www.kykernel.com@kykernel@kentuckykernel Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022
pg. 6-7 est. 1892 | Independent since 1971
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As someone used to being able to hit “backspace” whenever I make a mistake, the inherent permanence of a typewriter causes my words-per-minute stats to plummet. It creates a unique relationship with the words you are writing, as though they are being created, willed into existence. When using a typewriter, you are connected to the things you are saying. You can touch the pa per right then and there – it is distinctly real. Each keystroke births a letter that cannot ever be taken back. They have weight. As opposed to the words I’m now writing on a Google doc. They are real, yes. They have meaning. But they can be easily erased, deleted, stricken from the record. They have impermanence.Ithinkjournalism is like a typewriter, if you’ll bear with the analogy. Those of us who see it as our calling to document the human experience in words should approach this task with caution and humility. We write words that have weight and permanence. Who can say how many people will read them?
When I was in high school, my dad gave me a Fortypewriter.thoseunfamiliar with this archaic piece of technology, a typewriter is the pre decessor of the computer: a beautiful, sturdy, nearly indestructible contraption that weighs a ton and stands as a quiet link to years past. This particular typewriter, a baby blue electric Smith Corona Coronet, looked like it was straight out of the 1970s – and it was. My dad clack-clacked his college essays out on its plastic keys, a parade of black letters marching like a line of ants across the white waterfall of paper. He also used the typewriter when writing for his college newspaper, covering news from the University of Arkansas back when a time when “cut and paste” entailed the use of scissors and glue, and film cameras were not nostalgic rarities. That same typewriter sits on my desk to day in the Kentucky Kernel newsroom, as I tap out these words on my laptop. It is a vi sual reminder to me of the ancestry I have as a journalist – an ancestry not through blood but through a passion for news, for truth and for the love of storytelling.
Part of the reason I love typewriters so much is because of their physicality. You can actually see the words being formed, actual ly hear the mechanics as each letter is forev er imprinted onto the page.
There are copies of the Kernel in the newsroom from the 1920s; the reporters’ words, immortalized in print, outlive them, and I see this as both an incredible blessing and a terrifying thought. I have the distinct honor to be a twotime editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel. There are only a handful of people who can say this, and I am grateful for the opportuni ty to continue serving the paper, the campus and the community in this position for an otherHowever,year. I do not see this as a task to be taken lightly. We stand at a crossroads, not just in the field of journalism but at the Uni versity of Kentucky, as we slowly emerge from a pandemic and try to regain a sem blance of life pre-2020. At the Kernel, we take it upon ourselves to share the stories of people and events for an audience both now and in the future, and I hope we see our words as weighty and substantive. Each one matters.Iam thrilled to serve as your edi tor-in-chief again this year and look forward to another two semesters of award-winning student journalism for the University of Kentucky and the Lexington community.
By Rayleigh editor@kykernel.comDeaton
2 | kentucky kernel Words of weight
A letter from editor-in-chiefyour
By Emily features@kykernel.comGirard
ABBEY CUTRER | STAFF Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Dr. Doug Boyd, poses for a portrait on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
On the cover: Illustration by Akhila Nadimpalli.
kentucky kernel | 3 kentuckykernelCONTACT Rayleigh Deaton, LeeAnnaKendallAkhilaBrooklynLindseyJackeditor@kykernel.comeditor-in-chiefWeaver,managingeditorKaciMcCarthy,audienceengagementeditorkmccarthy@kykernel.comHannahStanley,newseditornews@kykernel.comDavis,asst.newseditorEmilyGirard,featureseditorfeatures@kykernel.comColeParke,sportseditorsports@kykernel.comWalters,opinionseditoropinions@kykernel.comJackWeaver,photoeditorphoto@kykernel.comNadimpalli,leaddesignerAllieHall,asst.designerStaton,newslettercoordinatorGracieMoore,TwittermanagerSavannahKennedy,Instagram/FacebookmanagerRavenRolle,TikTokmanagerBarriger,multimediamanagerKENTUCKYKERNELOFFICES340McVeyHallUniversityofKentuckyLexington,KY40506This is Humans of UK, inspired by the Humans of New York Instagram series by photographer and author Brandon Stanton. This series dives into the individuals of UK as well as their stories, strifes and passions.
