Dick Weiss
By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky coach John Calipari caught a lot of flak nationally — and even from a Lexington Herald-Leader political cartoon — for saying Kentucky was a “non-traditional†program and couldn’t lock itself into long-term series after Indiana and UK could not agree on continuing their annual series and the UK-North Carolina series was stopped for at least one year. But New York Daily News columnist Dick “Hoops” Weiss, one of the nation’s most respected college basketball writers, says Kentucky has never had a “traditional†basketball program.
He cited former UK coach Adolph Rupp’s involvement with the Olympics and progressive thinking to run a fast break and do other things. He noted that former UK coach Joe Hall built Wildcat Lodge, a luxurious spot for players to live on camp, and also took players across the state to play preseason intrasquad scrimmages. He also started Midnight Madness. Weiss said former UK coach Rick Pitino went to more neutral site games and even hired Bernadette Locke-Mattox to be on his staff.
“He feels he runs a non-traditional program at Kentucky, but that’s what Kentucky basketball has always been. It’s why Kentucky is what it is. It sets standards,†Weiss said. “John wants to play games that will have his team ready to respond in Final Four settings and not be inexperienced playing in domes like this team was two years ago in Houston.
“I don’t disagree with his reasoning for not playing home and home with Indiana. Kentucky offered to play two years at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis that could accommodate an extra 15,000 to 20,000 fans. I frankly do not have a problem with that. Obviously, (Indiana coach) Tommy (Crean) wants home-and-home. But you never know who will be better off. UK is going to be a totally different team next year. They won’t have three guys back who have played in the Final Four. John has his reasons for what he’s doing and I understand them.â€
15 Responses to Hoops Weiss says Kentucky has always been non-traditional program, understands UK not playing Indiana
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I am an older fan who places a certain amount of value on tradition. Regional intersectional rivalries are good for UK, as long as they are conducted in a prudent manner. I, for one, would like to see the UK-IU series continue. Frankly, I was disappointed when the UK-IU football series was discontinued following the 2005 season. Given a choice, I would actually rather play IU than UL, since a rivalry series with a regional Big Ten school makes more sense than fencing with Tom Jurich and his band of outlaws. At least IU has respectable D-1 admission standards.
However, UK fans must understand that there is a whole lot of longstanding bad blood between the UK and IU athletics departments. You can go all the way back to December 7, 1974, when Bobby Knight slapped Joe B. Hall at the scorer’s table during IU’s victory over UK in Bloomington. UK repaid that disrespectful gesture by upsetting the Hoosiers in the NCAA Tournament later that same season. Even so, there was not so much as an apology for the physical contact against Hall by Knight, which would never fly today.
Since then, there have been many instances of abusive fan behavior in Bloomington against UK players and coaches. Last December 10, an angry IU mob swarmed the floor at Assembly Hall following IU’s 73-72 overtime victory. There was no security. UK players and coaches were surrounded and accosted. If Coach Calipari and his staff had not acted quickly to get the Cats through the mob and into UK’s locker room, there might have been injuries. IU has made absolutely no effort to get this stuff under control.
That is why Mitch Barnhart proposed playing future UK-IU games at neutral sites. Evidently, that arrangement didn’t suit IU, so the Hoosiers rudely pulled out of the negotiations. Mitch was right to stand his ground. This series should continue at some future time, but not until IU steps up to the plate and exercises a more responsible and mature custodial role. Perhaps IU’s leadership knows the Hoosiers can’t beat UK on a neutral floor, and maybe this is ultimately be about jealousy. But jealousy isn’t the controlling issue anymore. It’s all about event security and revenue.
In the meantime, complaints that UK is “afraid” of IU are complete nonsense. UK will fill that slot on the schedule with another top opponent. Coach Calipari intends to win #9 as soon as possible, so it would make no sense for Mitch and to weaken UK’s schedule. The real objective here is to clean the riff raff off the schedule, while taking advantage of opportunities to create more revenue.
Well stated Messenger!
I get so sick and tired of some of the media labeling this as KY’s fault. IU was the team that end the series. They stopped the negotiations and deserve 100% of the blame! This is the old Denny Crum tactic of causing the problem and then blaming KY. This has been true since 1972, and it is not fair or responsible on the media’s part.
This same tactic has been used against Cal as well! Keep throwing mud at him and try and make him look dirty, even though none of it was of Cal’s doing!
