Loge Level

In a season with so many dreadful lows — home losses to Garder-Webb, UAB and San Diego and blowout losses to North Carolina, Indiana, Louisville and Vanderbilt — the assessment of basketball coach Billy Gillispie’s first season at Kentucky through Blue Goggles may come as a surprise:

I enjoyed this season more than any season since Keith Bogans sprained his ankle. And for that reason alone it was an utter success through these Blue Goggles.

Sure, Tubby’s leftovers were preseason Top 25 picks, so maybe they didn’t achieve any more than initially expected, or maybe they even failed to advance as far as some expected. And, Billy G’s critics will point directly in his face in attributing blame for the rash of injuries that plagued the Cats.

Yes, his practices at the Joe Craft Center were more like gladiator matches at The Colosseum. Yes, he practiced ON gamedays. Yes, he played players 35-plus minutes per game.

But I looked forward to every game, especially after the scrappy Cats bounced back from the loss to Louisville to upset Vandy.

Maybe that’s because this was the first year since college — when Bogans was a senior — that I’ve had the time and freedom to follow the Cats so closely.

Maybe I also had more interest because of my past association with freshman phenom Patrick Patterson.

And maybe there was also a certain novelty of a new coach — a refreshing change — that pulled me to root for a guy that the media and critics were rooting against.

But the Cats lived up to my expectations for the first time in at least three seasons and often reminded me how distracted I was as a teenager in junior high school classes by the given night’s game and why I’d stay up late to watch a game against Ole Miss on a Tuesday night.

They reminded me of what was so special about the ‘Unforgettables’ and why guys like Richie Farmer, Anthony Epps, Chuck Hayes and Patrick Sparks are more beloved in the Bluegrass than Rodrick Rhodes, Antoine Walker, Rajon Rondo and Randolph Morris.

At the beginning of this season, Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford were in the company of the latter list. Excluding one- or two-season be-gones like Nate Knight, Rekalin Simms, etc., my personal list of all-time least favorite UK players began with the most selfish and frustrating of former Wildcats: Rhodes, Walker, Rondo and Morris (my top five would be rounded out by Saul Smith for completely different reasons). And I was ready to lump Bradley and Crawford in with their fellow Class of 2004 UK recruits.

Bradley, Crawford, Morris and Rondo arrived at UK as the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class. They reached the Elite Eight their freshman season and were an overtime away from the Final Four, but it was all down hill from there. Rondo’s selfishness made Walker and Rhodes seem sacrificial, and he bailed after two years to become an NBA Lottery pick. Morris, too, tried to leave after his freshman year, but was ignored by the NBA and went undrafted. But that made him an immediate free agent upon his return, and he followed Tubby Smith out the door last spring.

Bradley, while never selfish and always giving full effort, stumbled and bumbled his way to three turnover-filled and unproductive years. He played out of control and frustrated. Crawford, like Rhodes and Bogans before him, had an unemotional style, which can often be interpreted as lackidaisical or non-caring. He attempted to transfer as a freshman but stuck it out for, like Bradley, underwhelming sophomore and junior campaigns.

But they both grew, evolved and gave their souls to the UK program.

They ended the season exceeding all my wildest expectations. Bradley hit all his shots at the most important times. Crawford scored 35 twice in his final four games, including Thursday’s loss to Marquette. 

Without them, UK would have lost 20 games this season — maybe more. They became two of the top 10 defenders in the Southeastern Conference — something completely unselfish and unexpected. They sacrificed for the program, their teammates and their new coach.

And that, more than anything, is what made the 2008 Kentucky Wildcats so enjoyable to watch.

Sure, the outcomes of several of the games were embarrassments to the program, but the players were never an embarrassment. They were valiant, unselfish, persistent, and above all were winners. Ten years from now, they will be remembered as pillars for the foundation of Gillispie’s rebuilding effort and for keeping UK’s NCAA Tournament streak alive.

Given all the adversity — a new coach, injuries to four of the top five players and all the criticism — they exceeded all realistic expectations.

So, I’m sad that the UK team with the most losses since probation is now in the books. The blog will take a break, while checking in occassionally for recruiting news, until October to focus on baseball. I look forward to next season, but I’m not in a hurry to forget about 2008.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Blue Goggles, College Basketball, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.