[Spud6]

I'm a Old School Hound and just plain Old School. I remember the '75 Mideast Regional final win over top-ranked Indiana(I loved seeing Bobby Knight's wife in tears). I remember James Lee's dunk in the final seconds to put the icing on the cake in UK's Nat'l title win over Duke . Fond memories of guys like Givens, Lee, Larry Johnson, Dirk Minnefield, Charles Hurt , Melvin Turpin(all KY guys, btw) who we got to know over fours years and who played with great passion and pride for their home state university. We really connected with those teams, felt like we knew the boys. It may just be me, but seems like it's not quite as much fun in the "one and done" era as it was in the old days. I still watch most games and root for UK but by the time you start to become familiar with the kids, they have moved on(a lot of times to a NBA pipe dream) and another group is shipped in to replace them. It's been several years since a Final Four and one title under the current captain of the one and done(same as Coach Hall).
Again, I root for the Blue, but I it is just not as exciting to me as it used to be and I really think the era of "one and done" has contributed to that. Midway through the second half of UK's loss to KU, I found my attention divided between watching a some guy named Askew try to direct a confused offense and watching you tube videos. Used to, I live and died, so to speak, with every possession in every UK game. It's just a different time and a different game, I guess. I mean, let's face it, a school from the Pacific Northwest named the Zags have been consistently ranked higher than Kentucky for several years now and a little Catholic school in Chicago( a team loaded with upperclassmen) has been to a Final Four more recently than Big Blue . I guess the young people on here can't relate to what I am saying but maybe a few of the older folks might. Anyway... Go Cats!!!

I’m rapidly becoming of the older variety, Old School Hound, and your post pretty much summed up my feelings exactly. Used to, I would plan my whole schedule around whatever time the game was. Now I can find other things that catch my interest. Perfect example, last Sunday I watched the first half of game against Richmond, then said to my wife let’s get outside and do something, this is boring. And we were ahead at the time!
I know, I know, times change and we have to adjust. But you were so right on how much more invested you were when guys were here for four years, and you had one or two in-state guys to really root for. The fans that are younger and really only know the one and done concept don’t know what they missed.

I feel like a lot of folks share the same sentiment as they have lost a lot of interest because of the player connections aren't there anymore. I follow the recruiting of each player pretty vividly but even I have trouble learning names until about the third game of the season. The last title we won had a man named Darius Miller who provided a lot of experience to that very talented squad. I think the years of the one and dones being able to be title contenders are over. Everyone is good at basketball now a days and the skill gaps are much closer than they use to be 5-6 years ago. So if Cal doesn't figure out a way to get guys that aren't just strictly there to get NBA scouts interested in them early. Then Cal's lifetime contract might be something he decides to rethink because he knows Kentucky fans are crazy.