Let’s just get the fact’s straight and quit this sensatonal form of false news reporting. It is time to hold the guilty media responsible.
good points by “hoops”. uk sets trends.
As someone (I won’t name him, but his initials are JVC) said recently, “We don’t move the needle, we ARE the needle!”
I’ll miss the rivalry for personal reasons. I grew up next to IU alums. They were my first “adult friends” (not in an afterschool special way though). We always had friendly bets on the UK-IU game – I once had to use IU headcovers on my golf clubs when the Hoosiers won the annual game.
But for a large part of my life the game was played at neutral sites. The Hoosier Dome games were awesome. And for a while wasn’t there some sort of deal where UK and UL alternated playing IU and Notre Dame in some sort of “Big 4″ event?
Tom Crean (sp?) whipped that fanbase into a frenzy in the media and on Twitter before the game. I never saw a tweet where he said “root for your team, but act respectful”. He has at least 10% of the blame for the behavior of the IU fans at last December’s game.
UK does need to play in large venues at neutral sites to prepare for the tournaments. They will still play marquee games. They’ll still get plenty of hostile road games during SEC play – but at least those places don’t leave fans feeling unsafe.
We are LEADERS AND INNOVATORS NOT FOLLOWERS AND COPYKATS! ! !
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. GO BLUE OR STAY HOME!!!!!!!
We are the BIG BLUE MEASURING STICK, by which all others are judged and subsequently found NOT WORTHY.
IU needs to look in the mirror and realize who is at fault here. And also that they really look ridiculous in those candy-striper warm-ups.
The media blames UK for everything. That’s really not a surprise IMO. And if you look around not one single national story even mentions the problems at the Bloomington game. They are doing what the press always does.
Why do they do it? Because they are scared to death that UK is going to own college basketball completely. And they have good reason to fear that. Their huffing and puffing is a badge of honor IMO. They don’t do these things to Morehead. There’s a reason for that.
The more trophies UK brings home the worse it will get. Bring it on. UK has been there before.
Traditionally Non-Traditional! I Like it!
I like that myself Bassmanb3
i think crean has done a good job at iu so far , but i think he created that scene in bloomington. I think, i think , not speaking for anyone else, he liked that type of atmosphere, where as under knight that never would have happened, and thats not a backhanded compliment toward knight, he just kept the fans at a distance. In watching interviews of crean , i do not get a great sense of humility. But it sure seems like he wants hands on by his student body, to create a imposing college scene. You should not have to fear for your personal safety at a sporting event in america, but those boundaries have been stepped over many times now.
I think you’re right there grant. I think this will come back to bite IU eventually too. They have already lost UK as a game. I can’t imagine any other school wanting to endure that sort of thing at Bloomington either. They say Kansas has been “begging” for a game for years. First I don’t believe that. Second, IU won’t beat Bill Self very often. IU is one player away from being irrelevant again. And third, I think the first time KU’s fans get a taste of Bloomington, they won’t want another. I doubt the IU fans will treat them as bad as UK fans but it will be bad. And Crean did seem to enjoy what happened a little too much so expect him to encourage more of the same.
I don’t think Louisville would really want to play at Bloomington either. That doesn’t leave too many power conference schools in the region for UL.
I really think IU will develop the reputation they deserve with UK out of the picture a few years. It will be like WVU trying to schedule teams to come to Morgantown for a football game. No team in their right mind will do it. They had to join a weak football conference to get anyone to play there. They have been famous since at the least the 50′s. And I’ve heard specifics too. It isn’t like the general “Cal cheats” stuff you hear.
I used to and I’ll repeat that “used to” have in-laws that lived in lower Indiana and believe me they can be what you saw at Bloomington. We had some very heated discussions when KY would beat IU and I’m glad I don’t have that anymore. To me Crean has fallen into the same mold as Booby Knight and I would venture to say that his and Cal’s relationship is not as good as it once was.
When you watch interviews by cal he reps his school and himself with the utmost of respect and always , always gives plenty of repect to his opponent, almost to a fault sometimes, there is a big difference between crean and cal , although cal is to classy to say it. Both coaches are feeding their fans bases needs, just in completely different ways.
Cal is trying to set up the schedule just like Duke has been doing for years, yet no one fussed over them doing it. Schedule games vs high quality opponents in neutral Dome sites. Just like the NCAA tourney. Seems smart to me and is another way Cal is out-thinking a lot of other coaches.