls are effectively paving an easier road for UNC.  The boys from North Carolina are looking like a shoe-in to win it all, turning Roy Williams in to a Tar Heelian God.  Madness it is.

Some updates to come, but I hope everyone has a Happy Easter! 

Hey, My Big Sister Was Right

On March 9th, two things happened:

The first one was that my big sister Renetria turned 25 (no, Matt you can’t have her)  and the second one was when Drake University, a school that was picked to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference, defeated Illinois State to punch their first ticket to the Big Dance in almost 40 years.

When everyone, as my sister would say, least expected it.

Beginning on Thursday, the nation will be introduced to first-time participants like American, whose coach Jeff Jones was in tears after leading the Eagles to the Patriot League championship over Colgate.

The Georgia Bulldogs, winners of two games in one day, last-place finishers in the SEC East turned improbable SEC Tournament Champions, will have their hands full with the Xavier Musketeers.

And then you have Mount St. Mary’s, whose campus was shaken by the death of one of their biggest supporters in a campus housing fall, winning their first tournament game ever against another team my sister probably would root for, Coppin State, a team that became the first school to ever get in the tournament with 20 losses.

Their reward for that win would be a date with my pick to win the National Title, the North Carolina Tar Heels, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Of course, we all know that they’re going to get stomped all over the place, but for one day we college basketball nuts need to root for the small school, even it means that they’re going to get crushed by the tandem of Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansborough.

Next to Mount St. Mary’s would be another redemption story, the Baylor Bears, once known as a National punchline because of the scandal that rocked the basketball program five years ago, in their first tournament in 20 years thanks in part to the play of Aaron Bruce and the coaching of Scott Drew.

Pretty easy to root for them, right?

Three Days In The M-Town

According to Indian custom, in order for a young boy to successfully become a man, he would have to go through a series of events known simply as a vision quest.

If the young boy successfully did this, he would in so many words, become a man in his tribe’s eyes.

In our society, a vision quest towards manhood means being legally able to drink.

Not anything sports-related.

For three days, yours truly embarked on a journey to search for the meaning of life, using $250 (thank you, Mom for teaching me about saving money), blessings from my main man Matt, and the grace of God (not Grace Walker, who as I write this is in England).

During this sports-related journey for the meaning of life, I ran across many interesting characters, including TNB’s possible answer to Erin Andrews.

Profile Of The Past: Memorial Coliseum - Part 4 Of 4

Part 1 (link)

Part 2 (link)

Part 3 (link)

Characteristics In The History Of Higher Education

The style and design of Memorial Coliseum illustrates two important characteristics in the history of higher education: the increasing ability to build large, imposing structures on a continuously growing institution and the growing emphasis and interest in athletics in higher education as more than merely an extra-curricular activity. Many were skeptical during construction regarding the size of Memorial Coliseum that a building of that magnitude would ever be useful or fully utilized on a college campus. History since then goes to show that in regards to Kentucky men’s basketball, they have far exceeded the expectations of those who designed Memorial Coliseum and fans are now filling an arena with more than three times the seating to its capacity in Rupp Arena. The current utilization of the facility for various collegiate athletic events, mainly in women’s athletics, as well as for numerous casual campus events shows how far campus life and the size of state-funded universities has come in just fifty years, which is a small frame of time in the complete historical record of higher education.

Depiction of History and Heritage

The University of Kentucky does a good job in using and depicting history by continuing to make buildings and facilities from the past, such as Memorial Coliseum, currently relevant in today’s world. Through renovations and upgrades, the university is able to keep historical buildings in working condition and useful for the current landscape of campus and extensive involvement in campus life.

There is a balanced mix of historical buildings and modern architecture on the campus of the University of Kentucky and though the campus may not be as entrenched in tradition and lore as many other institutions, the use of a historic building in Memorial Hall as part of the school’s flagship logo shows an embracing of the past by the administration.

