Kentucky players sadly leave the court after losing to Oakland. (Vicky Graff Photo)
By DAVID WHITE, Contributing Writer
I am passionate about sport to a fault. My wife does not understand this. The teams I invest in often allow an escape from a world that distorts truth on a daily basis.
As a middle-aged, middle class, Christian white guy, I am frequently depicted as dumb, useless and down right evil in today’s society. Watching my teams is a way to blow off steam and celebrate wins.
However, this year may cause me to seek other outlets for my frustrations. My teams have only added to the discouragement.
— I am a Bellarmine basketball season ticket holder. They had an injury marred season that saw them finish dead last in their conference and miss the conference tournament by losing in an OT game.
— Kentucky women’s basketball: While not a huge fan, Coach Kyra Elzy and her family went to the same church we attended in LaGrange in the 90s. We always pulled for Coach Elzy. Kyra got fired after two poor seasons as the UK coach.
— St Louis Cardinals baseball: 2023 was an historically bad season, worst in 100 years by some measures. Starting pitchers were the worst in MLB in ERA. Cards finished last, losing over 90 games.
— UK basketball: This could be a very long segment, but I’ll just say CalipEI continues to damage the pride of hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians by his comments, poor coaching, arrogance and embarrassing losses. HE HAS TO GO!!! This is not a new stance for me after the latest debacle Thursday night. His NBA first mentality has been great for some kids, but our basketball program has been on a downhill slide since 2015.
— UK football: When UK football is your high water mark, well …. a mediocre 7-6 season featured three winnable SEC games that were lost and a winnable bowl game that was lost. During the season, I determined that I may never live to see them beat Tennessee in person after attending this season’s game.
With these recent seasons in the books, I guess improvements are bound to happen, right? I don’t know … in the meantime, I may take up knitting or start attending sewing bees. Sports aren’t helping lately.
Thanks for letting me vent. No need to talk me off the cliff. I think I’ll just go watch bowling!
7 Responses
So many can identify with at least the majority of your woes! I fit the personal description with a few decades added to account for my age.
May the Lord Jesus give you peace in all things.
As for UK sports, it no longer has a real BB program – men or women. FB rose to be viewed as relevant when Coen unleashed the offense after years of control by Stoops over every OC. Stoops did a lot of good things, and UK poured millions into FB, but recent changes to the staff raises a lot of questions.
Sports is an outlet for a lot of folks, but it can only help to a limited extent. As a Christian, you have the real hope.
Wow!
As I read through this, I thought I could have written 90% of it,and all of it about UK basketball.
Thank you David White for writing this, and sharing it with the rest of us.
Cal was hired to win games, win games in the SEC tournament, win games in the NCAA tournament. After the statements he has made about not caring if he wins ANY tournament games, if he is allowed to stay, isn’t the university basically telling all employees they are free to change their job description to something they feel is more to their own liking?????
I guess I am not the worst fan ever anymore.
Without the fans, there would be nothing at Kentucky.
The fans have always been crazy.
That’s why there are 8 National Championships.
The fans drive the expectations.
If there were no expectations, the program would not exist as it is.
If there were no expectations, the program would be similar to other mediocre programs like WKU, Oakland, St Peters, Robert Morris, Kansas State.
You don’t have the 8 National Championships. You never get Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Rick Pitino, Tubby Smith or Calipari in the first place without the fans and the expectations of those fans.
You don’t get Dan Issel, Bill Spivey, Ralph Beard, Anthony Davis, Jamaal Mashburn, Rob Dillingham, Tony Delk, Jeff Sheppard or Reed Sheppard without the fans and those expectations.
Fans only become "the problem" at a program like Kentucky when the program is on the downslide. When Coaches like Cal and Tubby lose their ability to be in the hunt for a title. THAT is when people like you start talking about the fans being a problem.
In 2009 through 2015, no one thought the fans were a problem.
in ’93 through 2004, no one thought the fans were a problem.
Then the losing starts.
Suddenly, the fans are too radical. The fans are too FANATIC.
People come out of the wordwork spouting absolute inanities.
These fans are the reason that coaches get paid millions to coach a ball game.
These fans are the reason that Rupp Arena and Commonwealth Stadium exist.
Only an idiot forgets that.
If Mitch Barnhart doesn’t remember that, Kentucky Basketball may soon be in the same situation in which Louisville basketball finds itself. A season full of empty seats and a listless fan base.
I tend to believe that UK Basketball could go the way of UCLA(not relevant anymore)if this lack of focus on the proper priorities for the program is allowed to continue…the Ky fans don’t really care about Cal’s focus on getting players to the NBA…they care about UK Championship because they pay the bills with their support of the program…Calapari should make the fans priorities his priorities instead of ignoring them…he has his own agenda and could give a “flip” what the fans want… it’s just time for Calapari to go!
I KY all the way win or lose we had the best coach money could buy and was glad to get to KY for the first half of his time u’ll was wanting his game send ing players to the NBA then u’ll want him gone. Wat would the next one do. Only one said he would of stayed if he had it to do over My voice say stay with Cal or if he goes go pinto