Lottery Running Diary

Being a senior and after hearing about the craziness of the previous student ticket lotteries, I decided I should participate in the last lottery of the year, if for nothing else other than the experience. This is a running diary of that experience.

6:41 p.m. — Can’t find a parking spot. Looks like the first thousand already beat me.

6:45 p.m. — I get sticker No. 438, but the guy handling them out informs me that there are eight others like him. He estimates 1,000 stickers already given out. I estimate he’s right.

6:55 p.m. — A UK Police officer yells at everyone to stand on the far edge of the sidewalk, next to the grass. Reason being: a girl was hit by a car last lottery. I told you these things are crazy.

6:56 p.m. — Having already met friend No. 2 after parking, friend No. 3 races from her class in Breckenridge Hall (halfway across campus) in 4 minutes to get a a sticker. Her sticker is in the 800’s. One person alone has raced through over 400 stickers in 11 minutes. Friend No. 3 races back to class in order to take a quiz.

6:59 p.m. — Friend No. 4 arrives with sticker No. 1,265. Yes, it’s only been three minutes.

7:20 p.m. — UK Police and security personnel keep patrolling the sidewalk like we’re prisoners. Most of the people really are prisoners — of UK basketball.

7:25 p.m. — One lone guy is pushing a car down Euclid Avenue while a girl steers inside. 6,000 people watch him. He fakes the turn up Lexington Avenue before stopping. 4 people offer to help, 5,996 keep watching. Eventually, they call a tow truck, a UK athletics member stops traffic on Euclid and four guys He-man the car into the Student Center parking lot. Only at the lottery.

7:26 p.m. — Somehow, no one was hit/hurt in the previous exchange. But we’re all still freezing.

7:30 p.m. — I hear the people up front chanting Blue/White back and forth. Must be close to time to be let in.

7:45 p.m. — Nope, still freezing. I think I’ve lost toes.

7:59 p.m. — More chants, we really are close this time.

8:00 p.m. — The masses pour into Memorial Coliseum and the entire group is in within eight minutes.

8:08 p.m. — We all need a yellow sticker with 108 on it. Let’s hope 108 is called first.

8:20 p.m. — The group of friends realized what I’m doing. I’m caught. Oh well. Memorial is nearly filled to the brim. Half the students around me are looking at the Kernel lottery section or today’s Kernel. Success.

8:30 p.m. — We’re about to start any minute now, Carl Nathe has been speaking to me for 20 minutes now. I feel like I should hear “It’s football time in the BLUUUUUEEEEGGGGRASSSSSS” any minute now.

8:45 p.m. — Still haven’t started calling numbers, but Carl Nathe has been replaced by rap music. I miss Carl. Bring him back.

9:00 p.m. — We’re starting, but with some words from our sponsors (student groups). Everyone boos.

9:05 p.m. — Matthew Mitchell shows up, someone next to me cracks that the women’s basketball coach just wants to see what Memorial looks like filled.

9:10 p.m. — Mitchell takes the mic and the guy next to me proves correct. Mitchell rambles but here’s the short version: come to women’s basketball, because hey, we’re ranked too.

9:11 p.m. — The numbers are released and out of 164 groups, I’m in group 138. I could be doing this for nothing. I hate all lotteries.

9:15 p.m. — If I’ve done the math right, I think my group is safe. Barely. Let’s just say my group doesn’t trust my math. There’s a reason I picked journalism as a major. No math classes.

9:28 p.m. — Still waiting, while the entire row in front of me is empty. I have awful luck.

9:39 p.m. — And we still wait. The “dead” groups in front of us have stopped around the 28 group mark. Let’s hope there are more to come soon.

9:50 p.m. — We’re at the point where those left in the stands are threatening violence against those who have already bought tickets and may or may not sell them. Like I said, crazy.

10:07 p.m. — Halfway to tickets. Going to be close.

10:20 p.m. — I’m putting this away. I’ll check back in when it’s all over to let you know how things panned out.