Campus Community Members

Future campus community members need to realize the history and importance of architecture around campus and how and why each building was erected. In the case of Memorial Coliseum, it was nearly a nine year process from idea to completion and was built to serve the students as a complete athletic, physiological, and recreational facility to further campus life. The naming of the building was in honor of Kentucky’s own sons and daughters who died in World War I and in the Korean Conflict. Knowing the lasting legacies of events that took place in Memorial Coliseum and the legendary faces that walked the halls allows one to appreciate what the arena means to this campus, enabling effective work within the campus.

An example specific to Memorial Coliseum of an expectation for administration to know the historical importance of a building on campus was the unique situation created by the disposal of planks from the previous wood flooring during renovations in 2007. Many people were franticly trying to retrieve a piece of the basketball flooring from the construction dumpsters and most did not understand why the athletic department would throw away items that held such historical value on this campus. The approach of learning the history and importance of architecture is not limited to Memorial Coliseum, merely the research is, and thus it applies to all buildings on the campus of the University of Kentucky as well as any architecture on any college campuses and beyond. To appreciate something one must know it first.

Bruce Pearl Is Anti-American

 Editor’s Note: Discuss this article NOW over at ACC vs. SEC! - Bruce Pearl Is Anti-American

To go along with behavior that may one day land him a lemonade-date and a seat with Chris Hanson from Dateline NBC, TNB’s favorite womanizer Bruce Pearl may now be able to add being anti-American to his repertoire of excellence.

The little talked about, yet tough, NCAA Tournament draw for Pearl’s Tennessee squad is #15 seeded American University and, after much deliberation, I have decided that it is un-American to root against American. If Bruce and his rowdy band of Volunteers don’t surrender by Friday’s tip-off, the FBI may very well add Coach Pearl to their Most Wanted Terrorist list, pushing him directly to the top (they should probably go ahead and add him to that Sex Offender’s Registry, too, while they’re at it…).

American University, representative of the Patriot League, uses the bald eagle as official mascot and sports red, white, and blue as official team colors. It is American University…it’s our Nation’s university.  Think about it.  When it comes to this matchup, how could one not root for American on Friday? Dare I say you’d be a Benedict Arnold not to?

(This post may, or may not, stem from my general distaste for most everything Tennessee.)

The face of the enemy:

Selection Sunday

I have never been as nervous for a Selection Sunday in my entire life but Joe Lundardi’s most recent Bracketology (link) – updated at 1:00AM this morning – has Kentucky still in at as #10 seed and Joe’s is widely accepted as the most accurate.  Villanova and Arizona State are both member’s of Lundardi’s “Last Four Out” and both are teams Bobby Knight and Jay Bilas say should get in over Kentucky.

What does that mean?  Well with few games left today it means Kentucky fans need to root for the favorites, catch some of today’s NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway to pass the time (and a good time it is), and hope for the best.  I, for one, think they’re in with considerations for the name on their jersey, injuries, and natural disasters.  Whether or not that is fair I will leave up to the viewing public to decide.

The road to the Final Four begins tonight and there will be some teams sweating it out making for an exciting selection show.  The Selection Sunday telecast starts at 6:00PM and if Kentucky doesn’t get invited to the Big Dance: send help.

UAB Should Go Dancing

Editor’s Note:  You can catch this post and tons of other material over at Doc’s personal blog, Southern Girls and Sports.

Recently, I had a discussion with one of my clueless friends on the issue of having UAB in the Big Dance, a place they haven’t been in since their shocking upset of Kentucky in 2004.

One of my arguments about this issue is the fact that the Blazers have an RPI of 49, finished second in Conference USA, nearly beat Memphis at home and beat Kentucky in Louisville.

My second point was the fact that, outside of Memphis, the Blazers, which has Robert Vaden and former Raleigh-Egypt standout Lawrence Kinnard, could make a nice run in the Tournament — maybe even making the Sweet Sixteen and changing the perception of Conference USA, which has been nothing more than a one-team league since the 2005-06 season.

And the last point, judging from what happened last year when Central Florida and Southern Miss both won 20 games and didn’t go anywhere, something like that would be a sight to behold in the conference.

That is, if UAB doesn’t screw up in their first game on Thursday.

