LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Transition remains for Mark Pope with No. 5 Kentucky and Pat Kelsey with Louisville, growing pains and all.
But judging from the intensity Saturday for the latest Bluegrass showdown, the first-year coaches have already succeeded in re-igniting excitement into their programs along with the rivalry that had recently become rather stagnant.
“I do think the rivalry is a little bit more important this year than in years past, because Louisville has had a lot of down years recently,” Kentucky senior and Louisville native Daniel Peterson said as he stood in one of several lines for Rupp Arena’s popular soft serve ice cream cones.
“This year, I feel like it matters more.”
Kentucky alum Lisa Finnell, another Louisville native, added, “With new coaches this year, I think it’s going to bring it back a little bit.”
It certainly got off to a good start.
Though the Wildcats’ 93-85 escape at Rupp Arena extended their recent dominance to 10 wins in 12 meetings and 40 of 57 overall against the Cardinals, it was competitive throughout with the outcome settled in the final minutes. Pretty good start for two revamped programs starting over with newcomers from the transfer portal, and just learning what the rivalry means to past players and their passionate fan bases.
“It was amazing, everything I expected,” said Kentucky guard Lamont Butler, who made all 10 shots including six 3-pointers for a career-high 33 points. He earned a boxing-style belt as the game’s most valuable player.
“There’s a lot of history between Kentucky and Louisville and we just got our first taste. It’s going to be my only taste, but I definitely had fun.”
Things heated up briefly with just over five minutes remaining when Kentucky forward Brandon Garrison stood over Louisville guard Reyne Smith as he laid on the court in front of the Cardinals’ bench after diving for a loose ball. A blanket of red surrounded Garrison before his teammates rushed down the court and some shoving followed, but no punches were thrown. Garrison received only a common foul and stayed in the game.
“Listen, it wouldn’t have been an appropriate game if it was a tension-filled mosh pit down in front of their bench,” Pope said. “That was probably the most fun of the game, right?
“But I think you have two organizations right now that have an insane amount of passion about winning and feel all of the joy and intensity and stress of this rivalry.”
That Pope, a 6-foot-11 Wildcats alum who co-captained their dominant 1996 NCAA championship team, and Kelsey got their first taste as coaches was historic itself. Both were hired weeks apart this spring with huge expectations of guiding their marquee programs back into the national title discussion, albeit from completely different base lines.
Pope was hired from BYU to replace Hall of Famer John Calipari after he departed Lexington in April for SEC rival Arkansas after 15 successful seasons, highlighted by the 2012 NCAA title and nearly three dozen first-round NBA picks. Kentucky hasn’t made it past the first weekend of its last three March Madness appearances and was coming off its second first-round exit in three years.
As the cerebral Pope boldly proclaimed before a packed arena this spring that hanging banners is the only thing that matters at Kentucky, he also made clear the importance of beating Louisville. A number of Wildcats greats helped by writing letters to players with their reflections of the rivalry and its impact.
It clearly resonated with the Wildcats and Pope, who has now succeeded as a coach after being on both sides of the outcome as a player under Rick Pitino.
“I’m incredibly proud of our guys. It was a classic rivalry game,” Pope said.
Kelsey was hired in late March with an even taller task of lifting Louisville from two historically bad seasons under former Cardinals player Kenny Payne, who previously spent 10 years as Calipari’s assistant. (Payne has reunited with Calipari at Arkansas.)
Like Pope at BYU, he had guided Charleston to the Big Dance several times and is expected to work the same magic on a Cardinals team, and right away. That important bottom line had somewhat muted the Bluegrass rivalry until this week.
Saturday not only offered a reminder of what it once was with a raucous sellout crowd, along with what it could be.
“I wish I could do it again,” Louisville guard Terrence Edwards Jr. said. “That’s the greatest atmosphere I’ve ever played in as far as coming into a game. I was just extra excited and everybody was, too.
“We knew this game was huge, we came in, tried to answer a couple runs, came up short, but it’s like no other. Guys in the hotel, when you come out you see the L’s down and stuff like that, that really makes you want to win the game. But it was a great atmosphere.”
A win would have made it even better for Louisville, considering it hung tough with Kentucky despite having just eight healthy scholarship players available. Kelsey took heart in that and noted that his Cardinals must continue competing just as hard with Atlantic Coast Conference play resuming next week against Florida State.
And a rivalry loss to learn from.
“I think it’s one of the really cool rivalries in all of American sports,” Kelsey said. “We have to do our part and win some to continue to make it a rivalry.
“I did take a minute to truly appreciate how special it was. … 365 days until the next time we play again, and I’m going to be reminded about four million times when that game is coming up. And we’ll be looking forward to it.”
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