Does the Kentucky-Louisville basketball rivalry have universal appeal?
While reading the current contract for Kentucky’s next three games against Louisville, something caught the eye. The home team will own the television, pay-per-view, cable and internet rights for any and all portions of these games “throughout the universe.”
“That’s quite a claim,” said Thomas Troland, a professor of astronomy at the University of Kentucky. “I would have said just throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. I mean, that’s already hundreds of billions of stars and a lot of planets to go with it.”
For perspective: the Earth is about 26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way. Kentucky has been playing basketball for only 118 years.
“They want to go beyond the Milky Way Galaxy out to the Andromeda Galaxy,” Troland said. “That’s quite a reach, I’ve got to say.”
Andromeda is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way. In this case, close is a relative term. Troland offered a scale model.
The closest star to our sun is Proxima Centauri. If the sun was a pingpong ball at the front door of UK’s Craft Center, the Earth would be 12 feet away. Proxima Centauri would be in Orlando, Fla.
Herb Vincent, the Southeastern Conference’s associate commissioner for communications, said the term “throughout the universe” is standard language the league wants in contracts for all non-conference games in all sports.
“I guess in case we ever populate Mars, we’d still have the TV rights,” he quipped. A bit more seriously, Vincent said the language on broadcast rights is an attempt to have “all bases covered forever.”
Jeff Spoelker, U of L’s associate athletics director for finance, signed the contract for Louisville. He playfully suggested checking with aerospace manufacturer Elon Musk for clarification.
When asked if a reference to the universe was pretentious, Spoelker said, “Well, it’s pretty broad-based. If some new technology comes out in the next three years while our contract is still valid, well, they’re covered.”
The reference to the universe seems especially fitting for next Saturday’s Kentucky-Louisville game. With Monday night being the ideal time, stargazers can see what’s called the “Great Conjunction of 2020.” That’s when Jupiter and Saturn seemingly converge low in the southwest sky an hour or so after sunset.
The last time the two planets were so close in the sky was in 1623, which was about the time Galileo was first peeking at the heavens with his telescope, Troland said. Unfortunately, the planets were too close to the sun then to be seen from Earth.
The last time the “Great Conjunction” could be seen on Earth was on March 4, 1226.
“Bottom line, this is the first really close Jupiter-Saturn conjunction since the invention of basketball!!” Troland wrote in an email. “Talk about hoops history!”
Jupiter and Saturn on Monday. Kentucky and Louisville on Saturday. “It was cosmically meant to be!” Troland wrote.
One question: Is there alien life in the universe to appreciate the great basketball conjunction that is Kentucky versus Louisville?
“There has to be other intelligent life out there,” Troland said. “Because if the universe is infinite, then anything that is possible not only will happen, but it will happen multiple times.”
But would aliens care about basketball? The late astronomer Carl Sagan scoffed at our pretensions. From the perspective of outer space, the history of human conflict should be considered mites squabbling on the surface of a plum, he said.
When asked about alien interest in the on-court squabbling between UK and U of L, Troland playfully said, “I’d assume they’d be fascinated.”
But because radio and television signals travel at the speed of light and Proxima Centauri is about four light years away, the games aliens there currently see would show Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo playing lead roles for Kentucky.
However delayed the telecast, Troland could not resist saying of aliens, “They’d be very pro-Cats. Let’s face it. The very definition of intelligent civilization would mean they had no interest in Louisville winning. That would be contrary to the whole idea of them being intelligent.”
‘Virtual’ reality
UK announced that fans can buy “virtual” tickets this 2020-21 season.
No individual came up with the idea, assistant athletics director for communications and public relations Tony Neely wrote in an email. “Just our external group working on ways to engage the Big Blue Nation and follow up on industry trends to see which ones work for us and the fans.”
The effect will not resemble the NBA “bubble” with fans “seated” in the stands via Zoom.