Profile Of The Past: Memorial Coliseum - Part 3 Of 4

 

Part 1 (link)

Part 2 (link)

Connection With Campus Plan

Memorial Coliseum was built on the north east edge of campus directly across from Stoll Field at McLean Stadium, otherwise known as the home of Kentucky’s football team from 1916 until 1973. This created a complete facility that served all of the athletic, recreational, and physiological needs of the students and student-athletes and was located adjacent to Alumni Gymnasium, the previous home of Kentucky basketball, and the main dormitories at the time

Since then, campus has built up around Memorial Coliseum but it continues to fulfill the original mission for students and is far from forgotten. The building is sill the center piece on Avenue of Champions with a long, broad sidewalk extending from the main undergraduate class room building and down across Stoll Field, dead-ending in to the main entrance of Memorial Coliseum. In recent history, additional student housing, the Student Center, and various off-campus and on-campus eateries have all been built up adjacent to and around Memorial Coliseum. Nearly fifty-eight years after its completion, H.L. Donvan’s dream is still the heart of a campus area design dedicated to student life.

Legends and Lore

There is not much in the way of lore about Memorial Coliseum passed down from various generations of students, such as ghost stories or mysteries, but the building is no stranger to campus legends. Any athlete who put on a Kentucky jersey was almost always a legend in their own right but the building is unofficially known as “The House that Rupp Built” in honor of the long-tenured and legendary men’s basketball coach, Adolph Rupp, who would later get an arena built in his honor. Rupp is a legend of epic proportions and marched his armies of Wildcat basketball teams on to the court of Memorial Coliseum every season for 22 years, winning an unprecedented 22 Southeastern Conference Championships and two National Championships along the way.

An extension to the legend of Adolph Rupp that could be considered lore for Memorial Coliseum and the men’s basketball program is that, upon completion, the Coliseum was considered a “white elephant” by many. Due to the shear size of the building, people were skeptical that it could be fully utilized or that the seats could be filled to capacity. Coach Rupp was not only able to fill the seats of Memorial Coliseum each game but was also able to dominate the Southeastern Conference while doing so. Ironically enough, skeptics made the same observation about Alumni Gymnasium, the previous home to Kentucky basketball, but were silenced when the program was forced to move.

To be concluded…

Bubbles Bursting

The San Diego Torreros upset Gonzaga last night in the WCC Championship to punch their ticket to The Big Dance. Suddenly, Kentucky’s home lost to SD doesn’t look quite so bad but at the same time, yet another bubble burst in an area where Kentucky has little room for error. San Diego’s victory likely sent Syracuse packing, at least for the time being, and now Boeheim’s boys have some work to do in the Big East (as do Gary Williams’ Terrapins). Thankfully Davidson took care of business last night saving the spot for middle-of-the-pack majors and Drake had previously notched the MVC Championship; however, at least three more tickets are handed out tonight with two games likely having bubble bursting potential.

#10 Butler at 28-3 squares off against Cleveland State in the Horizon League Championship and Butler can end Cleveland State’s hopes with a win as the Vikings aren’t at-large material at 21-11 (21-12 with a loss). But if Cleveland State can some how pull out the victory, Butler still earns a spot in the NCAA Tournament with what would be a 28-4 overall record meaning a team like Oregon out of the Pac 10 finds themselves on the outside looking in.

The other bubble watch game-of-the-night is the Sun Belt Championship game between Middle Tennessee State at 17-14 taking on the 24-6 bubble team of Western Kentucky. MTSU already killed one team’s hopes with their upset of conference-favorite South Alabama — a team likely in regardless — last night and could take out yet another borderline team with an upset over Western tonight.

If Middle Tennessee does win, it remains to be seen whether or not it would be Western’s spot revoked or if it would be yet another middle-of-the-pack major such as Ohio State, Arizona State, or even two-time defending Champion Florida heading to the NIT. What is for certain, though, is a Western win means likely only two Sun Belt teams gain invitations as MTSU is far from at-large material. To be safe, all those on the cusp must root for the favorites tonight and, in this case, the Western Kentucky Big Red Blobs.

More teams will be going dancing by the end of the night and more teams will be going home and for Kentucky’s best interests I’ll be pulling for Butler and Western Kentucky.