Dr. Doug Boyd had seen pitures of flooding in Eastern Kentucky before he drove to Letcher County, but when he got there, Boyd said pictures didn’t do the situation justice.
“Their archive is made up of film and video and audio recordings on formats like reel-to-reel, film and old videotape like VHS, but also back to something called U-matic videotape and beta videotape,” Boyd said. “Those are extremely fragile anyway, but submerge them in muddy water, and it becomes extremely fragile.”
Boyd and the other archivists transferred the material out of flooded vaults and into a refrigerated truck. From there, the records will be transferred to experts around the country who specialize in cleaning and restoring various forms of tape.Appalshop, given its national impact, received offers of support from both inside and outside its community.“Peopleat the Smithsonian were reaching out to Appalshop. I mean, this is not just a Kentucky treasure [or] regional treasure. It really, truly is a national treasure, this little place in Whitesburg, Kentucky,” Boyd said. “The archivist was getting calls from people all over the place. It got to where they said, ‘Okay, look, everybody come on Tuesday, and we'll help get everything out.’” Boyd also stressed that this recovery effort was not focused on him, but a collaboration between the Lexington and Whitesburg community. He specifically cited Dierdre Scaggs, Megan Mummey, Carol Street, Ida Mangam and Kopana Terry of the SCLC, as well as Kathryn Engle of the Appalachian Center, as instrumental to UK’sAdditionalcontributions.help came from Boyd’s colleagues in Louisville, members of the Kentucky Historical Society and even people who had been involved in Appalshop from the very beginning.
“Seeing houses that were washed away, seeing foundations that once had houses, seeing school buses overturned in the creek … those sorts of scenes were really powerful,” Boyd said. “The damage and the destruction was pretty profound.”Boyd,the director of the UK’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, traveled to Whitesburg, Kentucky, with other members of the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), to assist in recovering records of Appalshop, a nonprofit organization that connects people to Appalachian culture through music and film. The nonprofit has been in operation since 1969, and video and audio recordings produced through the organization were archived in Whitesburg – an archive that was then flooded through the end of July and beginning of August, putting the records in danger of destruction.
“The guy standing behind me in line for a period of time was literally one of the founders of Appalshop back in [19]69 … The architect for the building was there rolling up his sleeves [and] helping out,” Boyd said. “It was a sad day, but it was also a great day to see everybody working together ... There was a lot of teamwork and camaraderie and people who were working together towards a common goal, and that's always beautiful when that occurs.” Humans of UK: Dr. Doug Boyd preserves the future of the past
Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022
‘Healthier, wealthier, wiser Kentucky.’
In an interview, Capilouto told the Kernel Wednesday that there is an investment of a few hundred million dollars being put towards a new health education building, to which UK will be adding an other few hundred million dollars towards its “Kentucky,production.asmany states around the country, is experi encing a significant healthcare worker shortage,” Capilouto said.
JACK WEAVER | STAFF Aidan Kodak, a freshman business major, moves into Chellgren Hall on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.
“That project is going to allow us to build space to educate peo ple from the disciplines within medicine, health sciences, public health and Additionalnursing.”changes took place across campus with the removal of all Common Grounds Coffee House sites. The Jewell Hall ven ue was replaced by B’Juiced, a smoothie and açaí bowl bar, and the Rosenberg College of Law’s location with Pj’s Coffee. Pj’s Coffee also took over the one-year-old Great Bagel venue in the Gatton College of Busi ness and Economics.
By Hannah
news@kykernel.comStanley
For Capilouto, the future of the University of Kentucky is do the best possible to serve the state whose name the university bears.“We like to say, our respon sibility is to advance Kentucky and when we do so, there will be a healthier, wealthier, wiser Ken tucky,” he said.
Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022 4 | kentucky newskernel
ABBEY CUTRER | STAFF The class of 2026 fills the student section at Big Blue U on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.
The changing landscape of UK
In order to keep students, faculty and staff safe, UK has set plans to tackle public health emergencies, President Eli Cap ilouto said recently in a cam pus-widePrecautionsemail.such as vaccina tions, avoiding skin-to-skin con tact, washing hands and isolation from those infected can reduce the spread, Capilouto said. Fur ther information and precautions on monkeypox and COVID can be found on UK’s website. A mask-optional policy will remain in place, as will the use of plexiglass, with the exclusion of UK HealthCare facilities which retain a mask mandate. In addition to physically tak ing care of students, UK will be working on financially support ing graduate students in that tu ition and scholarships will now cover all mandatory fees as well. With a goal to build a more competitive and supportive pro gram for graduate students, a plan to establish a minimum graduate stipend beginning the 2024 fiscal year will be included as well, ac cording to InfrastructureCapilouto.growth takes the form of the Chemistry-Phys ics Building as completion of two phased upgrades draws near. The first phase of development began with a $33 million budget fol lowed by another $26 million, ac cording to the UKNow website.
As the fall 2022 school year begins, UK is challenged with welcoming a historical first year class of more than 6,000 students while juggling COVID, monkey pox and internal renovations.
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The class of 2025 forms the shape of the state of Kentucky during the Wildcat Welcome Ceremony on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021, at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.
6 | kentucky kernel Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022 CLASS OF 2025
PHOTO BY JACK WEAVER STAFF
The class of 2026 forms the shape of the state of Kentucky during the Wildcat Welcome Ceremony on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.
PHOTO BY ABBEY CUTRER | STAFF
kentucky kernel | 7 Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022 CLASS OF 2026
8 | kentucky kernel Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022
The University of Kentucky boasts one of the best athletics programs in the nation, having seven or more different teams ranked within top 25 polls in their respective sports in both the fall and spring semester last academic year.That said, when it comes to school-defining programs, many successful teams such as rifle, mens soccer and swim and dive get tossed to the wayside, with the real debate lying solely on the shoulders of either the football or basketball programs (unless you’re Vanderbilt and baseball takes the Kentuckycake.)is no different, and the debate was firmly in favor of the basketball program for much of the school’s existence, despite it being the football team who broke the color barrier in the SEC in their respective sport back in the Now,60s. the football program has been reinvented under head coach Mark Stoops, who led the Wildcats to two Citrus Bowl vic tories in four years, with a Gator Bowl and Belk Bowl victory in betweenMeanwhile,them. the basketball program is in a bit of a slump, missing the NCAA Tournament in 2021 for the first time since 2013, leaving fans without post season basketball for two consec utive seasons after the 2020 event was canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Cole opinions@kykernel.comParke
To make matters worse, a re vitalized Kentucky squad with championship ambitions that included the consensus national player of the year would go on to be stunned in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s, with the loss going down as the largest wealth disparity upset in tourna mentWhilehistory.the Peacocks would go on to make history being the first ever 15 seed to make the Elite Eight, for Kentucky fans this just meant it had now been seven years since head coach John Cali pari had been able to get his team into the Final Four and, while Cal boasts the number of NBA talents he has coached in the bluegrass, he still only had one national championship to show for it. Things would come to a head during the second day of the Big Blue Bahamas pre-season bas ketball tournament, one day after the Wildcats dismantled the Do minican Republic national team 108-56.“This is a basketball school, it’s always been a basketball school,” Calipari said. “Alabama is a football school, so is Georgia, I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football team, I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls, at the end of the day that makes my job easier, but this is a basketball school.”While Calipari was speaking about the necessity of a new prac tice facility for his team, similar to how Stoops had made getting a football-specific indoor practice facility a must during his contract negotiations, the football coach didn’t take too kindly to Cal’s words.“Basketball school? I thought we competed in the SEC?” Stoops tweeted alongside the Kentuckyeoyears,beeningcommentsretweeting“#4straightpostseasonwin.”hashtagStoopswouldcontinuebytweetscallingCal’s“insulting”andpointoutthefootballprogramhasmoresuccessfulinrecentandquote-tweetingavidofKrogerFielderuptingwhenscoredatouchdown from a blocked field goal over then No. 10 Florida with the caption reading, “BBN begs to differ! Don’t disrespect our great fans like Twitterthat.”became a battle ground, with many fans agree ing with Cal’s sentiments based on historical precedent, whereas others were quick to agree with Stoops citing recent successful seasons and the complete 180 Stoops has accomplished, with the football program being 63-94 since the 2000 season under four different head coaches. Also since the 2000 season, Kentucky has made a total five bowl games with three wins, two from the Music City Bowl and one Liberty Bowl, whereas Stoops has led his team to six straight bowls with four straight wins.While the Twitter debates are likely just being used as outlets for fans to unleash pent up ag gression on the basketball team’s recent struggles or celebrate the football team’s successes, it’s hard to see an emotionally driven debate between two SEC powers within their own sports as any thing other than harmful towards the recruiting of both programs.
