[Cactus Jack]

Growing up UK basketball was extremely important to me. I watched every game I could. The 92 team was the peak of my fandom. Once I got married and started having kids UK basketball became less important to me. As my kids got older and my life got busier, watching UK became less of a priority. When Calipari was hired in 2009 started falling out of love with UK. I absolutely did not want Calipari to come to Kentucky (my dislike for Calipari goes back to his days at UMASS). The Providence game was the first game this season that watched more than a couple of minutes this year. Many times I never knew they had a game until someone posted it on Facebook. Maybe this will change when Calipari leaves Kentucky.

The bolded kinda hit me in the feels. From '92 to '98, things were great, even though they were very not great just a few years before.

As I've gotten older, the games do seem as though they don't mean as much and I find myself skipping or being indifferent to them more frequently. Part of that is undoubtedly due to the prominence of AAU, the influence of shoe companies, conference expansion, one and dones, transfers, or NIL money, but I think that overexposure and market saturation are just as much to blame. It used to be a much bigger deal to play in an event like The Derby Classic, which is much more affordable to the average fan than the McDonald's All American game or Jordan Brand Classic. I can remember sitting up in the middle of the night to watch tape delayed regular season games on Jefferson Pilot, but now I start most games that I'm able to watch late via a streaming subscription and time it so that I can skip through the commercials and still catch the last five minutes of the game live so I don't risk spoiling it on social media or sports news sites.

I do appreciate what Calipari has been able to do, but I think that barring a very strong finish to next season, it could be his last. Whether it gets better or worse after is anyone's guess, but I have a feeling that things will ebb and flow as the next coach's honeymoon phase ends, past successes become more distant, and the speculation about who'll take over next heats up.