Profile Of The Past: Memorial Coliseum - Part 2 Of 4

Part 1 (link) 

Distinctive Features

Considering the exterior of Memorial Coliseum is fairly simple in design and color, it may only be fitting that there is little in the way of symbols, icons, or monuments that can be directly linked with the arena. This apparent lack of distinctive features, however, does little to detract from the overall uniqueness of the building considering the structure alone is a Lexington icon. The sheer imposing nature of the size and the conspicuous location of Memorial Coliseum, coupled with the fact that it was home to the legendary Kentucky men’s basketball team for nearly 25 years, has burnt the image of the arena in to many people’s memory as a landmark of its own.

Functions

Despite the fact that Memorial Coliseum was finished in 1950, its original conception came in 1941 and it was the brain child of the President of the University of Kentucky at the time, H.L. Donovan. Mr. Donovan wanted a student facility that would adequately support Kentucky athletics and students’ health and physical education. From the moment it was completed, Memorial Coliseum served as the primary arena for the men’s basketball team from 1950 until it moved to the team’s current home, Rupp Arena, in 1976 and was the home of the swimming and diving team until the completion of the Lancaster Aquatic Center in 1989. The building has also housed the women’s basketball team from 1950 until present day, the women’s volleyball team from the team’s creation in 1977 until present day, and is also the current home-gym of the women’s gymnastics team.

The functions of Memorial Coliseum are not limited strictly to sanctioned athletics, however, as the building houses many athletic administration and training offices and is part of the adjoining practice facility for the men’s and women’s basketball teams. The valuable space inside is also utilized for various student activities such as the Dance Blue dance marathon for charity, the Midnight Finals Crunch Brunch, a stress relieving gathering for students during final exams, and men’s basketball student ticket lotteries.

To be continued…

Profile Of The Past: Memorial Coliseum - Part 1 Of 4

Date of Construction and Renovation(s)

Memorial Coliseum is a sports facility located on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Construction of the building, built as a tribute to those from the state of Kentucky who were killed in World War I and in the Korean Conflict, was completed in 1950 on what is now known as Avenue of Champions as part of a $3.9 million dollar construction project. The arena, which was the replacement for the nearby Alumni Gymnasium, had what could be seen as its grand opening on December 1, 1950 when the first Adolph Rupp-led basketball team held court in the brand new 11,500 seat facility with a 73-43 win over West Texas State.

Since the structure’s debut, it has seen extensive renovations beginning in 1990 when a then $1 million dollar construction project reduced capacity by 3,000 seats from 11,500 to 8,500 but added various facilities including athletic offices, training and weight rooms, and student-athlete lounges. Additional renovations to the rear of the complex were completed in January of 2007 involving nearly $30 million dollars and included all new, state-of-the art training and athletic facilities for the men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as brand new offices for the athletic department; this addition to the Coliseum is known as the Joe C. Craft Center. The final step in the most recent renovation process occurred in the summer of 2007 and included general interior maintenance that culminated with a brand new gym surface that sparked a fan movement to retrieve pieces of wood from the previous Memorial Coliseum floor from the construction dumpsters.

Description of Architecture

Memorial Coliseum features a fairly basic design where seating rises up and out from the court on each side with little-to-no seating at each end of the court. This is visually evident from an exterior view with what appear to be inclined additions to the main part of the building protruding outward. The design for Memorial Coliseum is a simple gymnasium design and is similar to a large-scale version of a typical high school gymnasium or other area arenas such as the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The building features yellow stone trimmed in gray with the main entrance flanked by the two original ticket offices and facing what was considered Euclid Avenue at the time of completion. The Coliseum engulfs an entire city block on the east side of Avenue of Champions and contains enough space to fill a seven-story skyscraper. This was an extremely large undertaking for a college athletic facility and many were skeptical that it could be filled to capacity simply by a college basketball game.

To be continued…

Message Boarders

I recently wrote about Kentucky’s bad media day yesterday and while researching Scott Van Pelt’s shout out to The Cats Pause, I was reading other various posts on the message board and came across this one (I am not a card-holding poster there, by the way):

“Gillispie ran over to Joe all excited and grabbing Joe’s arm. He was obviously very proud of him and he was letting him know. Coach G was smiling ear to ear and you can tell he was praising Joe but joe just stood there, never smiling back or saying anything? Wonder what was said and why Joe was so emotionless???”

