By LARRY VAUGHT

One nice thing about covering Kentucky basketball is the never-ending interest in the Wildcats, especially with the recent arrival of John Calipari to rebuild enthusiasm for UK.

That’s why I was happy that Michael Lee of Big Blue Nation Report took time to introduce himself during the Kentucky-Campbellsville exhibition game. He’s part of a new website at www.bigbluenationreport.com along with his brother, Jeremy Lee, and Austin Martin that I found  interesting.

He said he starting reading my work when Oscar Combs hired me as a Cats’ Pause columnist and his father let him read his copy after he was finished. “I’ve followed your current work through your website, and I’ve always enjoyed your coverage of UK sports,” Michael Lee said.

Naturally, I was curious how he started his website and what he hoped to accomplish. So here is his story.

“Our website was born from the love of three die-hard Kentucky fans from extreme western Kentucky (we’re actually further west than Paducah, if you can believe that.)  Deep down, we’re just regular guys that just happen to love UK quite a bit.

“There were a handful of sites out there that were sort of doing what we wanted to do, but we felt like we had a unique, blue-collar perspective of Kentucky sports, and that we could share our news and views from that angle.  Our site is literally ‘by the fans and for the fans.’  We noticed that UK bloggers had sort of lost their purpose. What is supposed to be writings about one’s ideas and personal views concerning UK sports had instead become countless sites recycling the same headlines and links over and over with very little originality or creativity, two things paramount for a true blog.

“Meanwhile, UK bloggers compete with one another and strive to be the one place all fans come to get the scoop.  While we certainly want to talk about the headlines and provide good links, we also want to have fun, be creative and share our personal views.  We also hope our readers get involved in the same.  Live blogs and message boards are already in the works, and we hope to continue to add that sort of interactivity so that  fans can feel like it’s their site, too, and that they have a voice to share their own views.”

How could I not like these guys? They have a sentiment much like I do as far as wanting a fan-friendly site that is fun for everyone. Check out their site. After all, there could never be too many fan-friendly sites for the Big Blue faithful.

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