31 & none, not done...

     How do you describe a season like this?  When I was listening to the games in the Bahamas by day while at work, and watching the recordings of the games by night, I could tell this was a special team, but I was not sure about how special - I was unsure about the quality of the opponents they were playing.  I love winning, no doubt about it, but there is something to be said for being measured by the quality your opponent.  There is a certain validation in beating good teams.  Still, there was something - something that was more than could be empirically measured.  The camaraderie, the chemistry of the guys was a rare treat to watch on the court and off.  The KSR crew testified to the the unity, and great character of these guys repeatedly.  There was something special in the air from the beginning.

     Big Blue Madness and thirty-one regular season games later - are there words to adequately describe this team?  In 2012, about mid-season, I told people I knew, strangers online, and everyone around me to go see and appreciate that team.  I was right then, and I began, early on this season, to get that same feeling.  There were the blow-outs, there were the squeakers, but by mid-season, I never worried that we would lose.  Yes, I ripped the referees - college basketball is infested with a plague of bad officiating - but this team had convinced me that they would not lose.  There was no opponent (or groups of opponents) that could break their will or overcome their ability.  The freight train was not to be derailed.

     My wife and I went to our first UK game at Rupp on February 21st.  The experience was beyond description, not in the "we climbed a bunch of stairs, ate gelato, watched UK blow-out Auburn, watched the Delk jersey retirement," sense, but the atmosphere, the crowd, the emotion, the passion - the only thing I can think to compare it to is the descriptions some give of a "religious experience." It was a spectacle that everyone was both watching and participating in.  The crowd was like one giant living organism made of thousands of tiny living beings, it was an ocean where the tides are the emotions that rise and crash of their own will with every play.

     Once this team wins the NCAA tournament, we will revisit the comparisons to 1996.  I love the 2012 team, but this team is more comparable to 1996.  Kentucky basketball is the show.










     Let's celebrate this team, celebrate the 31-0 season, celebrate this great group of young men.  Let's enjoy the show for as long as it rolls.