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Welcome To College Basketball  Kentucky Style
Hope all you non-believers out there in Louisville. Bloomington and Chapel Hill were watching last week. Because if there was any doubt that Lexington is the college basketball capital of the world, that notion was laid to rest last Tuesday night in Memorial Coliseum.
More than 12,000 Big Blue supporters turned out to get their first glimpse of Eddie Sutton and his 1986-87 Wildcat basketball team. And more than 1.000 fans were turned away when fire marshal Gary Beach closed the doors after it was decided that the Coliseum had reached its capacity. All this after WKYT Channel 27 in Lexington and WHAS Channel 11 in Louisville had announced at 6 p.m. that they would be providing live coverage of the practice beginning at 11:45 p.m.
Mike Estep
Cats' Pause Columnist
If you wouldn't have known any better, you might have thought you had been sucked into a time warp and been mysteriously transported back through time, back to the early 1950s, the heyday of Memorial Coliseum. Former Governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler got the festivities off the ground with a stirring rendition of "My Old Kentucky Home," followed by the introduction of members of Adolph Rupp's undefeated 1953-54 team. All-American co-captains Cliff "The Cat" Hagan and Frank Ramsey, Lou "Plato" Tsioropoulos, Billy Evans, Gayle Rose & Company set the scene for what had to be the wildest display ever for a mid-October practice session. Even Sutton got caught up in the spirit.
"Last year, the midnight practice gave me my first taste of what Kentucky basketball is all about," Sutton said. "I couldn't believe 10,000 people would come out on a cold, rainy night to watch a practice. Then this year, I thought the live television might hurt the crowd but instead we had to close the doors at 11:30.
"We had a busload of Kentucky fans come in from Detroit for the evening. A man came in from Toronto, we had a couple fly in from Atlanta and countless people drove in from surrounding states. It was wonderful. Unbelievable. Something like that could only happen in Kentucky. It just once again reinforces my belief that in all of sports, college or professional, there's nothing like Kentucky basketball."
The next day, at the annual basketball media day, Sutton told reporters he would like to play several games a year at the Coliseum.
"That's the way basketball is supposed to be played," Sutton said, referring to the overflow crowd. "Ray Meyer (the legendary coach who won more than 600 ballgames at DePaul) told me the other day that this was the toughest place he had to ever bring a ballclub to."
Chapman Makes His First Appearance For Wildcats
But more than anything else, at least to many of the spectators on hand, the Midnight Practice ushered in a new era at the University of Kentucky. "The Rex Chapman Era," as one banner proclaimed. When Chapman and fellow freshman Derrick Miller were introduced, they received a standing ovation, the largest of the night.
Chapman is no stranger to large crowds, having played in Owensboro's Sportcenter, the state tournament in Rupp Arena and in numerous high school all-star games. But Kentucky's Mr. Basketball for 1986 was impressed with his first reception as a Wildcat.
"I've never played in front of a crowd like that," Chapman said. "Never. Not (one) as loud as that crowd was last night. Kentucky has great fans, and they expressed that last night. But I didn't expect it to be that loud."
Sometimes, though, the crowd got a little carried away, forgetting that Chapman is just an 19-year-old freshman. Frequently, chants of "We want Rex, We want Rex," echoed around the Coliseum. And during the 15-minute scrimmage choruses of "shoot, shoot," erupted whenever Chapman touched the ball.
"I wasn't thinking anything when they said that," Chapman said. "A lot of times I was at half-court. It wasn't like I was going to launch one up from there.
Even though Sutton himself has been quoted as saying the Owensboro phenom could end up as one of the best players to ever play at Kentucky, the coach warned the fans not to expect Chapman to walk on waterat least not right away, anyway.
"The people of Kentucky might expect miracles and I don't want that to affect him," Sutton said. "I don't want people to think he's a savior. He's got a lot to learn, as all freshmen do. My responsibility is to protect him so the fens don't expect too much too soon."
"I think everyone wants to come out and see the freshmen for the first time," Chapman said. "It's only natural for the fans because we haven't played any games yet. After we get into the season, I think they will be more team orientated. But I feel like it kind of puts me in a bad position. (The veterans) have been here for so long and they deserve
all the credit. They've been here. I haven't even played any at all for UK.
"(Coach Sutton) has told me to go out and play my hardest and things will work out," Chapman said. "If I play hard, all the hype will disappear and everything will work out.
"I'm anxious to get started and get the season underway. I want to play as badly as the fans want me to."
UK's 'Other' Freshman Also A Hit With The Crowd
For Miller, Kentucky's other freshman from Savannah, Ga., the pressure hasn't been as great.
"People don't know much about me," Miller said. "I'm from Georgia and they've never seen me play before. They don't know what I can do." But if his practice performance is any indication, it won't take long for them to find
Freshmen Derrick Miller (left) and Rex Chapman
out. Miller brought the crowd to its feet with a couple of spectacular dunks, and calmy canned several three-pointers during the 15-minute scrimmage.
The 6-6, 160-pound stringbean said the crowd was unlike anything he had ever witnessed.
"Being from Georgia, I hadn't played in front of a lot of people very often," Miller said. "The biggest crowds I had ever played in front of were at the Dapper Dan and at the Derby Classicabout 11,000. But those crowds weren't like the one last night. They were so enthusiastic and wild. I kind of expected it would be like this. Kentucky fans know the game, they appreciate basketball here.
"I was a little nervous at first, but after I ran around the court a few times it was OK," Miller said. "I just looked at my shoes when I came out on the floor. If I would've looked around in the stands and saw all the crowd I might have gotten caught up in all that."
Miller, who had trouble adjusting to Kentucky this summer, said the big turnout made him feel right at home.
"It made me feel more confident in myself. I had my ups and downs this summer, I had trouble with being homesick. But when I came out and saw all those people, it made me feel like I made the right decision by coming to Kentucky.
"I went through homesickness at the beginning of the summer," Miller said. "I was homesick, very homesick. But now I feel comfortable. I really like Kentucky, it's so nice and quiet.
"I talked to my mom in New York recently, and I told her she might not see me up there for a while because I like it so well down here."