Marlana VanHoose, a $10,000 shot, an SEC title — UK basketball’s Saturday had it all
For a game that could clinch the SEC basketball title, Kentucky brought out the big guns on Saturday.
There was the incomparable Marlana VanHoose, the epitome of “big things can come in small packages” belting out the national anthem. I don’t care how many times you’ve heard Ms. VanHoose sing “The Star Spangled Banner”, if a goosebump doesn’t pop up somewhere, you must be dead inside.
Then there was Nick Hostetter, the recent UK graduate who hit a half-court shot to win $10,000, the first person to do so after an entire season of contestants trying and failing, often badly. Once the ball fell through the net, Hostetter commenced frantically racing around the Rupp Arena floor as if his clothes were on fire.
Afterward, when Immanuel Quickley was told there was a rumor Hostetter had previously won a year of Raising Cane’s by hitting a similar shot, UK’s star guard seemed just as impressed by that prize. “I’d tear those up,” Quickley said.
At halftime, Rupp busted out the cute. A group of crawling babies, dressed in horse costumes, of course, were lined up to supposedly race across the floor to a beckoning family member on the other side. Only a couple made it off their mats, however. And only one made it to the finish line. Still, the crowd of 20,636 melted into a pool of pure “awww.”
And, oh yeah, they also played a basketball game Saturday. No. 8 Kentucky defeated No. 15 Auburn 73-66. And by doing so, the Wildcats wrapped up the SEC regular-season championship, the 49th time that the program with the “greatest tradition in the history of college basketball” has accomplished that feat.
And, yes, it’s a feat well worth celebrating.
I know, I know, John Calipari downplays such things. Bigger fish to fry, says the UK coach. March Madness is what truly matters. The Friday before Saturday’s game, he referred to the upcoming conference tournament as “an obligation” his Cats had to fulfill for the Big Blue multitude that will commandeer Music City next week. Again.
Excuse me, however, for thinking the Cats should stop and smell the roses, if only for a minute. Just because an SEC basketball title qualifies as a “been there, done that” on the Cats’ annual checklist — 49 times, yikes — doesn’t mean we should devalue the accomplishment. Especially now.
After all, in recent years the SEC has poured a lot of time, effort and cold, hard cash into improving its roundball product. To that end, league teams have gone out and hired a plethora of coaches with proven track records. Besides Calipari, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, Georgia’s Tom Crean, Mississippi State’s Ben Howland, South Carolina’s Frank Martin and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl all have Final Four appearances on their résumé.
Will Wade won the league regular-season title last year, though the then-suspended LSU coach wasn’t around to witness the event. Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams, Ole Miss’ Kermit Davis, Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin, Arkansas’ Eric Musselman, Alabama’s Nate Oats and Florida’s Mike White have all won in the past, and should do so again. (Vandy’s Jerry Stackhouse has a lot of work to do.)
And yet, Kentucky wears the regular-season crown again anyway. That’s the same Kentucky that in the non-conference section of the season lost to Evansville, which just completed its own 0-18 Missouri Valley Conference season. “All I hear about is Evansville, Evansville, Evansville,” lamented Calipari on Sunday. “Didn’t anybody else play a bad game?”
There was another Evansville connection Saturday, courtesy of the new president of the UK Basketball Fan Club. That would be Pearl, the Auburn coach who in his postgame press conference called Kentucky “very undervalued” and claimed he could be rooting for the Cats to make a deep March run.
At the end of his time at the podium, Pearl got a bit choked up taking about his postgame plans to travel to Evansville to help his 1995 University of Southern Indiana team celebrate the 25th anniversary of its Division II national championship on Saturday night.
“I’ve been blessed to coach a lot of basketball in Kentucky,” Pearl said. “Basketball matters here.”
So do titles.
Next game
Tennessee at No. 8 Kentucky
9 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN)
