Missing the Madness: UK fans must adjust to ‘blank year’ without campout
Each fall for about the last 15 years, retired postal worker Marsha Poe has come from Louisville to camp out for tickets to Big Blue Madness. Anticipating Kentucky canceling the campout this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, she got an idea while on a visit to Lexington earlier this month.
She remembered saying to her daughter, Kendall Poe, “Let me go sit down in a chair on the Avenue of Champions. Just let me sit out there in the sun for a couple hours.”
With the idea blossoming in her mind, Marsha thought she could hold up a sign saying “Camp Out 2020” as Kendall took her picture in front of Memorial Coliseum.
Kendall balked.
“’How about we just don’t?’” she remembered saying to her mother. “I said, ‘You’re nuts. People are going to look at us, like, we’re crazy.’ I said, none of the students are even going to get any of this. They’ll just be (thinking), what are these crazy women doing out here taking pictures of a lawn chair?
“Let’s leave the memories with the memories. And we’ll create new ones when the time comes.”
Memories are all fans will have this year after UK canceled this year’s Madness campout. In talking to seven people who have camped out for years, they spoke of the experience being a “family reunion” and “the highlight of the fall” and “one big party.”
The Madness campout was the site for a wedding one year.
Angela McCoy recalled Tyrese Maxey, Immanuel Quickley and Kahlil Whitney singing and dancing along to a song that played as they signed basketballs for fans last year. “It was a good time,” McCoy said.
Kendall Poe recalled playing cornhole with Willie Cauley-Stein as her partner. “He was so tall,” she said. “I was, like, I need you to meet me halfway. It was hard to communicate with him.”
Jessie James — yes, that’s her name — started leaving her Greenup County home to camp out for Madness tickets at age 75. Now 83, she chuckled as she said the UK cheerleaders called her “grandma.” She has looked the part at campouts by spending the time knitting. “Dishcloths,” she said. “That’s handy and easy. It doesn’t take that long to do it. And I try to do a lot of blue ones.”
Her husband of 56 years, Harlen James, got her interested in UK basketball.
“I could write a book on memories,” she said of her campout experiences. “This is just going to be a blank year, I guess.”
Tommy Mullins, 36, said he has camped out in each of the last 16 years. He did not like UK canceling the tradition this year, but he said he understood.
“With it being a college campus, it does play on my mind a lot,” he said of the pandemic. “With that many kids, students, athletes, teachers and professors all being on campus, I understand them not having campout.”
Mullins, who works in sales and lives in Winchester, said he held out hope that tents could be socially distanced in a setup adjusted for COVID-19 protection.
But Marsha Poe said that keeping tents six or more feet apart probably would not guarantee safety this year. “They’ve still got to protect the players” from fans eager to mingle, she said.
When asked how she would fill her time without a campout, Kendall said, “Well, I’m going to use the time I’d usually devote to camping out to sleeping since I usually don’t get any sleep during campouts.”
Kendall Poe found the early years of John Calipari’s time as UK coach the most fun. “Before they realized these crazy people are too close to the players,” she said of UK officials.
Never mind COVID-19, UK’s dependence on one-and-done players led to a form of social distancing between players and fans, she said. “We like seeing our friends more than we do the players. Half the time the past couple years, we don’t even know the players anymore.”
Meanwhile, some of the campers have talked about a substitute reunion: a dinner together at a Lexington restaurant.
“Just to say there’s no campout,” Kendall Poe said, “but there’s still camaraderie.”
Fanning a rivalry
When Kentucky plays at Louisville this coming season, there presumably will be a limited number of fans — if any — in the Yum Center. When Louisville plays at Kentucky in (hopefully) post-pandemic 2021-22, UK fans will presumably fill Rupp Arena.
“Where is the equity?” U of L Coach Chris Mack asked while appearing on a recent Pure Hoops Media podcast.
Mack suggested this season’s game be moved to a neutral site with the inference being the rivalry returns to home-and-home when both teams can expect big crowds.
UK Coach John Calipari acknowledged speaking to Mack, then said in a statement, “We are prepared to come to Louisville to play this season under the previously agreed upon terms, and we fully expect Louisville to honor the agreement with a return game to Rupp Arena next season.
“We are honoring those contracts even if it is with little or no fans. It is no one’s fault we are in a pandemic.”
Calipari noted that Kentucky will play Notre Dame and an opponent in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in what’s expected to be a relatively empty Rupp Arena this coming season. Then UK would play at Notre Dame and at a Big 12 site the following season.
Mack could also claim to not be driven purely by self interest. On a Sept. 17 teleconference, he pointed out that U of L would have the advantage playing at Cincinnati this coming season and then being host to the Bearcats in 2021-22.
“If you’re (Cincinnati Coach) John Brannen, you don’t feel very good about that,” Mack said.
Rick Leddy, a spokesman for the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said the organization has pondered a 2020-21 season that seems ripe with unfairness. “There is no doubt that there will be many instances of competitive balance issues throughout this season,” he wrote in an email. “That includes the amount of testing with great variations in the schools’ ability and wherewithal to test.”
Calipari seemed to question Mack’s motives. “My hope is they are not trying to end this series because it is important for this state that we play,” the UK coach said.
Mack all but gushed about the UK-U of L rivalry.
“I recognize and we recognize, man, the best rivalry — I know I’m biased — in all of college basketball,” he said on the podcast.
Stubborn
Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann said scheduling directly impacts the bottom line of winning or losing. So does recruiting and organizing a team.
So, he understands why UK and U of L might dig in on the question of the series.
“It’s just a really, really important part of our job,” Holtmann said of scheduling. “Myself included, we’re all stubborn when it comes to that. I get why Kentucky would want to keep the game (as is). And I get why Louisville would want to change it.”
Waiting game
The NCAA reportedly granted Olivier Sarr a waiver on the requirement that transfers sit out a season, but he will need a second waiver to play for Kentucky in 2020-21.
An SEC rule — 14.1.15 Two-Year Eligibility — says that players who have less than two seasons of remaining eligibility when they enroll at a league school must fulfill “a residence requirement” of one full academic year before being eligible.
The SEC can grant a waiver if the player’s previous school has discontinued the sport or the player is transferring “for the purpose of enrolling in an academic program not offered” at the previous school. Neither applies to Sarr. But waivers can be requested for other reasons.
Meanwhile, other players need waivers from the NCAA and SEC in order to play this coming season (assuming there is a season). Mississippi State guard Javian Davis played at Alabama last season as a redshirt freshman. In transferring from one SEC school to another, he’d need a waiver from the league as well as the NCAA to play in 2020-21.
LSU is seeking a waiver for Shareef O’Neal (Shaquille O’Neal’s son), who transferred from UCLA and has two years of eligibility remaining.
Happy birthday
To Rodrick Rhodes. He turned 47 on Thursday. … To Matt Heissenbuttel. He turned 39 on Thursday. … To Cliff Berger. He turned 74 on Friday. … To Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. He turned 27 on Saturday. … To Riley Welch. He turned 23 on Saturday. … To Jeff Sheppard. He turns 46 on Tuesday. … To Ronnie Lyons. He turns 68 on Wednesday.
This story was originally published September 27, 2020 at 10:41 AM.
