By John Herndon
Sports Editor, The Anderson News
It’s a great time to be a member of the Big Blue Nation! Wildcat basketball is the talk of the country, the UK women’s team is ranked and climbing in the polls, and Wednesday, we got our first glimpse of what Joker Phillips can do on the recruiting trail as the head football coach.
Your head can spin just thinking about it, but let’s briefly look at all three areas and how they are making life fun in the Bluegrass again. Wildcat is basketball sitting at 21-1 after Tuesday’s win over Ole Miss. John Wall on the cover of every magazine this side of Progressive Farmer — wait, can we do the dance while milking the cows? He’s making a case for being the top pick in next year’s NBA draft, IF Demarcus Cousins isn’t. The rest of the hoops world does not like it, but the Wildcats are THE STORY in men’s college basketball this year.
Face it, when was the last time a team has pulled a Lazarus so quickly? The Cats have gone from losing to Gardner-Webb in Rupp Arena to a legitimate national contender. They are everyone’s big game again, shown by how the South Carolina students rushed the floor last week after the Gamecocks upset the then top-ranked Cats. Anyone that swarmed the court after a win over UK the last two years would have been laughed off SportsCenter.
Even the latest little flap about UK basketball, John Wall saying he was not happy and that he did not listen to John Calipari saying he had a bad game — a statement that seemed to be more frustration than anything — would have been a blip on the screen, if it even made the screen, at most other places. But it was Kentucky, so Hubert Davis and Digger Phelps spent a minute discussing it on ESPN Monday night. Why? Because Kentucky is relevant again.
The Wildcats have been a national player all season, a far cry from the last few years when the Big Blue Nation was looking ahead at the schedule to see if the Cats would have enough wins on Selection Sunday. And let’s face it. These Cats are just so much fun to watch. Across the hall at the Joe Craft Center, the 20th-ranked Kentucky women are sitting at 18-3 and all alone in second place, behind Tennessee, in the SEC. Remember, the women’s game does not use divisions like the men. All 12 teams are in one race for the top. UK defeated LSU and Mississippi State last week to jump into the Associated Press poll for the first time in three seasons. I have been to games at Memorial Coliseum in which the only sounds were the ball bouncing and the Nikes squeaking.
It’s not so this year as Matt Mitchell has made UK Hoops relevant too. Isn’t it good to actually be important again? Then there was football signing day on Wednesday.
Football recruiting is such a shot in the dark many times many were discounting the first class of the Joker Phillips Era. That was, of course, until Tim Patterson, Miles Simpson, two of the in-state studs, Jerrell Priester from South Carolina, Cincinnati tight end Alex Smith, and Brandon Gainer, one of the top running backs in the nation, cast their lots with the Wildcats at the last minute. If his first class is any indication, Phillips seems to be intent on dominating the in-state, getting most of the top prospects, and using his connections anywhere else.
UK kept the pipeline to LaGrange, Ga. open and even signed one of Randall Cobb’s old teammates, Tyler Robinson, a 6-4, 250-pound tight end from Alcoa, Tenn. It looks like the Joker Phillips Era is off to a Big Blue start. And just be glad that you can wear your UK sweats and caps with pride. The world knows who the Wildcats are again!
A big thanks to Wildcat Den, which asked me if I would be interested in writing a weekly column for the site. Let’s just say about the only thing I would like more would be center-court tickets, front row, of course, to watch the Wildcats in Lucas Oil Stadium on April 3 and 5. I grew up listening to Cawood Ledford telling me the Wildcats were moving to the right side of my radio dial, loved it when he said, “The Cats are SMOKIN!” and experienced my first broken heart when, as an 8-year-old, I heard him say that Texas Western had beaten my beloved Wildcats.
Since 1985, with the exception of a year living in Indiana, I have been writing for The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg. I am glad to be on board. Feel free to drop me a note at jpherndon@theandersonnews.com, look me up on Facebook and follow me at Twitter.com/ANewsJPHerndon. I hope we enjoy the ride together!