I laugh when I read the comments of some of you "old guys" back to the Pitino era. He was great and if he had made some adjustments and had remained, we'd have 2 or 3 more banners hanging right now. He was before his time and on the cutting edge. A master at Xs and Os and preparation...which brings me to you "old guys." I actually am an old guy. I started with the greatest master Coach Rupp when Cotton Nash was the man. I experienced the Runts. I was at UK and involved in the program in the painful transition between Coach Rupp and Joe B. I was before every game being on television, social media, fan sites like this, ESPN, and on and on. My outlet was listening to Claude and Cawood on the radio and when I moved away from Kentucky listening to WHAS or WCKY and sometimes having a helluva time hearing on a bad atmospheric nite. Reading material was the Lexington or Louisville papers. Occasionally Sports Illustrated...And the ultimate was every once in a while, a gift my Dad gave me, tickets to a game a Memorial Coliseum. I knew because of being an old man that because the old day nuisances of Kentucky basketball being so much of my makeup starting with Rupp, that so much of that strong tie was melting away with the previous regime. If you weren't around pre-Pitino, you missed so much the core of what Kentucky basketball meant if you acquired it in the old days. You were relieved and knew that Mitch had done the right thing by hiring Pope. You knew it was the right thing when you saw the big blue madness and you saw Adrian Smith in a walker and Cliff Hagans daughter hold his arm to escort him out to mid court to show support for Pope and Kentucky basketball coming back. Even before the Duke game, us old guys knew we were back. The victory the other night proved it. It matters again. As Joe B. said, Kentucky basketball is a way of life. That way of Life had been taken away from an old guys perspective. Its back now. I feel certain that Mark Pope will go down as the 3rd best coach our program ever had. Thank you Rick Pitino for talking Mark Pope into becoming a Kentucky Wildcat.
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