See TWITTER on page 12
JACK WEAVER | STAFF Kentucky football head coach Mark Stoops responded on Twitter to comments made by Kentucky mens basketball head coach John Calipari referring to the University of Kentucky as a “basketball school.”
Kentucky Twitter civil war only serves to harm both programs
opinions
By Kendall opinions@kykernel.comStaton
Kentucky’s football program has gained traction through past seasons due to their underdog story line. Rising from the ashes of a subpar program, Stoops has brought out arguably one of the most consistent uphill climbs in the program's history.
JACK WEAVER | STAFF
UK’s mens basketball pro gram, on the other hand, has con sistently been regarded as one of the best in the NCAA. After disappointing postseason per formances in recent years, UK’s basketball program is fighting to keep its claim to fame. With Calipari currently ranked by USA Today as the highest paid basketball coach in the SEC, it begs the question: why count your eggs before they hatch? With a lackluster 2022 postseason performance, Calipari is not in the position to be dogging other UK team pro grams.Stoops’ comments were war ranted to defend the integrity of his team. However, the tail end of conversations should have been conducted in private rather than creating a larger spectacle out of the feuding team heads. While the two most support ed athletics coaches on cam pus are arguing over whose is bigger, the women's basketball team plays on a court that last underwent major renovations in 1990. Memorial Coliseum has fi nally been queued for renova tions in the near future but, ret roactive scraps are hardly what the counterpart basketball pro gram deserves.
In-house debate has sparked at the University of Kentucky after mens basketball coach John Cali pari used a pregame press confer ence to compare the success of UK’s mens basketball and foot ball"Thisprograms.isa basketball school. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. No disrespect to our football team,” Calipari said. “I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. But this is a basketball school.”UK football coach Mark Stoops took to Twitter to make his disdain with this sentiment known by highlighting the fact that UK football had four straight postseason wins — something the UK basketball team has been lacking as of late. Stoops clarified at a later press conference he felt the need to de fend the hard work his players had put into the football program, and he did not appreciate Calipa ri’s comments degrading UK’s football team.
Stoops vs. hoops:
kentucky kernel | 9 Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022
"I don't care about what any body says about their program. That's not my business, it's not my lane," Stoops said. "But when you start talking about our pro gram and others that we compete against ... I don't do that. I stay in my lane. That's in defense of my players, in defense of the work we've done. Believe me, we want to continue to push. But don't de mean or distract from the hard work and dedication and commit ment that people have done to get to thisThispoint.”public interaction raised many questions for those who witnessed the verbal sparring match. UK basketball or UK football? Should UK provide the mens basketball team with a new practice facility? Is Calipari being greedy or an advocate for his players? Does Calipari really have the status to be docking oth er UK sports programs when he is the coach who now holds the title for largest monetary upset in the history of the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament? Who is in theButright?themost important ques tion to arise from the situation has been overshadowed by the status of the fighters involved. Who actually cares? Critique of UK facili ties should hardly start at the multi-million dollar basketball accommodations when some uni versity colleges, such as the Col lege of Communication and In formation, don't even have claim to their own building. Rather than using his status to give preformative speeches about “caring” for the Universi ty of Kentucky, Calipari’s time would better be suited coaching his players to lead not another let down postseason performance. Comparing UK basketball and UK football is like trying to choose between a cat and a dog — they're both good in their own way.
