Beech Tree News Network

The exhibitions are over.  Friday, it counts.  College basketball season begins! Utah Valley, Vermont and Kansas are the first three games for my Cats.  I cut a schedule out of the Cats’ Pause magazine, of which I’ve had a subscription for many years. 
I’ve been a Kentucky Wildcats fan all my life.  It’s a sickness, really.  Well, it’s seen as a sickness by those who aren’t basketball fans, or sports at all.  My best friend thinks I’m crazy.  Well, for more than just being a crazy Cat fan.  I’m sure a lot of my fellow fans, even if it isn’t Kentucky fans, have origin stories of how and when they first recall becoming a basketball fan, or fan of any sport or any team.
I’ve mentioned when I became a St Louis Cardinals fan.  Well, my Kentucky Wildcats fandom goes back WAY beyond the STL fandom.  Near as I can tell, my fandom began when Kentucky basketball was still on probation.  Ironically, then-Kentucky coach Rick Pitino has switched sides from rescuing a program put on probation to being a casualty of, and primary reason(probably) for said probation(or whatever comes). 
I really got interested in the early-mid ‘90’s teams of Jeff Brassow, Richie Farmer, Jared Prickett, Gimel Martinez and, later, Mark Pope.  Side note about Mark Pope: my sister went to UK at that time, it turned out to be their 1996 national championship season.  The Sunday after the game, we ate breakfast at a Lexington Shoney’s.  We had the buffet because, come on, you have the buffet when it’s offered.  Who was I behind in the buffet line but Mark Pope.  I ended up getting my UK hat autographed by Mr. Pope.  And yes, I still have it.  It’s been protected in a bag ever since.  In 2012, after that championship season, I met Eloy Vargas at Grif’s Deli in Bowling Green.  After he was named coach, I met Coach Cal at a Barnes & Noble book signing.   Super-fan? Me? Nah!
I remember being as elated the night Kentucky won their 1996 national championship as I was dejected when they got jobbed against Duke in 1992.  Just now I replayed the scene in my mind when the Duke guy stomped on the Kentucky guy and wasn’t called for it.  We’d get sweet revenge in the 1998 Regional, though.  A 14 year championship gap might not seem too bad to some.  Well, imagine seeing your first championship won by your team.  I was 16 going on 17 when the Cats won their first title since ’78, a year before I was born. 
College football is fine but college basketball, for me, is the big thing.  I always anticipate Big Blue Madness, the first game of the season and all of the “big ones”(Kansas, UCLA, et al).  God knows I have plenty of Kentucky shirts to wear.  In fact, come tournament time, I always wear a different shirt each game.  So, yeah, I’m a super-fan.  Are you ready? I am! GO CATS!!!!