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Kentucky Basketball

Louisville’s Shame

The Card Chronicle, the self-proclaimed best source for quality Louisville Cardinals news, rumors, analysis, stats and scores from a fan perspective, chose to post a story today called “Kentucky’s Shame.” I won’t link to it. It doesn’t deserve it. The purpose of the article given it’s timing, I’m sure, was to inflame the emotions of Kentucky fans everywhere and humble them into believing Big Blue Nation has the lesser program ethically and morally because we’ve made a couple mistakes in our past. I’ll give them that. Everyone makes mistakes. We learn from them and we move on. But twice today, this same website has brought up race and insinuated that this issue is the differentiating factor…

The Card Chronicle, the self-proclaimed best source for quality Cardinals news, rumors, analysis, stats and scores from a fan perspective, chose to post a story today called “'s Shame.” I won't link to it. It doesn't deserve it. The purpose of the article given it's timing, I'm sure, was to inflame the emotions of Kentucky fans everywhere and humble them into believing Big Blue Nation has the lesser program ethically and morally because we've made a couple mistakes in our past. I'll give them that. Everyone makes mistakes. We learn from them and we move on. But twice today, this same website has brought up race and insinuated that this issue is the differentiating factor between the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky and for some reason it still applies to the rivalry between the two schools because at one time in our long and storied history, Kentucky had a head coach who many opined was a racist. It's not a factor in the rivalry and the mere mention of it only serves to dim the brilliance of this great rivalry. Adolph Rupp was a coach over a span of time when the society in America made dramatic changes. said it best:

“To put 1997 standards on Coach Rupp during the time that he coached — in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s and a couple of years in the 70s — is totally unfair.”

And , Kentucky's first African-American head basketball coach, said it himself and I agree:

“I know there have been a lot of people who thought he was a racist. But I think the times can dictate how people act — where you're brought up, how you're brought up. If he was a racist, he wasn't alone in this country. I'm never going to judge anybody. . . . That's a long time ago, too . . . You learn from the past, and you go on.”

That's all I'm saying about that.

But since the Card Chronicle stooped that low, I'll stoop to that level too because I seem to recall a fairly recent event that did not cover decades, but merely 15 seconds, was far removed from the Rupp era and is not considered ancient history that suggests Louisville is not so squeaky clean ethically or morally either. In case the Card Chronicle needs a reminder, here it is from of the Lexington Herald-Leader:

“Thing was, despite 's performance Thursday, the damage was already done.

It was one thing for the coach to admit in a prepared 2009 statement that he had what he termed consensual sex with Sypher in a restaurant in Louisville; it was another to hear the coach in a public courtroom describe the intimate details of the encounter that night.

Duration: “No more than 15 seconds,” testified Pitino.

In our punch-line times, you can only imagine where the Internet ran with that. (Christian Laettner's winning shot that beat Pitino and Kentucky with 2.1 seconds was a popular comic reference point.)”

You can read the full version of John's article here.

Yes, I went there. And now I'm done and I feel better. Now, bring on the game.

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