So Long, Hoosiers

Next season, for the first time since the 1968-69 season, Kentucky will not play Indiana in a regular-season basketball game.  The usual suspects will undoubtedly use this event as yet another reason to bash UK and Coach Cal.  But Kentucky and Indiana athletic departments care a lot more about what their fans think than about what the media thinks.  And I think the fans just don't care that much about this game.  Since 1991, UK's record against IU was 17-5.  For us, it had become just another annoying game where we got very little credit for winning, but lots of blame for losing.  And as far as I can tell, the folks in Indiana have convinced themselves that Kentucky is literally the most evil place on earth, and that we are not worthy of to play their high-minded program (that just got off of probation).  Without fan pressure to continue the series, it was easy for the two schools to go in different directions.  And that's fine with me.  I don't think UK should have any long-term non-conference series; I would rather play a different set of teams every year.  And besides, UK leads the all-time series 32-24 and UK won the last game between the two schools.

I would say more about the series, but to be honest, out of all those games with Indiana, the only ones I really remember were our victories in the 1975 and 2012 NCAA tournaments.  Well that, and that Indiana once had a player named Uwe Blab.  So for me, at least, it just wasn't that big a deal.