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OSCAR L. COMBS
'Cats heading to Knoxville as (gulp) underdogs
Just when things began looking up for Kentucky, up popped a homecoun upset loss in the face of perhaps the season's toughest back-to-back road contests.
Coach Eddie Sutton and his charges barely had time to bask in the glory of their sparkling victory over Florida before Dale Brown and his LSU Tigers shocked a record crowd of more than 24,000 at Kupp Arena Saturday.
It was to be a glorious evening of basketball entertainment, perhaps the once-proud Wildcat tradition was back, alive and well. Midway through ihe First half, all was on schedule.
Bolstered by a gigantic statewide pep rally calking for fans to drive vehicles with their lights on. both the university and the Committee of 101 (the local basketball txxisters club) had the arena in a frenzy.
The effort to rally behind the 'Cats got the kind of boost it needed two nights earlier when UK destroyed a Florida team which barely did more than make a cameo appearance at the hostile O'Con-nell Center, a place which has been especially tough on Florida foes over the years.
Saturday. Kentucky raced out to an early 12-point advantage, gathering up loose balls, getting breaks and making them. But a bad omen appeared on the horizon as UK's double-digit lead dwindled into a single digit before intermission.
Coupled with the fact that hotshot freshman guard Chris Jackson had a totally miserable first half and the national-television audience watching by ESPN had to be wondering if the 'Cats could withstand a late LSU rally.
They couldn't and they didn't.
LSU rallied in the final minutes and then took command of the contest, thanks to a seven-point trip highlighted by a technical foul on coach Sutton.
A five-point UK lead quickly vanished into a one-point LSU lead. Kentucky never quite recovered. And throughout the comeback it was Jackson who took over the throttle.
It was a heartbreaking setback for the team which had made such great strides over the past couple weeks. But with trips to Alabama and Tennessee this week, all the earlier success could be wiped out just as quickly.
UK is at the .500 mark at 8-8 overall and still 3-1 in the SEC. However, the league mark directly reflects the ratio of games played at home and on the road.
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Just as SEC schools have performed the past couple years on the road, they are once again enjoying a great deal of success in the league this year. Already, no fewer than six teams have won road games. Kentucky shocked Florida in Gainesville, Florida whipped up on Georgia in Athens. Mississippi State ambushed LSU in Baton Rouge, Tennessee has won three times on the road (Auburn,
Ole Miss and Mississippi State). And, of course, UK lost to LSU.
In fact, only Tennessee. Alabama and Vanderbilt have avoided getting beat at home this season and the SEC race is only four games old with 14 remaining.
Tennessee, which looks to be the class of the league at this point, is unbeaten in the conference. Vanderbilt probably should be included with the other eight schools having lost at home, but the Commodores were on the receiving end of good fortune and a huge case of a striped bird swallowing a whistle as Vandy shocked Georgia 76-75 on Barry Goheen's three-pointer at the buzzer in Nashville.
Alabama, now 11-4 on the season, is rebounding with a strong club after an uncharacteristic off-season last year and is 3-2 in the conference, with both losses coming on the road to Georgia and Vanderbilt.
There are various reasons why SEC teams seem to enjoy more road victories early in the race, but the one which contains the most common sense is that teams begin to learn more about one another as the season wears on and therefore the homecourt becomes even more of an advantage.
The other part of that theory has it that as teams begin to wear down physically and mentally from the rigors of a long season, the home team's advantage increases even more, therefore fewer victories for visiting teams late in the season.
With that in mind perhaps this is the right time for UK to be taking on the likes of an Alabama (which is young like Kentucky) and Tennessee (a team UK might sneak up on).
Did I actually say that?
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How long has it been since the Kentucky Wildcats have traveled to Knoxville as an underdog?
Oh, I know. The way Kentucky has performed in K-town over the years, you'd think the 'Cats were underdogs each year. Well, for this one time. Vol coach Don DeVoe will has to use a motivational force other than the upset special when Kentucky rolls into town on Saturday.
During Joe B. Hall's 13-year era, only one Wildcat team, his 1978 national championship outfit, managed to beat the Vols in Knoxville. Sutton silenced the Big Orange during his first try. but the Vols have restored faith to the Big Blue haters in Tennessee the last two seasons.
So it'll be a different twist this week. The favorite's role will sit squarely with the Vols and a Kentucky upset could be the needed ingredient to lead the 'Cats to another winning campaign.
