Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones]
[Moderated by Matt Jones]
Now THAT was fun. I have been to a number of Midnight Madness celebrations over the years and they all are entertaining to the basketball junkie in me. However this Midnight Madness was a celebration unlike any other. It was different in the way the fans arrived an hour early and helped create a consistent buzz in the minutes proceeding the beginning. It was different in the way that Rupp rocked with a different, younger and more passionate fanbase throughout its hallowed halls. It was different in how the players embraced every part of the experience and put on a show of potential for the future. It was different in every way and thats why it was the best Madness of recent years. They still need a little help with the event planning (just let me do it…I will have it rocking), but the background stuff with the stage, the music, the atmosphere, etc was top notch. It was a great night in Rupp and one that I will always remember. We will have more on it tomorrow, but just a few highlights for the evening….
— When you first arrived in Rupp, the staff had all seven national championship trophies around the center circle. It was an amazingly cool sight and led to the above picture. I looked at each trophy and held (carefully) each one a bit. You can just feel the history with each one.
— The new entrance video is beyond great. It should be a staple for every game.
— The sight of the former players was, for me, the best part of the night. Derek Anderson, Tayshaun Prince, Kenny Walker, Rodney Dent, Jared Prickett, Jules Camara, Wayne Turner, Wah Wah Jones and more packed the house and made it feel like a Kentucky reunion. Derek Anderson told me after the game that “the family” was back after a two-year hiatus. It was great to see.
— The players were in awe…John Wall dancing during his intro, Big Cuz cutting up, Eric Bledsoe slapping hands with the old-timers….it was great to see.
— Cal’s speech was a bit like the State of the Union, but it got the crowd fired up. As he mentioned all the great players that had played for UK, the crowd got louder. And then when he went through the coaches of the past, you could just feel the tradition. Oh yeah and he left out Sutton and Gillispie (which you expect) and Pitino (which I didnt). We know which three that Calipari is modeling himself after.
— I talked basketball with Dick “Hoops” Weiss and Oscar Combs for 30 minutes prior to the start. First, the stories were unbelievable and I got some great insight from Hoops on this year’s team (which we will write more about tomorrow), but also the passion of those two is amazing. They both have basketball in their blood and it is a pleasure to talk to them.
— Drake made quite a scene and it was clear the high school girls are his biggest fan base. I interviewed him after the game and he couldnt have been nicer…but I didnt have much to say since I dont really know him. I did ask him if he was coming back this year and he said, “I plan on coming to 2 or 3 games.” There you go.
— CJ Leslie did not attend Madness and was a late scratch. No word on when he may come.
— As for the actual game, it is clear this team will run. They scored over 60 points each in 20 minutes of play and the pace was frenetic. I wont make too many judgments on the game itself (although you gotta love Jorts hitting it deep), but this team is good and will be fun to watch.
— The highlight of the night may have been what you missed at home. John Wall dunking in warmups was epic. The guy threw down 4 dunks that all were Dunk Contest worthy in a layup line. He is an athlete unlike any other to wear the Blue and White.
IF you cant tell, I am giddy. Tomorrow we will have more football, etc, but for now…I am jacked. What a fun night and what a great start to what will be a memorable year.
[powered by WordPress.]
Bill Keightley Report : Never to be forgotten.
The views and opinions expressed on this site and the images contained herein do not necessarily reflect those of cn|2 or Insight Communications.
29 queries. 0.824 seconds
October 17th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Wish I coulda been there. Its an exciting time…
October 17th, 2009 at 1:50 am
About time ive been hitting refresh since a little after madness ended almost gave up and went to bed.The cats are back baby!
October 17th, 2009 at 1:54 am
It looked like Bledsoe threw down a couple of his own in layups as well.
TV coverage was awful.
They had the cameras on Bromley and Macy through half the layups while you could hear the roars in the background with each throwdown.
The playere introductions in cherry pickers was about retarded, but it did give us a John Wall moment that Matt mentioned. The kid is all that and has 10 trucks full of chips behind him.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Wall’s crazy dunk in warm-ups http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqcbR6v5CPY
October 17th, 2009 at 2:03 am
I was there, I knew that Wall was a freak before hand. Dear lord, didn’t know how much of one that Bledsoe was though. They were both laying down some nasty dunks.
October 17th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Bledsoe had a nasty reverse dunk
October 17th, 2009 at 2:10 am
I really starting to doubt that lucas will ever wear blue
October 17th, 2009 at 2:11 am
Best madness ever! This is going to be a SPECIAL year!