11:58 p.m. — Finally home (no thanks to the snow blanketing Lexington) with tickets to all three games. The best seats are for Tennessee in Row BB. Not the best, but hey, tickets were had after a nearly six hour adventure. Thank goodness I’m a senior.

Cousins growing up as season progresses

UK freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins has come a long way, not only on and off the basketball court, but also in becoming media savvy.

Earlier in the season when asked about the Cats’ upcoming game against defending National Champions North Carolina, Cousins shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn’t impressed.

On Monday, when the Mobile, Ala., native was asked if there was a little extra something to Tuesday’s game against Alabama, Cousins had the politically correct answer.

“It’s just another game,” he said with a noticeable smile on his face.

“No big deal.”

In high school, many labeled Cousins as a hot head, and his attitude wasn’t viewed favorably. At UK though, while his attitude and on-court demeanor have been brought to the forefront at times, Cousins has become a fan favorite.

In postgame interviews, he dons glasses for his “Peter Parker swag.” On and off the court, some fans refer to him as “Boogie,” some as “Dancing Bear,” while others prefer “Big Cuz.” No matter what the name, there’s no doubt Cousins has grown.

“He listens,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “When you tell him something, he understands it, and then he can go do it.”

Cousins said he’s grown up a lot on the court, pointing to his decision-making abilities and overall basketball IQ, but he also said he’s very misunderstood. Cousins doesn’t believe other big men, like Kansas’ Cole Aldrich, get beat up the way he does.

“I mean, I feel like I’ve grown up a lot,” Cousins said. “But I’m not a different person, I’m still the same DeMarcus.”

With the bull’s-eye that most teams have put on Cousins, the star power he has started to create is something of a new phenomenon. He was highly touted coming out of high school, but also received the negative comments from scouts, fans and others. At UK, Calipari said Cousins is finally starting to be looked at for the right things instead of the bad things.

“Here’s a kid that’s being loved by the staff, that is being loved by the community,” Calipari said. “Instead of looking at weaknesses, we’re all looking at his strengths –  now let me just say this – for the first time in his life.

“So now all of a sudden, he’s just like ‘this is great,’ and he wants to learn, and he wants to get better,” Calipari said.

On Monday, Cousins earned his third SEC Freshman of the Week honor to go with his SEC Player of the Week award he earned in the eighth week of the season.

With eight games remaining on the schedule, Cousins is averaging a double-double with 16.4 points and 10 rebounds per game, good enough for seventh in the SEC in points and second in rebounds.
Calipari put the numbers aside and talked about Cousins as a teammate to demonstrate what kind of player he is.

“He wants to score and rebound, but it’s more about us winning,” Calipari said. “And who bragged more about John Wall early in the year other than him? Anybody? He was it. He was John Wall’s PR machine early in the year. It was him … that’s the kind of kid he is.”

Now Cousins, like Wall, is beginning to receive Player of the Year attention. But Cousins said he’s not worried about any of that recognition. It’s all part of the game.

“I mean I’ve noticed, and I’ve heard about it,” Cousins said. “But I’m just playin’ ball.”

Mitchell’s message remains the same as wins pile up

UK head coach Matthew Mitchell is becoming repetitive.

“As we go forward and we continue to work through our schedule, I’m basically saying the same things to (my team),” Mitchell said.

The “same things” Mitchell preaches to his team have become engrained in their minds since the beginning of the season. Over the course of the season, and especially during the No. 17 Cats’ (20-3, 8-2 Southeastern Conference) current seven-game SEC winning streak, Mitchell and players always reveal the key to UK’s success.

“Defense. That’s how we win games is defense,” said junior forward Victoria Dunlap when asked what message is best remembered from Mitchell’s speeches to his team. “Defensive fundamentals are going to help everything with defense, defense, defense.”

The defensive message seems to be on playback in Dunlap’s mind. Yet Dunlap, UK’s team leader in steals and blocks for the second consecutive season, is now joined by her teammates in regularly giving stellar defensive performances.