opinions
The Wildcats lead the Rebels in the fourth set of the UK vs. Ole Miss game on Saturday, March 13, 2021, at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Kentucky. UK won 3-1. See STOOPS on page 12
UK Athletics coaches fight for fan favorite
While it may have been overshadowed by Twitter drama, Kentucky mens basket ball put on a clinic in the Bahamas, sweep ing the 2022 Big Blue Bahamas and out scoring its opponents by a combined 200 points.The wins brought the Wildcats to 13-1 in the Caribbean nation, 41-1 in all exhibi tions under head coach John Calipari. Ironically, it was Calipari himself who would take up the headlines surrounding the event as opposed to his team when he referred to Kentucky as a “basketball school,” starting a civil war on social me dia when UK football coach Mark Stoops fired back at the notion.
Freshmen Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston both combined for 26 points, while Illinois State transfer Antonio Reeves amassed 12 points as well. Calipari also saw improvement in two returning stars Damion Collins and Lance Ware, with the former scoring 15 points against the Dominican Republic. Next, challenging Mexican collegiate squad Tec de Monterrey which was boost ed roster-wise with u23 national team players, UK again easily conquered its op ponents, this time winning 102-40.
By Cole sports@kykernel.comParke
Wildcats dominate Big Blue Bahamas
Game one saw the Cats shut down the Dominican Republic national team 108-56 with six different players scoring double figures. While some of the key contributors were usual suspects such as consensus na tional player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe, much of the offensive production came from new additions to the roster.
Despite Toppin’s headline-catching play, he was not the only Wildcat to reach the 20-point mark against Carleton, with Reeves also adding 23 of his own, knock ing down three shots from beyond the arc.
sports
While Canadian collegiate athletics are a far cry from their United States counter parts, Carleton College has found signif icant success as a program with UK’s 62 point win going down as the worst loss in program history, also marking the first 40plus point loss the team has suffered in 18 years.Toppin was by far the standout per former in the lopsided win, going off for 27 points, going 11-14 from the field and not missing a shot for the entirety of the first half.
Though it wouldn’t be his defining per formance of the event, Toppin scored 12 points against Monterrey to go along with 11 rebounds.Nottobe completely out-done by Liv ingston and Wallace, freshman Adou Thi ero also joined the list of new youth pros pects to amass a double-digit point total, scoring 13 points in 22 minutes. Switching to game three of the event, Kentucky secured arguably its best win of the entire pre-season tournament, throt tling Canadian Carleton College 118-56.
Collins once again scored double-dig its but this time was joined by yet another improved returning player: Jacob Toppin.
Both Wheeler and Wallace added 17 and 15 points of their own as well, topping off the statement offensive showing for Kentucky.TheCats would have a short turnaround from beating Carleton at night to challenging the veteran Bahamas national team the next morning, with it showing in the final total.
Returning starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler co-led the Wildcats in scoring against the Mexican squad with 14 points along with Livingston.
Kentucky Wildcats forward Jacob Toppin (0) dunks the ball during the UK vs. Louisiana State University mens basketball game on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. UK won 71-66.
MICHAEL CLUBB STAFF FILE PHOTO
Though Calipari’s comments led to crit icism from the Big Blue Nation regarding his recent shortcomings in postseason play, Kentucky basketball left very little to criti cize in the Bahamas.
