Ryan Clark - Game of My Life Kentucky Wildcats: Memorable Stories of Wildcats Basketball

KENTUCKY

WILDCATS

RYAN CLARK

For Mom, who has always been there.

For Granddad, who got to me first.

For Manda, who lets me have this obsession of mine.

Copyright 2007, 2012 by Ryan Clark

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

elSBN: 978-1-61321-300-1

Printed in the United States of America

RALPH BEARD

Dick Vitale has seen the best and worst of Kentucky basketball He watched as the program succeeded and then suffered through the lean years of the late 1980s probation. Then he watched in the 1990s as the Wildcats came back to reclaim their spot among the nation's elite teams.

Everyone knows there are few teams like Kentucky, Vitale says.

For more than 25 years Vitale has broadcast basketball games on ESPN and ABC. He admits Rupp Arena is one of his favorite places. But of course, one game was different from the rest.

February 4, 2003. Lexington. The Florida Gators, led by standouts Matt Bonner, Anthony Roberson, Matt Walsh, David Lee and Brett Nelson, came to Rupp Arena with a No. 1 rankingthe first time the schools basketball program could boast of that distinction. Roberson told reporters beforehand he was unafraid of the Rupp Arena atmosphere. A columnist for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper predicted Florida would use the game to overtake Kentucky as the dominant team in the SEC.

That night, ESPN commentators joined 24,459 fans to become the largest crowd ever to see Kentucky play a game in Rupp Arena. They loved what they saw. Erik Daniels, Chuck Hayes, Marquis Estill, Gerald Fitch, Keith Bogans, and Cliff Hawkins led the charge.

The game was close in the early minutes, with sixth-ranked Kentucky clinging to a 15-14 lead. But a late 22-2 run, filled with highflying dunks and steals, created a 45-22 halftime bulge.

This is humiliation! Jam City! Its an embarrassment! Vitale said that night on the air. This is a fastbreak layup drill. This is embarrassing for No.1.

The 70-55 victory looked much closer than it actually was, as Florida never mounted a serious run in the second half and were down by as many as 29 points. Kentucky's team effort produced 19 assists on its 30 field goals and set the tone for the rest of the seasons 26-game winning streak en route to the NCAA Tournaments overall No. 1 seed.

But it was that night in February when the nation first saw the 2003 UK squad flex its muscles against the No. 1 Gators. Those who were there say the crowd was unlike any theyve ever heard.

Theres been so many great games Ive covered involving the University of Kentucky, baby The fans just go bananas there in Lexington. To pick just one game is so difficult, there have been so many good ones that Ive been able to see. From Joe B. Hall to Eddie Sutton to Rick Pitino and Tubby there are more great moments than I can remember.

But of all the games there is one that stands out. Kentucky and Florida. The Wildcats and the Gators2003. That was a great rivalry then like it is now, and that was the first time Billy Donovans team had ever been ranked No. 1in the history of Florida basketball! But they came into a frenzied atmosphere in Lexington that day The Cats were ready.

Tubby Smith had those guys so ready to play from the opening tip. I mean, Florida was No. 1everybodys bulletin-board material. You want to beat No. 1. But Kentucky did more than beat that team. They flat-out dominated Florida.

Ive been to Rupp Arena many times in my career, but Ive never heard it as electric as it was that night. From the very beginning, that Kentucky team got after it defensively, and that became the mark of that team. Its a team that, looking back, was very, very talented, with players like Fitch and Bogans and Chuck Hayes.

But they got up early in the first half and the fans went absolutely crazy. And I know they fed off that energy. By the second half, it was no contest, baby It was dipsy-doo, dunkeroo time. Kentucky absolutely ran away with it, and Floridas No. 1 ranking was gone. And those fans in Lexington just ate it up. Some people thought the Gators might come into Rupp and beat the Cats. Didnt happen.

Its a tough questionthe best UK game youve ever seenbut Id have to say that was the biggest Ive been a part of. I know there will be more.

Every October, when the basketball season begins, the whispers echo from the hills of Harlan to the city parks of Louisville. How is the team this year? Will they be any good? Will they make the Final Four? And it all leads up to that first tip, when the game begins and the crowd can see the team with their own eyes. And the boys are perfectthey can run and jump and shoot with any team in the country. Its as beautiful as ballet, if youve seen a ballet. The Wildcats are magic, and for a state like Kentucky, we need a little magic every once and a while.

I grew up in this culture, loving the Big Blue. For those north of the Mason-Dixon, thats the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team. It was my Granddad that showed me the light, as he says. He got to me before my Daddy could. Daddy cheered for the hometown Louisville Cardinals, which to Granddad was just about as sinful as treading your dirty shoes on the carpet, or leaving your garbage anywhere but in the wastebasket.

And when Daddy died when I was little, the bond between Granddad and me grew. Wed watch the basketball games together. It became our shared time, the time we had when no one else could interfere.

To Granddad and me, the game means so much. It defines who we are, and it makes up a large part of our relationship.

I still root for the Big Blue. Because whatever the reason, rooting for Kentucky stays with a person. Like a shadow. Or a good memory. Its something few understand. In a state with so much sports historythe Kentucky Derby, Muhammad Ali, Johnny Unitas, Paul Hornung, Pee Wee Reesethere has always been someone to root for. But there are no professional sports teams. And of those teams closest to us, in Indianapolis or Cincinnati or Nashville, none are perennial winners. Not like Kentucky basketball.

As I try to explain to people who are not sports fans, Kentuckians can only call themselves the best in a few categories. Much too often, the state falls to the bottom in the statistics of literacy, education, teen pregnancy, or job growth. And for all these faults, we are a proud people, and we search for things to be proud of. Thankfully, theres always been the Wildcats.

Ive found that those who dont know much about Kentucky still know about the college basketball team and its long history of excellence. If we as a state have nothing else, we still have the Big Blue, and it is this tradition into which I was born. I took to it like a kid at Christmas. And years later, even after attending another state university, I still couldnt shake my love for Kentucky basketball. I didnt want to.