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  • Kentucky to face energized West Virginia crowd and team Saturday

    By LARRY VAUGHT

    Almost any time Kentucky goes on the road to play, coach John Calipari makes sure to let everyone know what the environment will be like.

    Kentucky has not played at West Virginia since 1970, so Calipari knows it will be an even more energized crowd when No. 7 West Virginia host his team Saturday night in Morgantown.

    “We got West Virginia, we got a fish fry, we got (ESPN College) GameDay, we got hat night, we got blue out, yeah, it's going to be an interesting one,” Calipari said Thursday on the SEC coaches’ teleconference.

    I don’t know about hat night or blue out, but he’s right about the fish fry.

    The sixth annual Bob Huggins Fish Fry is tonight. Proceeds benefit both the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Endowment Fund and the Remember the Miners Scholarship Fund.

    Calipari is scheduled to attend the event with West Virginia coach Huggins, a long-time friend. There have been reports Calipari has autographed 200 basketballs to be auctioned during the fish fry.

    Tickets were $120 per person in advance and will be $150 tonight. That’s high priced fish but it’s no surprise Calipari would agree to join his friend to raise money for cancer research and a coal miners scholarship fund.

    West Virginia has lost three of its last four games. Unlike the Cats, the losses have not damaged West Virginia’s ranking that much — the Mountaineers are still No. 7. However, Calipari warned Thursday not to be fooled by the recent losses.

    "West Virginia is really good. They're a veteran team. Really physical. Defensively, press, disrupt, deny. They're a top-five team,” the UK coach said. “I know there are some other teams that may be ranked above them, but I'm going to tell you, in a one-game contest, they're hard to beat."
    Comments 3 Comments
    1. MickintheHam's Avatar
      MickintheHam -
      Quote Originally Posted by JPScott View Post
      The game in 1970 was played in early December and only the third basketball game WVU played in its newly built WVU Coliseum after it opened. (They played two games in the Coliseum the prior week). I keep a list of arenas that Kentucky helped "Inaugurate" and have the WVU Coliseum on the list. (Not all inauguration games are the first, sometimes they wait and designate one against a big opponent).

      I looked back and haven't seen the evidence I used which prompted me to put WVU coliseum on the list in the first place. (I doubt I listed it without some type of evidence to support it.) I'll need to keep looking but curious if anyone happens to remember/know any details around how this game came about and can verify that UK was part of the official inauguration of the facility? A game program would be very helpful in this regard.

      Presumably WVU made a point to invite Kentucky for this special game. They must have made a good offer, because after a particularly contentious and peculiar game in 1941, Rupp vowed to never return to Morgantown. WVU often agreed to play in the UKIT in Lexington in the 50's and 60's but that 1970 game was the 1st time Kentucky returned the favor.
      Jon, as I remember, Adolph loved being chosen to have his teams dedicate new arenas. He referenced the honor of being chosen to open Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor a few years earlier many times. This is something he regularly accommodated. I believe this was likely an honor that played to his ego, surpassing anything else.
    1. StuBleedsBlue2's Avatar
      StuBleedsBlue2 -
      Quote Originally Posted by KeithKSR View Post
      Hyped up teams tend to start fast and fall apart. Adrenaline is an energy sapper.
      Especially those that are on a slide.

      This is the perfect time for our guys to relish the spotlight and embrace the opportunity to build their March resume. I know the staff and players don't look ahead, but you have to think they understand the significance of this game to better position themselves in the tourney for when things are clicking.
    1. JPScott's Avatar
      JPScott -
      Quote Originally Posted by MickintheHam View Post
      Jon, as I remember, Adolph loved being chosen to have his teams dedicate new arenas. He referenced the honor of being chosen to open Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor a few years earlier many times. This is something he regularly accommodated. I believe this was likely an honor that played to his ego, surpassing anything else.
      That’s what I think likely happened here too. I just seem to have lost and am having trouble re-finding a reference to it happening in this case.

      You mention Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor. Rupp and UK also inaugurated Cole Fieldhouse in Maryland in the 1950s. (Which this past Fall I was at UM and tried to get in to see. Unfortunately the inner arena part was under some kind of renovation and I couldn’t get in to see.)

      With all the things written over the decades about Rupp, Cole Fieldhouse and the 1966 Texas Western game, one would have thought some reporter would have mentioned the fact of Rupp inaugurating it at some point, but I had to discover that myself.
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