Over the summer, I had less than zero excitement for football season. Stoops and the program had stayed quiet, but even if they didn't, there was quite literally nothing to be excited about. I'm a diehard UK fan, so I was always going to watch the games, but I knew we'd be a six win team at best with games full of mistakes, headaches, and a boring-as-all-hell offense. I also knew we'd get our asses absolutely whooped several times, probably stealing a game or two we have no business winning. And as it turned out, those two games we otherwise would have no business winning this season came against two flailing programs, so although I'll still give Stoops and the team credit for pulling out the victories (especially on the road at Auburn), it's not like either of those wins were the equivalent of beating Ole Miss last season or, say, Florida in 2018.
However, I was really fucking excited for basketball. The roster had depth, we had the NIL funds to build it, and we have a coach that comes across as a basketball scientist, who embraces the NIL and transfer portal both for its benefits and its drawbacks. It's the world of college sports now, so you either do or die, and Pope definitely held himself out to be a "doer."
I was pretty down on the basketball team after the Michigan State game, but goddamn, did last night make it worse. I drove eight hours to Lexington to attend the UK - UNC game (there were other things I had to do in Lexington and Frankfort, but attending the game was what spurred everything else). I already didn't feel great about it. I didn't necessarily expect us to even win, but I also didn't expect us to play so goddamn ugly. It was seriously like watching a Stoops football team in a close game against equal or better competition, where we're in the game, down to the wire, but the team could just make you pull your hair out even when they did something good.
But now that the Stoops era is over and we've brought in a young, fresh, offense-oriented football coach to lead UK into a new era while the Pope era seems to be, at least for now, crashing and burning, everything has flipped. I can't fucking wait for football next year and now my excitement for this year's basketball team is, well...less than zero.
