Monday, December 27, 2010

An Open Letter to Louisville Fans

I posted this message over at Rupp's Rafters, the primary message board for UK basketball fans. I'm re-posting it here because UK plays U of L on Friday, and this statement summarizes my view of Louisville and its fans:


Dear Louisville Fans:

Over the next week, I expect a lot of you will be on this board, or on your board -- or maybe even around the family Christmas table -- accusing UK of being a pack of cheating, lying thieves with evil, hateful fans. These allegations will increase in number and intensity if we beat you next week. I am writing to remind you that there is a very simple solution to your problems: you could stop playing UK. You could start a home-and-home series with a program that you respect and admire, and interact with a different set of opposing fans.

This whole series was your idea. UK didn't want to play U of L, and speaking for myself, I personally would be happy if the two schools never played again. To be honest, I don't think we get much out of the game. We have played you every regular season since 1983-84 -- a total of 27 games. In those 27 games, you have been ranked ahead of us only five times (1984, 1988, 1989, 2005, 2009). We have been ranked ahead of you 18 times. In other words, the typical UK/U of L game is one in which you guys are trying to pull an upset that would make your whole year, and in which we are simply trying to avoid being embarrassed. Obviously, such a series does little to help our recruiting, our stature on the national stage, our chances of winning the national title, or anything that we really care about.

Some of you insist that the game is a great national rivalry that gives more publicity to both schools. This is not true. Since 1983-84, there have been 13 different occasions when we brought a top-10 team into the U of L game. You were ranked in the top 10 only three of those times (1983, 1992, and 1993). That's three top-10 match-ups in 27 years. We won all three of those games by at least 8 points, and we won two of them by 20 points or more. Not exactly Duke-Carolina.

Finally, some of you insist that the game is a great "rivalry" like Auburn-Alabama. Again, this is not true. I grew up in a town over four hours' driving time from Louisville. People in my home town rarely went to Louisville, and we certainly didn't know Louisville fans. Many Kentuckians across the state could tell a similar story. I don't consider U of L a "rival" and never will. In fact, I would be perfectly happy to root for U of L in the same spirit that I root for Western, Murray State, and other in-state schools -- if you guys would simply go your own way and leave us alone.

I realize, of course, that not all UK fans agree with me. Some of them enjoy the game. But for me, it is a huge waste of space on the schedule that could be given to a home-and-home with a school like Kansas or Michigan State. You Cardinal fans wanted the game, you whined to every reporter for years and years to get the game, and you use it as the measuring stick of your program. The least you could do, it seems to me, is drop all the complaining about UK and its fans.

3 comments:

  1. What kind of response did you get?

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  2. this is outstanding. outstanding.

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  3. You should follow the link. They ended up doing a poll on the message board. So far, about 60 percent of responders agree that the U of L series does nothing for UK and should be dropped, while 40 percent support the view that it's one of the best non-conference series in America and UK's biggest non-conference game of the year. So most folks agree with me.

    I wrote this, in large part, because I am sick and tired of seeing this game treated like some sort of "rivalry" by the Kentucky press. It's not a true rivalry; it's a game that one school is forced to play due to political pressure. I don't see any reason to pretend otherwise.

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