Last week, freshman guard A’dia Mathies nullified Ole Miss’ Bianca Thomas, the SEC’s leading scorer.

Over the course of the season, UK’s calling card has been defense and the Cats lead the SEC in steals and turnover margin. UK manages to create much of its offense through opponents’ turnovers. As a result, UK sits atop the SEC in scoring offense. Last season, the Cats finished 11th in scoring offense.

But does Mitchell’s message ever get stale for the players?

“No,” Dunlap said. “Even though it’s the same thing, he says it in different ways.
“It’s a good thing that he keeps telling us (the same things) because if he didn’t, we could be in a different spot where we would settle for where we were before SEC (play) started, and settle for beating the teams that we were,” she said. “Just the fact that he continues to keep saying it to us gets our mentality right.”

Mitchell joked he does try to tweak the message for his players’ sake, but at this point they know what is expected from them.

Before Mitchell could simply repeat the message, he had to teach his team the message.

In the first month of the season, Mitchell once again favored repetition as a means to instill a certain defensive mindset in his team. For 21 straight days, his team went through rigorous defensive drills to form the habits necessary to execute nonstop, 40-minute, man-to-man defense.

“They’ve done a good job of embracing hard work, and that’s what has them in a position to be pretty special,” Mitchell said. “The thing where we are right now is we just still have so many games left to play … we have to make certain that we stay true to who we are, stay true to our identity and stay humble and hungry.”

This message will probably be what Mitchell tells his team before upcoming games against ranked opponents, the first of which against No. 19 Georgia on Thursday night.

As long as the end result is strong play on the court and a ‘W’ in the win column, the same message for these Cats will sound sweeter each time.

“I’m really, really proud of them because the message could possibly get a little boring and they don’t seem bored out there at all,” Mitchell said. “They seem pretty energized.”

Videos of Calipari, Cousins and Orton

UK head coach John Calipari talks about UK’s upcoming game against Alabama.

More Calipari on Alabama and the makeup of his team.

Calipari talks about the growth of freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins and the remainder of UK’s schedule.

DeMarcus Cousins talks about his relationship with Alabama, if there’s any bad blood present and not getting many calls down low in the paint.

Daniel Orton talks about Alabama and where he is right now with his game.

The SEC asks, you answer: Who is the better dunker (with videos)?

The Southeastern Conference has a question they want fans of the 12 respective SEC teams to answer: who is the best dunker?

The candidates are pretty sound: John Wall, Travis Leslie (Georgia), Michael Washington (Arkansas), Scottty Hopson (Tennessee), Jarvis Varnado (Mississippi State) and Jeffery Taylor (Vanderbilt).

So with the obvious voting power of the Big Blue Nation (UK wins all online competitions because of them, right?) you would think Wall has a commanding lead?

Wrong. Taylor currently leads with 39 percent of the vote. Wall is second with 22 percent. You can vote here: http://www.secsports.com/default.aspx

But if you’re struggling with your vote, here’s a little side-by-side comparsion. Thanks to VUcommodores.com for the Taylor video and whoever taped the UK game on ESPN for the Wall dunk.

Taylor

Wall

Dunlap retains her SEC Player of the Week honor

Junior forward Victoria Dunlap came up huge in UK’s (20-3, 8-2 Southeastern Conference) two wins over Ole Miss and Arkansas last week, and her efforts have been recognized as she was named SEC Player of the Week for the second consecutive week.

Dunlap averaged 20 points and nine rebounds in the two games. Her seven rebounds against Ole Miss on Thursday moved her past the 700 mark in her career. After eclipsing 1,000 points in her career the prior week, Dunlap is just the eighth Cat to register more than 1,000 points and 700 rebounds in a career.

Dunlap ranks in the top five of six SEC statistical categories, including scoring and rebounding.

The Player of the Week selection was Dunlap’s third this season and seventh of her career.