October 17th, 2009 at 2:11 am
What about Jorts with the stroke? He may be our best shooter
October 17th, 2009 at 2:12 am
I will say this after watching bbm on tv Jorts may be our diamond in the rough
October 17th, 2009 at 2:14 am
BTW Matt cool pic, I would use that as my facebook pic 4 the rest of my life if I were u
October 17th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Yeah Jorts was definitely lighting it up. Like 5 threes?
October 17th, 2009 at 2:35 am
does anybody have a link to the entrance video?
October 17th, 2009 at 2:57 am
Nothing like reading the comments and reviews about Madness while taking a duece. Wish I could have seen or experienced it. Carry on my Big Blue brothers and sisters. GO CATS!!!!!!!
October 17th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Yeah Harrellson only missed one. In the mix of it all, Hood did show some of his athleticism off and I was impressed with Orton. He is going to be a big contributor to this team and will do it silently. Hopefully some commits will come shortly.
October 17th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Bledsoe is ALL BUSINESS. That Cat is serious bout some ball.
October 17th, 2009 at 3:43 am
15) People seem to forget Orton was rated the #10 player coming out of his junior season. Of course, he got hurt and it dropped him.
October 17th, 2009 at 4:23 am
17, yeah he woulda stayed top 10 had he not been hurt. He is better than his #22 ranking.
October 17th, 2009 at 5:35 am
A few more dunks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9xnWkTkSNY Bledsoe’s dunks in this
October 17th, 2009 at 5:38 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qjI40obJjo
October 17th, 2009 at 6:01 am
i hate to beat a dead horse but rom bromley is completely and utterly terrible at broadcasting and he made my tv experience miserable. somebody needs to remove him from any future broadcasts immediately.
October 17th, 2009 at 6:12 am
#21 - mocha - He’s not terrible. He’s just not your style. he’s a professional who serves a large portion of the viewing public (40 - 90 year olds). He’s earned his job and won’t be going anywhere until he wants to.
Terrible would be if he had no presence, no insight, no perspective and was an amateur in his efforts.
He is none of those things.
October 17th, 2009 at 6:15 am
22) i can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not, i’m a little slow.
i bet if jones put up a poll about bromley the vote would be 99 out of 100 people who think bromley is awful.
October 17th, 2009 at 6:37 am
22) I have to disagree. No presence - it’s like listening to a zombie. No insight - He’s a complete idiot. Amateur in his efforst - does he even put out any effort? Doesn’t seem that way to me. He needs to report on things more his speed. Bingo games perhaps?
October 17th, 2009 at 6:39 am
“I wont make too many judgments on the game itself (although you gotta love Jorts hitting it deep)”
That’s what she said.
October 17th, 2009 at 7:02 am
I am not crazy about Bromley either. Last night, he never knew when to just shut up and he is dry as dust. I wanted to listen to the public address announcer guy. 22 is right about this. He isn’t terrible. He just appeals to Dads and Granddads. He isn’t going anywhere.
The atmosphere seemed great at Rupp last night. Cal’s speech made me want to charge a hill. His speech targeted just about everyone relevant to the program including fans, players and recruits. The recruits must have been in awe. I know I was.
October 17th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Line of the night was Beisner’s Tweet: Harrellson is strokin it like BTI after a Hannah Montana Marathon.
Classic!!!
October 17th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Lmao at #26.The charge a hill line was priceless haven’t laughed that hard in awhile.
October 17th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Way to go KSR. Rumbaugh broke NCAA rules by posting which recruits would be at madness. What’s that? Its not a violation for a blog not affiliated with the University in any way to post who would be there? Well, I own a comedy club. So there! I am such a homo.
MM
October 17th, 2009 at 7:45 am
It was fun to watch, until the live feed cut off. Anyone know what happened?
October 17th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Wrong #22. He is horrible. I am one of those 40 - 90 year olds and imo he couldn’t be worse. If I hadn’t seen him on camera, I would have sworn that he was watching and commenting from a rec league game.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Blame Wayne Martin for Rob Bromley…not Rob. Rob is Rob, and he must be doing something right because Wayne still puts him on the air.
At least Rob corrected his “bobble-head” style.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Matt: “John Wall is athletic like no other who has worn the blue and white.”
