My freshman year at UK in 99 was when I started following UK basketball. I lived out of state and like 99% of the rest of the country I was primarily a college football fan and didn’t really pay attention to bball until March. By sophomore year 00 I was hooked with big blue and was a rabid basketball fan. We lost to USC in the sweet sixteen that year like a-holes. Outside of 03 and 04 (which ended awful) I never really saw UK dominating or killing it until Cal, and unfortunately Tubby had the charisma of a sweet potato. All of Cals great moments and memories for me typically involved us overwhelming another team with talent (all of ‘12, UCLA and Kansas in 15, etc) or someone making a play (Knight and OSU in 11, Harrison in 14 tournament, etc).
Tuesday night was different. I thought and still do that Duke is much more talented, but we fought and were together and had great plays drew up and won. Won with pure heart and phenomenal X and O coaching. And then Popes analysis and strategy and passion. The whole thing is a completely different and new vibe for me after being a fan for 25 years. If this is what the Pitino years were like I can see why everyone was obsessed with his time here (I thought it was weird when I was at UK) but now I think I get it. I mean what a time to be a UK bball fam right now. What a home run Pope was.