Virtual ticket options range in cost from $30 to $100 each. Depending on the option, each virtual ticket purchase includes a variety of commemorative items, opportunity to win a pair of tickets to a home game later this season and to a non-conference football game in 2021.
More information is available at (859) 257-1818 (option 1) or at ukathletics.com/virtualsellout.
As for the cardboard cutouts in Rupp Arena, UK estimated that about 800 had been sold at the time of the opening game against Morehead State. That number had increased to about 1,600 for the game against Notre Dame last weekend, UK said.
Tap the brakes?
Early in the week as Keyontae Johnson was in a medically-induced coma, a reporter asked Kansas Coach Bill Self if the Florida player’s collapse on the court and subsequent hospitalization put basketball in perspective.
“I don’t know if that puts the brakes on everything,” Self said. “But we’ve got to start pumping the brakes because there are things out there way more important than trying to get games in to make sure your players can compete and your schools can maximize the very small financial things they can benefit from (by playing games).”
Chris Lofton
Maysville native and former Tennessee star Chris Lofton recently appeared on the debut podcast entitled “Big Vol’n.” It’s part of The Field of 68 network.
Lofton is living in Lexington, which prompted host (and former UT teammate) Dane Bradshaw to ask if UK fans often ask about Kentucky not showing recruiting interest.
“I get it a lot actually, more than you’d think,” said Lofton, who sported a full beard and wore a Vols T-shirt. “It’s almost 2021. (It was) 2004, and people still say that.”
To which Bradshaw playfully responded, “My defense for Tubby (Smith, then UK coach) is nobody else was recruiting your (butt) either.”
Cincinnati showed interest. Louisville did “a little bit earlier” in the recruiting process, Lofton said. “Kentucky already had the No. 1 recruiting class … So it was, ‘Do we need Chris? Not really.’”
Lofton, who led Mason County to the 2003 state championship and the finals of the 2004 tournament, was named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball for 2004. He holds the SEC record for most career three-point baskets with 431.
Lofton, 34, has played for teams based in Turkey, Spain, Russia, Lithuania and South Korea. He said he hoped to play one or two more seasons before trying to get into coaching.
Favorite places
On the “Big Vol’n” podcast, Dane Bradshaw asked Chris Lofton to name his favorite opponent to compete against and favorite place to play in college.
“I liked playing against Kentucky, of course,” Lofton said. “And I liked playing against Florida.”
Florida’s Rowdy Reptiles made an impression.
Bradshaw recalled students in the O’Connell Center wearing T-shirts bearing a picture of his sister. Lofton said the students’ taunts included references to his mother.
Said Bradshaw: “They said things that just made it personal, and made it more fun.”
‘Bunnies’
Before they competed on Dec. 1, both Kentucky and Kansas lamented missed shots around the basket in earlier games.
“I think some of that is nerves …,” UK assistant coach Joel Justus said after the Cats lost to Richmond. “They are guys who want to win. They’re trying too hard.”
Kansas missed several shots taken from close range in its loss to Gonzaga.
“We missed three or four that you would think (were) not automatic, but it’s two-foot putts or three-foot putts,” Kansas Coach Bill Self said. “And I missed plenty of those, believe me.
“Those are what I call bunnies.”
Belated happy birthday
To Thad Jaracz. He turned 74 on Dec. 15.
Happy birthday
To Wendell Lyons. He turned 68 on Thursday. … To former Arkansas coach Stan Heath. He turned 56 on Thursday. … To Myron Anthony. He turned 43 on Friday. … To Roger Harden. He turned 57 on Saturday. … To De’Aaron Fox. He turns 23 on Sunday (today) … To Jeff Brassow. He turns 50 on Sunday (today). … To Eric Manuel. He turns 53 on Monday. … To former Georgia coach Ron Jirsa. He turns 61 on Monday. … To Western Kentucky Coach Rick Stansbury. He turns 61 on Wednesday.