But first there will be Alabama on Wednesday night. Over the years, Kentucky has enjoyed bittersweet success in Tuscaloosa. There was a time when UK won as regularly in 'Bama Country as the
'Cats did anywhere, but that generally was before CM. Newton took over almost two decades ago.
Newton built Bama into a national powerhouse and Wimp Sanderson has more than continued that success. While Kentucky hasn't won as often in Tuscaloosa the past 20 years as they did before, some of the league's most memorable games have been staged there and some of UK's most dramatic victories have been recorded at Memorial Coliseum.
A pair of victories on the road is a mighty tall order for anyone and probably won't happen this week, but what the 'Cats really need is just to avoid a complete sweep.
A split and UK will head home with a 4-2 SEC mark for a date with lowly Auburn before going back on the road to Ole Miss. By then. UK could be on the road to a quick recovery and a couple notches above the .500 mark overall.
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Proposition 48 has once again grabbed the nation's sports spotlight with the NCAA voting to outlaw scholarship aid to any athlete who is only a partial qualifer.
A student/athlete is considered a partial qualifier if he/she does not satisfy three criteria. They are: (1) a high school diploma. (2) a passing mark of 700 or better on the SAT test, or a 15 or higher on the ACT test and (3) a 2.0 grade point average in a student's high school core cirriculum of 12 basic courses.
Prior to the new NCAA legislation, a student/athlete had to meet only two of the three requirements to receive scholarship aid. However, unless the student met all three requirements the student was forced to sit out the freshman year and then meet new academic standings before being allowed to compete the last three years.
The year a student sits out cannot be used as a redshirt year and the student therefore loses that one year of eligibility.
The proposal was proposed by the Southeastern Conference after the league imposed similiar restrictions on members schools last spring.
Opponents of the legislation claim the plan is discrimnatory against student-athletes with poor social-economic backgrounds.
There are others who say the legislation really will not accomplish what most proponents want, and that is to make sure only those able to realistically pursue a collegiate academic workload will be admitted to a college.
Some opponents say those athletically-gifted student-athletes will still qualify for admission and federal grants intended for non-athletes on the college campuses and will therefore hurt others who otherwise would be able to attend college.
This controversy will continue and for years to come. What's really strange about this controversy is that a few years
ago everyone agreed there were marry athletes in college playing sports who really didn't belong in a college academic environment.
They agreed there was a need to weed out those not prepared for the college workload. So the NCAA member schools established a policy to be more selective and here's the result.
The best suggestion I have heard is the one where there is an admission and scholarship awarding policy for all high school seniorsnot just athleteswhether it be sports, music, art, farming, etc.
They would all be required to meet the same criteria and they would be treated equally from square one.
At the same time, there would need to be a couple of adjustments to the way student-athletes are treated on the campus.
Furman Bisher. the nationally acclaimed sports columnist of the Atlanta Constitution, wrote recently there seem to be a lot of double standards involving the crooked triangle of NCAA schools, athletes and coaches.
He pointed out that it's all right for schools to rake in all those millions of dollars from fans who attend the games and give generously to the college's athletic coffers while the NCAA gladly accepts its huge paycheck from CBS Sports. And, he noted, not too many coaches are running away from those S200.000 shoe contracts or those profitable Sunday afternoon television shows.
And. he asked, what do those wealthy benefactors say to the players who really are responsible for the monetary success of the school? Why, they're allowed to attend class free.
I've often wondered what the difference is between big-time college sports and big-time pro sports. Personally, it's just a different and often misguided distribution of funds.
On the pro circuit, it's the players who make the big bucks, not the general managers, coaches or NBA executives. On the college level, it's just the reverse. And who's pulling the plow?
This is not to advocate an overthrow, but it's high time the players are given something more than slave wages. The hours most athletes put in don't even average out to minimum wage. Perhaps they really are in need of a sound education because after four years of slavery. I'm sure they'll realize how they're being shortchanged.
A few years ago, the system wasn't out-of-whack so badly. Schools were generating just enough revenue to financially support their athletics programs.
Now, schools are more interested in seeing how much money they can earn and then find new ways to spend it. except the one small factor of sharing their good fortune with the ones who make it possible.
We all cry about how college sports have become big business. And they have. We can put a big dent in this growing (Continued on page 26)