Cats move up to No. 3

With the loss of the previous No. 2 Villanova Wildcats, it was only fitting another group of Cats enjoy the benefits.

UK (22-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) moved up one spot to No. 3 in the newest version of the Associated Press top 25, and received two first-place votes.

Kansas (22-1)  remained at No. 1  in the land, with Syracuse (23-1) and UK moving up one spot to Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.

Villanova (20-2) dropped two spots to No. 4, and West Virginia (19-3) moved up one spot to No. 5 after previous No. 5 Michigan State (19-5) lost back-to-back games on the road to Wisconsin and Illinois. The Spartans weren’t aided by the injury of starting guard Kalin Lucas.

Purdue (19-3) moved up to No. 6 this week and Georgetown (17-5) remained at No. 7 in the polls despite thumping Villanova. This is likely due to the Hoyas getting upset by South Florida earlier in the week.

Duke (19-4), Kansas State (19-4) and Michigan State round out the top 10.

Mississippi (17-6, 5-4 SEC), previously No. 25, fell out of the top 25 after losing to UK 75-85 on Feb. 2. Only two teams other than UK remain in the top 25. Tennessee (18-4, 6-2 SEC) moved up two spots to No. 12 this week and Vanderbilt (17-5, 6-2 SEC) checks in at No. 22 after losing to Georgia on Saturday.

The Cats are ranked No. 2 in the Coaches poll, receiving one first place vote.

Cousins named SEC Freshman of the Week

For the fourth time this season, UK freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins was named a player of the week in the Southeastern Conference. This time it was SEC Freshman of the Week, his third time winning that award this season.

Cousins averaged 18.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in wins over No. 25 Mississippi and at Louisiana State. Cousins has recorded six straight double-doubles on the season, and is the first UK player since 1989 to accomplish that feat. Cousins’ 14 double-doubles on the season lead the SEC and are the most by a UK player since 2000.

Cousins is now averaging 16.3 points and 10 rebounds per game on the season.

Cousins earned SEC Player of the Week honors in week eight, and has been named SEC Freshman of the Week for weeks seven, 11 and 13.

Too many fans, not enough tickets: Students spend hundreds to attend UK basketball games

By Jordan Hall

Thousands of UK students will line up along the sidewalks of Memorial Coliseum on Monday night in hopes of lucking into some blue gold — UK basketball tickets for the Southeastern Conference games ahead.

Because of the dramatic increase of attendants at this year’s lottery compared to last year’s, more students have been leaving Memorial Coliseum empty-handed. The discrepancy between supply and demand has led these students to other, more expensive ways to gain access to Rupp Arena.

At the lottery, tickets are $5 per game, but journalism sophomore Kayla Hayden spent $250 on tickets to the UK vs. University of North Carolina and UK vs. University of Louisville games combined. Even though Hayden did not enjoy paying that much for tickets, she said she would pay anything to show her Cats pride.

“I have been to every big game since I started school at UK,” Hayden said. “To me you really can’t put a price on a ticket.”

Accounting sophomore Bo Zimmerman has spent $305 on tickets this season. Scalping has become a necessary course of action for him because of his unlucky history at the lottery.

“I simply think the dispersing of tickets should be on a first-come, first-serve basis,” Zimmerman said. “This would truly separate the bleed-blue fans from the sellers.”

Unlike Hayden and Zimmerman, some see the lottery as an opportunity to make  a little extra cash for gas money, groceries or a trip to the mall. Craigslist, eBay Inc. and Facebook Marketplace are all filled with students selling their tickets to make an extra buck.

Social work sophomore Laura Kosik  sees the lottery as an opportunity to cover her grocery bill for the month. She sells her student tickets on Facebook Marketplace.

“I always think of the extra money from ticket sales as free groceries,” Kosik said. “After I sold two Ole Miss tickets for the eRUPPtion Zone I literally went straight to the store and got my groceries for the month. I couldn’t imagine wanting to go to a basketball game for $5 when I could have free groceries for a month. I don’t bleed blue enough to pass up free money.”