I’ll forgive you for the hyperbole because you may be too young to remember King Rex Chapman and Kenny Walker. They were both faily athletic. Walker won the NBA dunk contest at the NBA All-Star game.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:26 am
After I saw MM saying Friday morning that “Everything is now complete and CJ Leslie WILL be attending Big Blue Madness tonight.” I knew something was up. Each Maggard slice of time is obviously from an alternate reality. Broken clocks are more accurate then MM. Great coverage of the event Matt for all of us who couldn’t be there.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:36 am
#34 Matt actually asked me to look into the CJ situation late Thursday night and at that time both CJ’s camp and those around Lexington felt 100% that he would be in town late Friday afternoon. That’s why I typed up that CJ Leslie post Thursday night and set it up to go up Friday morning…everyone was confident that he would be there so I felt I would pass that along. (Watching all the politicians during the last presidential race, I titled the thing “CJ Leslie IS EXPECTED…” haha, covering my tail just in case what happened, happened) He really threw a curveball there by not showing up. It’s still early on Saturday but I plan on calling him later tonight ( I have a wedding all day) or through the weekend to figure out why the plans changed like that. Kinda odd. But that said, I guess I got that one wrong too…and probably anybody that posted anything about CJ on Thursday or Friday got that one wrong as well. He missed quite a party though!!
October 17th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Thanks Dustin. It looks like you were spot-on with the ‘expected’. Your posts contain lots of stuff that proves to be reliable. It’s just funny when you have someone who only cares about $$$ like the Frosted Fool who makes a post with the single bit of info in it being “CJ Leslie will be at BBM tonight!” It just goes to show you who you can trust.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Calipari has gone to some lengths to avoid perceived animosity between Pitino and himself. I honestly think the Pitino omission was a savvy speaker’s decision to not allow a chorus of boos to mar a celebratory moment. (or the clearly chantable: “KAR-EN SY-PHER!”)
After the summer Rick’s made for himself, sparing him some attacks was a class move by Calipari.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:06 am
#22. Watch out about categorizing us old folks. We thought Bromley was catering to the under 40 crowd.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:38 am
All the City College fans are out in force now talking about how over hyped this team is, etc.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:52 am
20) 50 seconds in John Wall is the absolute Truth and I can’t wait to see Big Cuz with real game intensity… you could tell last night that he was just playing around, but that big teddy bear with a mean streak should scare the Hell out of everyone whose schedule reads Kentucky. Orton can shoot the ball well and i came away with the impression (just based on last night) that he and jorts were among our best shooters.
On a side note Patrick had a lot of fun last night… it was his body language, his constant dancing with every dead ball, and ear to ear grin. He really does have it all, the skills, the attitude and the character. My favorite UK player ever and i am 36 so i have seene some who were very special… but he’s the guy by which future cats will be measured.
I was fortunate enough to be able to go with my brother and for those who didn’t get to, rest assured, we were loud and proud.
While you may not have gotten to see the best part (lay-up line), don’t sweat it, i have a hunch that many of our games will have a strong resemblance to that.
GO BIG BLUE!!!
October 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Calipari is the anti-Gillispie. I know its been said before, but he comes out and directly says ‘we represent the commonwealth’ and ‘we hold ourselves to a higher standard’.
The fans eat out of his hand, too. You could feel the love in Rupp last night, it was unlike any UK event I have ever been to.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
39. As a team they are over hyped but not as individual players. John Wall is the real deal my friend. From what I saw last night there ain’t no way other teams will be able to guard him consistently. Patterson is not over-hyped. He is a rock and a monster down low. He is as tough as they come. Bledsoe is not over-hyped. He appears to be a step behind Wall but not far behind. Cousins is one big dude. 6′11 and he moves real well. Orton is solid. Even the Gillispie holdovers, Harrelson, Stevenson, Harris look solid last night. The key to this season will be playing the dribble drive offense effectively and meshing as a team. I am excited because I know we will not be upset at Rupp Nov 2nd by Campbellsville.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:12 am
37) That is a great point.never thought of it that way…Cal is a very smart guy..
October 17th, 2009 at 10:19 am
They hate it when you call them City College too…but we used to be State College.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:22 am
@42 good point
Stevenson,Harris, Harrelson, and Liggins all seemed to be much improved over last season! which makes for much competitive practices = players playing the best they can
October 17th, 2009 at 11:01 am
36- Frosted Fool! lol…I like that one! The Frosted Flake strikes again! MM = Epic Fail to the tenth power
October 17th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Bledsoe’s backwards dunk was better than any of wall’s.