The Sun is Gone, But I Have A Light

Maybe, I have mowed my grass for the last time. It has been a week or so since I mowed my lawn and still, I can see my mowing lines. I am somewhat saddened by this because it means the end of my summer. My summer is the time period from the middle of April until the end of October where the weather is conducive to wearing shorts. In essence, you can also call this the grass-mowing season. The leaves are turning colors and are beginning to scatter themselves across my yard. Scattered nothing like the blanket of leaves that fell in front of Mom and Dad’s house every year. There are just enough leaves to slightly color my yard. Yes, you could rake them up and jump in them, but don’t expect any cushion.

This time of year renews an excitement in me that has been dormant for almost eight months now. The excitement I can feel growing each day as I read the sports page. Yep, you guessed it--University of Kentucky basketball. This is pretty much the lone reason I make it through the cold winter months without going insane, or clinically insane, I should say. The Cats do tend to get me off kilter from time to time, but that is just a figure of speech—part of the fun. Yeah…right. Another season brings another round of high hopes and aspirations for a group of guys who really didn’t realize what they have gotten themselves into by signing letters of intent to play for UK.

I have been found guilty and I will point my finger at each one of you and say that you too have been guilty of the infraction of placing unrealistic expectations on the Wildcats. I have been labeled as a Tubby Basher. It is true and I will not deny it. My aim is for atonement. This year I pledge, and this could be a New Year’s Resolution type thing, to not ask for anyone’s termination from any coaching position. Critiquing their decisions will not be on display by myself, but this will not mean that I will agree with their decisions. I admit they know more about the game than I do. Those in charge have been students of this game far longer than I have. One can arguably say that Kentucky has been competitive in the past three years. They have not achieved the ultimate goal in NCAA basketball year in and year out, but that would be unrealistic.

I plan to do something about my expectations. Not necessarily lower them, but I will redefine them as to what is rational and realistic. Let’s see what I can find acceptable by the conservative Wildcats fan.

I hope Tubby’s crew is at least competitive in each game they play. I don’t think it would be unheard of to be able to leave Rupp Arena halfway through the second half of an exhibition game because we were blowing a poor NAIA or NCAA Division II school out of the Bluegrass. Let’s not have any more games like the Georgetown College game last November where it wasn’t apparent we would win until three minutes left in the game. I hope the Cats are in peak physical condition when the regular season starts. This would be slightly uncommon for a Tubby Smith team, but I have faith that this past year has inspired something in the regime to try something different. This year I aspire for the Cats to either finish second in the SEC East Division and possibly finish runner-up in the SEC Tournament. To make it to the semi-final round of the SEC Tournament this year would not be a bad thing. I predict the SEC conference will the best conference in college basketball this season. I think it is not outlandish for UK to have at least twenty-two wins this season. I also think the Cats should make it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament come this March.

These are my hopes of this season to come. Some may say, “Jdeezy, don’t you think those goals are a little lax?”

Answer: “Given the track record of this basketball team’s administration combined with the University of Kentucky’s leadership as a whole, divided by the current trend of diluted talent in NCAA Division I basketball, I would say no.”

In the end, I will remind you that I pay to go to Kentucky’s basketball games. Therefore, I reserve the right to run my trap in a negative manner about any and all circumstance(s) that is or are surrounding the team. Let’s just see how long I can stick to my resolve.

I will leave you with a final statistic that was brought to my attention this week by a co-worker. Last season, Orlando “Tubby” Smith’s Wildcats earned the worst record in SEC play in 16 years. Sixteen years ago was Rick Pitino’s first year as head coach at UK(1989-90). That season the team went 14 and 14 overall. After that, Pitino never lost more than seven games in an entire season.

I bite my lip.

Go Baby Go!!!

Rain could not stop the tailgating fun we constructed over on Hospital Drive Saturday afternoon. We found a prime spot beside the hospital’s parking garage. We got out of our vehicles, started unloading the food, the chairs, and my cooler and it began to rain. I had brought my Columbia rain gear to wear along with a heavy-duty poncho for Beth to wear. Brandon and Dawn neglected to bring their full rain gear, so Dawn took off on a mission. After an hour, several phone calls, and approximately eight text messages later, Dawn returned. She had in the back seat of the Jeep a tent fit for tailgating kings. It took us about ten minutes to figure out how to assemble it and, WHAMMY, dry we were.

Central Michigan fans somehow found their way 800 plus miles to Lexington to tailgate right beside us. What were the chances? They were cool, though. They were definitely students and their trek to watch this game in the rain was quite admirable. I helped them park their vehicle and chuckled to myself as they tried to light their grill in the rain. All this while we grubbed out on our KFC, dryly, under our tent. I will tell you, tailgating takes some skill, some preparation, and some determination. We had all of the above. The CMU kids beside us had one of the above.

Gametime.

The rain had finally stopped. UK finally started. The Cats jumped on the board hard and early. The problem started when UK gabbed a two-touchdown lead. Mike Archer calls for his infamous Prevent D to keep the CMU Chippewa’s in the game. Did he think we wanted to see a close game? Did he want to put more pressure on the Cat’s offense? Did he think that we, in this big town of LexVegas, wouldn’t be able to find more excitement elsewhere? Who knows? I do know this guy needs to be canned. Kentucky gave up over 400 passing yards alone to the CMU back-up quarterback. I will run this by you one more time. The second string QB of a MAC school put up 400 passing yards on UK. Yeah. Now, who’s with me? The win seems a little bittersweet now, huh?

I don’t think that South Carolina’s defense this coming Saturday will be so nice as to let us score at will. Another thing, if we think that the CMU offense was tough, how about a Steve Spurrier offense that put up over 40 points against the Cats last year? Archer, you had better be adding a few more stunts to your defense…and more often.

I will be in attendance at this Saturday’s game. I hope I won’t be disappointed. I hope Rich Brooks learned something from the CMU game. I hope it doesn’t rain. The rain thing is the worst of my worries.

The family reunion is this weekend. It should be a great time. Good food and the family, a winning combination.

OH SNAP!!!

Opening Day for the fall meet at Keeneland is this Friday. Guess who will be there, once again. It will be none other than the horseplayer extraordinaire, JDeezy, and the Rhodes. Holla if ya hear me. You might as well take the day off, too. Come on. We’ll grab us a good spot over by the finish line and rake in some cash. Heck, maybe Jonathan can line us up some box seat tickets from his aunt. What do you say, Jonathon?

To get ready for Friday, Beth and I stopped by Keeneland on Sunday for their Open House for the new polytrack surface. They were offering fifty-cent hot dogs and quarter cokes. How could anyone pass that up? The surface was really weird to walk on. It was similar to carpet that had too much padding underneath. I picked some of it up so I could feel it. It was greasy and had the consistency of sand with a few fibers running through it.

“Good afternoon racing fans and welcome to another exciting afternoon of racing at Keeneland. We have ten races slated for today’s race card, with three races on the Haggin Turf Course and seven on the new all-weather main track. The turf course will be rated as firm and the main course will be rated as fast. Remember to hold all tickets until each race is official. Good luck and have a great afternoon of racing today here at Keeneland.”

Who you like today?