I don’t know if message board comments are copyrighted but if they are just sue me, you’ll get about three Cup Noodles out of me in the lawsuit.

In response, I have this to say:  OMFG, Joe C. is totally going to transfer nowz!!!11

In all seriousness…MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE HE WAS FREAKING TIRED.

IF there is ANY team in the entire universe that that has fans who actually try to interpret the physical appearence of emotion more than Kentucky fans then please post the team name so I don’t feel like my teams’ fans are the epitome of obsessed nerds. I even heard Jodie Meeks “looked” reluctant to link arms on the bench with Mark Coury when the outcome of the game was still up in the air…

Seriously people, why does it matter what Crawford’s facial expression’s looked like?  He’s a senior who will play his last game as a Wildcat in about a month and he is beginning to consistently drop bombs on the oppostion…why do we even care why he looks this way or that?  He has never been known for showing emotion…deal with it.  In an impressive “And 1″ moment during the game yesterday, Joe finished by flexing and shouting towards the sideline a la Kelenna Azubuike and I was thinking, “wow, it has been 4 years but I think I have just seen the first signs of life on Joe Crawford.” 

That is just how he is and the endless speculation about players’ body language as if they’re suppose to assume they’re on camera 24/7 is beginning to bother even me and I am a Kentucky fan.

A Weird Media Day For Kentucky

I would like to congratulate the Tennessee Volunteers, they beat Memphis on the road tonight and are now the #1 team in the Nation. Thus, at this point in the space time continuum, I can say that both the Kentucky football team and Kentucky basketball team have defeated the #1 team in their respective sport this season. Suck it.

Kentucky went on to defeat a well-playing Arkansas team today but the story of the game was CBS cutting away from a 4 point game, give or take a point, with roughly 45 seconds to go in a game with HUGE implications to show us the EPIC Duke versus Saint John’s tip off — and it was epic, trust me. It’s Duke…Dick Vitale was seen pitching a tent.

It just had to be Duke, didn’t it? Insult to injury. Listen media folk, wonder no more why Kentucky fans think the world hates them (and more on this later).

The majority of Kentucky fans missed the entire last minute of a VERY important game while I was switched back for the last 7 seconds here in Richmond; CBS, you’re too kind. Long story short, Kentucky fans should bitch and bitch loud and often. I have done the leg work for you because I am that awesome. Contact CBS m’here:

CBS Television Network
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
Main Number:(212) 975-4321

http://www.sportsline.com/help/contactus

That is CBS Sports Feedback…make sure to select CBS Sports from the drop down menu. They have kind of disenfranchised most, though, as you have to have a Sportsline ID to send feedback…

However, this wasn’t the only Kentucky moment in the media tonight. At the end of the post-GameDay Sportscenter broadcast, Scott Van Pelt had this to say (and I am paraphrasing):

Kentucky fans think we hate them and we didn’t get to their highlights tonight but Kentucky did beat Arkansas so there, thats for my friends over at The Cats Pause.

This can be viewed as one of two things…

1) Scott, who apparently posts over at Rivals.com, was generally sorry and was genuinely giving a shout out to The Cats Pause since ESPN didn’t actually have the highlights from the blown CBS telecast.

OR

2) Since it is no secret Kentucky fans think ESPN hates Kentucky and favors Duke/ACC and since it is no secret that Kentucky fans are VERY active on Internet message boards, then Scott Van Pelt’s comments were a sarcastic pot shot on Big Blue Nation’s passion.

Interpret however you’d like. Send all bitchings to ESPN’s Ombudsman (though I must say, I have tried and it does little good).

I have my own thoughts and I’ll keep them to myself, but realize Scott’s closing remarks were made just moments after he inadvertently used “pissed” on air and then corrected himself, explaining that it was just him “talking and thinking at the same time” and that he “thought he was back on the radio for a moment.”

Whatever.

Go Cats.