By LARRY VAUGHT
Even though his team lost to defending national champion LSU, Kentucky gymnastics coach Tim Garrison was thrilled with the support from the sold-out crowd at Memorial Coliseum Friday night.
“The crowd was amazing. The crowd’s been amazing all year, and they just outdid themselves again tonight,” the UK coach said after the match. “Could not be more pleased with the fact that they’re embracing our program, coming out, showing up.
“I know it’s a hard ticket to get now, which is phenomenal because they’re making it so. The fact that they’re being real patient, dealing with the parking and dealing with some traffic getting down here and showing up for us, it means an awful lot to the program.
“The girls tell me about it every day in the gym. We talk about how pleased we are with our fan support. They’re incredible.”
Kentucky had a win over Alabama, a top-five team at the time, and came close to beating LSU. The Cats’ only losses have been to top 10 teams.
Garrison believes his team is “under the radar a little bit” nationally.
“We’re not as flashy as some. We don’t get as much media attention as some do, but we’re working on that. We’ve got some great folks around here that are interviewing me, and putting some of that out there which is awesome,” Garrison said.
Garrison said local media attention leads to more social media following that is getting stronger for his team.
“I think there’s a strong presence of our social media. So I do think that’s coming along and that’s improving. It’s getting better,” he said.
Garrison does not think his team — which had or shared four individual event wins Friday — has hit its peak yet and is capable of reaching the NCAA Championship final round.
“We’re not talking about how deep we can go. Talking about what we do each week that can better prepare us for next week,” the UK coach said. “We’ve got three tough meets coming up. We have Georgia coming up next. Then we’re going to come back home with Arkansas. That’s another strong team on our home floor for senior night. And then we got to go to Florida, so the road doesn’t get easier.
“So we don’t think about how deep the team can go because it’s very situational when it comes to regional competition. We think about taking what I said a little bit earlier as far as where we are right now. How can we improve? How can we get better?”
