My first UK-Louisville basketball game was all it was hyped up to be

I didn’t grow up watching UK basketball religiously.

I grew up in Charlottesville, Va., where sports aren’t exactly the toast of the town but are important nonetheless, and the people love the Virginia Cavaliers and despise the Hokies of Virginia Tech.

The basketball rivalry between the two wasn’t what the football rivalry was, but losing in a rivalry game was always a bitter pill to swallow.

Alas, I never had the opportunity to make it to one of these games until I was a senior in high school and even then it wasn’t a juggernaut of a game or anything. It was a battle from the opening tip to the final buzzer, but it was with NIT hopes on the line or perhaps a potential NCAA Tournament bid.

On Saturday, I experienced my first UK-Louisville basketball game. It didn’t disappoint.

Yes, the game itself was lackluster. A rhythm was never established, the jump shots looked more like some of my own than that of Division I basketball players, and the game was highlighted more by a forearm blow that Kimbo Slice would have appreciated than by a basketball play.

But the atmosphere leading up to the game and during the game was indescribable. The buzz and intensity emanating from the Rupp Arena stands was palpable.

As I sat at the press table along the baseline prior to the opening tip, I found myself with a bad case of the jitters. I couldn’t spell anything correctly, I couldn’t focus on anything in particular and it felt as though someone had unleashed a field of butterflies in my stomach. And I wasn’t even playing!

My big question going into the game was how much the UK players were going to feed into the rivalry. After all, UK plays with four freshmen from North Carolina, Alabama and Oklahoma and a sophomore from Maryland. These guys didn’t know about the rivalry. They’d just gotten messages on Facebook and at local restaurants from fans who said they wanted nothing else than to beat Louisville.

Well it only took eight seconds for me to realize the intensity and fire wasn’t just in the stands but was also alive and well on the court.

Freshman guard Eric Bledsoe had to be removed from the game by UK head coach John Calipari for jawing with a Louisville player. 37 seconds after that, three technical fouls were called in a skirmish involving UK freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins and Louisville forwards Reginald Delk and Jared Swopshire.

So there it was, three technical fouls in 45 seconds and multiple players having to be restrained. What more could a rivalry ask for?

And it turns out that wasn’t even the start of everything. The Louisville and UK players were pushing and talking before the game even began. When the Louisville players were announced prior to the start of the game none of them came out of their huddle on the bench. Before the tip off there was no shaking of hands or pats on the back. It was all business.

And it didn’t stop there. John Wall and Jerry Smith were given technical fouls midway through the second half for continuing to talk back and forth after the officials told them to break it up.

After the game, Cousins was open in talking about the physicality of it all.

When talking about the tussle in the opening 45 seconds with Swopshire, Cousins said he didn’t know anything about a forearm and that he was just going for the ball.

“It got physical,” said Cousins who finished with 18 points and 18 rebounds for his fourth-consecutive double-double of the season. “I guess he couldn’t take it.”

Cousins continued by saying the intensity made the game even more fun and that Louisville’s plan of trying to egg him on and get in his head didn’t work.

“I mean I’m not going to get into it, just the little stuff,” said Cousins about the trash talking in the tunnel prior to the game. “We’re here to play ball, but hey, they wanted to take it there and we came out with the win.”

I love my hometown of Charlottesville, and the Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry is great in football and always intense no matter the sport, but my first UK-Louisville basketball game is an experience I’ll never forget.