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See BAHAMAS on page 12 Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022 10 | kentucky kernel
tering SEC play last season, Kentucky soc cer fans will be wary of getting their hopes too high before the Cats enter conference play, they’ll find difficulty missing the ur gency and excitement that comes with the 2022 womens soccer team.
Rhodes by herself also boasts being a two-time All-SEC honoree, ranking third in scoring in Kentucky womens soccer his tory with a career 31 goals, having netted one more in UK’s season opener 3-0 win over Ball EnsuringState.a successful senior year for the duo, as well as other key names such as Caroline Trout and Peyton Rimko, is a must for Fabiano during his first year in Lexington.Whileit is still far too early to pre dict the trajectory of the season, it’s hard to ask for a better first two games than Fabiano’s squad have had with his biggest test of the season upcom ing.The level of success is yet to be, but a new era has arrived in the Blue grass State, and for Tennessee Martin and Ball State the only question left is whether or not their defeats were part of a successful non-conference run pre dating another collapse or the first wins of a tournament-clinching season, the likes of which Kentucky hasn’t seen since 2014.
Kentucky womens soccer kicks off new era under Fabiano
A reigning tournament team, fresh off a penalty kick loss to Notre Dame in the round of 32, the Boilermakers reached a draw with Carry’s squad to start the 2021 season, but a definitive win for Kentucky would do numbers for the team’s reputa tion.After the drop off the team suffered en
While not all of the European depar tures will have their absences felt equally, notable losses include German midfielder Lilly Huber, who transferred to Memphis, former starting goalkeeper Laura Nielsen and Danish midfielder Maria Olsen, who signed with a womens football club in Austria. In their place, Fabiano brought in five transfers from his previous team in the form of graduate students Hailey Far rington-Bentil, Taylor Hattori and Rafferty Kugler, as well as redshirt sophomores Maggy Henschler and Lesley Kiesling.
Rhodes and Richardson were the motor of the team in Carry’s final season, com bining for 19 goals during the season, the fourth most of any duo in the country.
With the fall 2022 semester underway, UK womens soccer began not just its ath letic season on Thursday but a new era for the program as a whole. While it was easy to lose in the shuffle that was the 2021 fall semester, the wom ens soccer team was one that failed to live up to the standards set in place by other successful programs such as mens soccer, mens basketball and football.
The Wildcats, led by then head coach Ian Carry, started the season 5-2-1. The lone loss came from then No. 15 South Florida before a catastrophic collapse saw the team go 1-9 in the SEC, finishing 7-102 overall.Thelone win in conference play came against Missouri on Oct. 24, convenient ly 10 days after Carry was relieved of his duties following UK’s 1-0 loss to LSU on senior night, but was not enough to see the Wildcats even qualify for the SEC Tour nament, ending their season with a loss to No. 12 Tennessee in Knoxville. Looking to start over fresh, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart brought in former Milwaukee womens soccer coach Troy Fabiano to take the reins. Even before the season began, it was apparent that the Fabiano era would differ from Carry’s before him. Having been with both the Irish and Scottish football associations in his past, Carry had a well-established rapport with European athletes, with the roster com prised of 10 players from the continent during his final season. Now with Fabiano at the helm, just four of those players remain listed on the roster: Danish forward Emilie Rhode, Danish de fender Sarah Makoben-Blessing, Icelandic midfielder Ulfa Ulfarsdottir and Danish defender Marie Lynge Oleson.
Fabiano doesn’t just carry the weight of giving his transfer grad students a proper sendoff, he also bears the weight of coach ing the dynamic duo of Hannah Richard son and Jordyn Rhodes, both of whom were featured in the SEC preseason watch list, for their senior years.
By Cole sports@kykernel.comParke
JACK WEAVER | STAFF Kentucky womens soccer first-year head coach Troy Fabiano speaks during a press conference at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, in Lexington, Kentucky.
kentucky kernel | 11 Thursday, Aug. 25, sports2022
With the exception of Kiesling, who has entered both of UK’s games as a sub, all of Fabiano’s former players have start ed both fixtures the Wildcats have played thisHattoriseason.even averages 78 minutes on the pitch, having played 86 out of a pos sible 90 minutes against Tennessee Martin in the road opener, with Henschler not far behind with an average of 77.5 minutes per match.While UK is still over three weeks away from its SEC opener, the formula has worked out for Fabiano, with the Cats out-scoring its opponents by a combined 7-1 after two matches, winning by an av erage of three goals per match.
