The Kentucky basketball fans at Vanderbilt are a different kind of Kentucky fans
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Game day: No. 17 Kentucky 109, Vanderbilt 77
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee.
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After Kentucky basketball’s 109-77 beatdown of the poor Vanderbilt Commodores on Tuesday night, John Calipari mentioned something Tom Leach had told him on the postgame show.
“Tom said with Kentucky fans it’s either Defcon 1 or Defcon 5,” repeated the UK coach of the radio play-by-play man’s comment. “There’s no in between.”
The Kentucky fans who flooded Vandy’s Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday night weren’t deterred by either one. First, they clogged traffic around the Vanderbilt campus. What is normally a half-hour trip from the Nashville suburb of Goodlettsville turned into an hour and 40 minute ordeal filled with honking horns. By the time this reporter made it to his media seat in the “Crow’s Nest” high above the floor, introductions had just been completed.
“Do you work for Toyota?” Kentucky’s video coordinator, Tim Asher, asked me at halftime. “Just-in-time delivery.”
Wait a minute? Was this not the same Kentucky basketball team going down the tubes? Had it not lost three of its last four games, including back-to-back SEC games? AT HOME? Had it not scored 91 points in one game and 92 points in the other and still LOST? Weren’t we witnessing the umpteenth episode of “Cats In Crisis?”
All that did nothing to keep the Big Blue faithful away Tuesday. If Kentucky fans did not outnumber Vanderbilt fans in the quirky old gym, it was at least a 50-50 split. The Nashville precinct of BBN loudly cheered Kentucky’s scorching shooting start — 10 made three-pointers out of the first 12 attempts. It roared with delight when the halftime acrobatic act Red Panda successfully stacked bowls atop her head flipped from her foot while riding a unicycle. It went nuts over Big Z’s three-pointer, Jordan Burks’ hustle plays and Justin Edwards’ breakaway windmill dunk.
Justin Edwards? Yes, Justin Edwards. The top-10 prospect who has struggled to find his game as a collegian scored a career-high 17 points after a “tweak” to his game according to Calipari. Tweak? Of course. “He wants me to look to pass first and the open shots will come,” Edwards said afterward.
Jordan Burks? Yes, Jordan Burks. The sparsely used freshman came off the bench to score 13 points and grab five rebounds in just 15 minutes. And for those speculating about supposed problems in the UK locker room, the only problem Tuesday night was keeping the Wildcats on the bench from spilling too far out on the floor when celebrating Burks’ hustle plays.
Big Z? Yes, Zvonimir Ivisic. After finally being able to practice for two consecutive days, the Croatian sensation returned as Ivisic scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 12 minutes. He’s not Jokic, but when healthy and used in the right spots, Big Z can make an impact.
In the end, Kentucky averaged 1.479 points per possession, the highest PPP in the Calipari era against an SEC team and third-highest overall. (The 1.517 vs. Florida A&M on Dec. 21, 2022, is the highest.) The Cats did so without starters D.J. Wagner (ankle) and Tre Mitchell (back).
I know. Pump the brakes, please. Vandy was the competition. Now 1-8 in the SEC Vandy. Jerry Stackhouse-on-the-hot-seat Vandy. The Commodores were overwhelmed from tipoff to final horn. “We ran into a hot team, a desperate team,” Stackhouse said afterward.
To be sure, BBN was hot after last week’s Defcon-1 losses to Florida and Tennessee, but that wasn’t necessarily the faction in Music City. The fans at UK at Vandy games are primarily UK fans from Western Kentucky who don’t make it to Rupp Arena, or can’t get seats at Rupp Arena, all that often. Just being there is a celebration.
“Our fans, they’re unbelievable,” Calipari said. “It’s part of the reason I imagine we’ve had some success up here, we walk in and half the building is blue. And they’re really into basketball and really into Kentucky.”
And all that goes with Kentucky basketball.
“If you’re going to coach at Kentucky or play for Kentucky, you better deal with it because it is not changing,” Calipari said. “And I imagine it’s been that way for 50 years.”
At least.
This story was originally published February 7, 2024 at 12:14 PM.