Because of the popularity of UK basketball this season, increased attendance has prompted changes to the lottery procedures. On Monday, doors to Memorial Coliseum will close once the crowd exceeds 8,000, according to a UK Athletics e-mail sent on Feb. 3.

Students will form two lines and will be let in between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Those who plan to sit together at games should line up together and have their IDs ready for when they enter the building. Lottery tickets­ will be distributed upon entrance to Memorial Coliseum as opposed to being distributed from the top of Coliseum ramps.
For more information on how to purchase tickets, visit (www.ukathletics.com.)

More students needed to make Rupp intimidating

After just about every game at Rupp Arena, opposing players and coaches tend to address the 24,000 fans and tell them how it’s unlike anything in college basketball.

Sometimes, players admit to gawking a bit before the game. Since it’s happened regularly here since 1976, Lexingtonians can lose sight of how staggering such a gathering is just to watch a 40-minute basketball game. Needless to say, it doesn’t happen everywhere.

But once the game gets going and semi-enochlophobic visitors ground themselves a bit, the Rupp crowd blends in with the rest.

Can’t blame students. UK athletics has had to put a recent cap on attendance at the ticket lotteries, so now “only” 8,000 students can vie for available tickets between three games. The students don’t need anyone to tell them how to make Rupp loud. Problem is, not nearly enough get in to make a difference.

Acoustically, UK fans come in with a handicap against them. Rupp Arena offers nothing more to fans than a giant box to sit in and watch basketball. Unlike most other college arenas in the country, Rupp is totally quirkless. And I suppose it was designed that way; just get more butts in seats than anywhere else.

As a result, it takes record-setting crowds to really get Rupp rocking. And what group of people is most likely to risk its own welfare just to make noise?

Answer: the same group that shows up to a stink-filled Memorial Coliseum on a Monday night, fingers crossed just for one swipe at some of Rupp Arena’s most eminently average seats.

With a built-in disadvantage, Rupp needs all the help it can get to make sure its atmosphere stays daunting once the initial awe wears out.

And the Lexington Center and UK athletics can work together to make it happen. Give more seats to the students.

It doesn’t make sense economically, maybe. And college basketball, like any other sport, is a business. But the powers-that-be should consider adding more student seats—just look at it as a marketing ploy.

With UK—at least this year—the team itself can’t do anything more to inspire fans to file in. If a fan doesn’t want to make the trip to Rupp because he finds this edition of the team uninspiring, he’ll never show up. Rather, fans want to be there to be a part of the moment. Experience something you can’t just watching at home.

Problem is, the Rupp Arena experience isn’t all that special. Might as well just watch at home, especially considering all the trouble it takes just to get in the same room as what seems like just a handful of available (and affordable) tickets.

Right now, UK’s on-the-floor student section, the eRUPPtion Zone, seats 650—about 3 percent of the total attendance. More student seats are available in the lower and upper arenas, but the eRUPPtion Zone is the difference maker.

On the other hand, Duke’s student section—where the infamous Cameron Crazies reside—seats 1,100. For “big games,” students reportedly cram in 1,600 in those 1,100 seats. Cameron Indoor Stadium only seats about 9,300, which means students fill about 17 percent of the arena.

What if 17 percent of Rupp Arena patrons were students on the floor? That would translate to nearly 4,100 students in what would surely become the rowdiest, most-easily abhorred arena section in all of college sports.

And Rupp would be louder than DeMarcus Cousins’ fashion sense. TV cameramen would be assigned entire games just to keep an eye (a lens, I guess) on the students. Slap some high-priced advertisements on the facades of the section, and the Lexington Center and UK just made their money back.

If nothing else, opposing coaches and players wouldn’t be talking about the sheer volume of people after games.

Ears still ringing, they’d have to yell.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail jpennington@kykernel.com.