While Carry’s team one year ago also conquered its first two non power five op ponents with ease, winning by a combined 8-0 over Marshall and Louisiana-Lafay ette, the real test for Fabiano’s squad will come on Thursday when the Wildcats take on Purdue at home.
With both leading scorers being a transfer and a returner who averaged just 6.2 points per game the year prior, Kentucky fans have a lot to look forward to regarding the coming team.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022
Though still a blowout, Kentucky was unable to create the same separation it did en route to its three 50-plus point wins prior. Kentucky ultimately defeated the Bahamas 98-74 on the backs of Toppin, Wheeler and Reeves’ 20-plus points.Toppin combined for 67 points across all four games, just one behind Reeves who totaled 68 and led all Wildcats for the tournament.
Calipari may have thrown the first punch, but Stoops did nothing to soften the blow. At the end of the day, nei ther of these teams would exist without the support of the university and its students.
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Support is a secular path. The more university support and exposure any campus team is given, the more suc cessful that team will be and the more fan support will be shown. Bringing in a larger crowd to currently neglected sport events should not only fall on the shoulders of play ers and coaches but on the supporting university.
BAHAMAS STOOPS
Comparison of UK’s mens and womens basketball pro gram prompted Capilouto to give a defensive response, saying “regardless of the sport we will work to provide a facility” to accommodate crowds of 16,000 people – IF the sport brings in that many spectators.
That is a whole lot of nothing. Capilouto’s failure to acknowledge the disparity between mens and womens fa cilities and support on UK’s campus is grossly insulting.
In an interview, UK president Eli Capilouto told the Kernel that UK’s athletic program is fully self-sufficient, paying for all construction and repairs on the athletic fa cilities utilized by teams. Calipari’s complaints about and blaming the state of the basketball program’s practice fa cility on the university falls flat when all the information is available.Capilouto said he holds pride for every discipline at UK, whether that be individual sports or academic disci plines.“As a local editorial page recently reminded us, we are this commonwealth's flagship university,” Capilouto said. “We are one of eight or nine universities in the country that has, on a contiguous campus, this broad array of disci plines. The depth and breadth of talent we have here bodes well for the education that students can receive here.”
Less interest should be shown in the spitting contest of two coaches than is shown in the academic well-being of UK’s students. So, who actually cares?
With a returning national player of the year on the court, five star freshmen and a returning veteran point guard able to be on the court at once, Kentucky’s dominant showing in the Bahamas should hardly be a surprise.While many fans may feel burned after UK’s di sastrous NCAA Tournament loss to Saint Peter’s the year prior and Calipari’s comments going public during the event, it may be hard for Wildcat fans to allow themselves to buy into the basketball program, but if the Bahamas are any indication, the sky's the limit for the Cats.
The need to tear the other program down as op posed to build both will ultimately be to the detriment of Kentucky as a whole as on-the-fence recruits will be flooded with Kentucky fans bashing one of their own teams. If Kentucky fans can learn anything from Florida, and there’s not much to learn, look to the 2006 season in which the Gators hoisted both the NCAA Tourna ment championship as well as the BCS Championship in the same year. Based on the historical success and current hype building around the basketball team and the current success of the football team, there’s no reason for Kentucky to distinguish itself as a football or a bas ketballKentuckyschool.can be successful in both, and currently speaking, despite the postseason struggles of the bas ketball team, UK is a brand that both football and bas ketball opponents cannot overlook on their schedule and that can only mean great things for both programs going forward.
Stroking and soothing the egos of two successful sports millionaires should not be something the university has to divert resources to, especially when there is already a dis parity between mens and womens sport support.
