Are you ever consistently happy as a UK fan?

[justafan]

.....
So it's important. How important it is differs for each of us, but still I think it has a profound place in people's lives.

I liken it to the NBA. Some people won't even pause the remote if an NBA regular season game is on, but might if its a playoff game.

It is exactly the same for UK basketball. Some people will schedule their whole Oct-March around UK games, while others will casually watch them on TV.

[Joneslab]

He fought somebody on a plane and he hit 3's, what else do you need to know?

Fitch had a really interesting backstory that involved being taken in by a family in Atlanta. Seems like the father of that family had some connection to UK, and they wrote Tubby asking him to recruit Fitch. Sort of miraculously ended up at Kentucky.

If Fitch were to play at Kentucky today we'd know every single bit of that story. Not sure if that's good or bad, but we get a ton of exposure to these players. In some ways, if those stories are good, it helps to broaden the intrigue of following the team. I mean, I thought WCS was one of the more engaging players I've seen at UK. Not only his personality but where he'd come from. I would've only known bits and pieces of that story had he come here a decade ago.

[DA#23]

It's difficult for me to admit, but I think I've cooled a bit on the Cats in last 3 years or so, mostly due to work schedule and missing out on many of the games. I still come to this site and KSR daily to keep up on the news, and the game threads here help me develop some idea as to what happened and what I missed. What's different now is that I'm ok with that, whereas a few years ago I would have been pretty aggravated with missing out single games much less the majority of a season. I sat down and watched 4 games last year, and 4 of the 6 games from the Bahamas.

Which is crazy because it will be a while before we're this pampered again.

[Joneslab]

I liken it to the NBA. Some people won't even pause the remote if an NBA regular season game is on, but might if its a playoff game.

It is exactly the same for UK basketball. Some people will schedule their whole Oct-March around UK games, while others will casually watch them on TV.

Well I think the UK fandom is way more fervent than that. This isn't a normal fanbase, which was kind of my point above.

Kentucky fans tend to follow it more fanatically as a rule. We've got people who don't just pause the remote; they watch every game multiple times to see where things went wrong. Pro sports fandom is usually different; I know from being a Reds fan that the way I follow that team and the way I follow UK is radically different. There's just way more of an emotional attachment.

[DA#23]

The times they have changed, Will Lavender. Do you remember feeling disgusted when Jerry T wrote about Azubuike's father? Could you imagine that happening now? Makes me want to vomit.

This era differs though in that 99.9% of it has been glowingly positive, and the media exposure has helped intensify and broadcast that vibe. We have coverage and media exposure never before seen, but much of it has been selective and when you couple that with a group of players that are nearly prodigious in how they interact with the media and sell themselves, you end up with the product we've seen. Cal recruits stars but their talents are founded in a ton of maturity, overall. They don't behave like freshmen.

[Joneslab]

It's difficult for me to admit, but I think I've cooled a bit on the Cats in last 3 years or so, mostly due to work schedule and missing out on many of the games.

I've never seen a human being who refuses to invest in a DVR.

This should be the new WCN project: Buy Matt Colvin a TIVO.

My brother-in-law misses every Saturday game because of work and every Wednesday game because of church. He's the wildest and most intense UK fan I know. I almost had to throw him out of my house during The Wisconsin Debacle. Every morning I go into my kitchen and see a divot in my wall in the shape of his hand, which he put there during the Notre Dame game. But he just tapes every weekend game and watches it later. If anybody tells him the score he becomes violently angry.

It's 2015, Colvin. Time to beef up the TV experience. I gnash my teeth and cuss every time I look at my $140+ cable bill, but I pay that only to watch Kentucky basketball and football.

[justafan]

Well I think the UK fandom is way more fervent than that. This isn't a normal fanbase, which was kind of my point above.
.....

I think my point is, while there ARE fans way more fervent, there are some amount that are content to watch. We can each decide what the % is between those that watch every game multiple times and those that don't. I can count on 1 hand the number of games I've watched multiple times. I have extended family that don't own a VCR much less a DVR.

That goes back to my original point. Those posters on here (generally) will fall in the spectrum that watch games more than once (or pick another item that fans might do). That isn't an indication that all do, just that people that watch games multiple times might seek out a forum to discuss things as well. Conversely, there are posters that will post "I've been on the site for a long time but I don't post very often...." To each his own.

[DA#23]

It's 2015, Colvin. Time to beef up the TV experience. I gnash my teeth and cuss every time I look at my $140+ cable bill, but I pay that only to watch Kentucky basketball and football.

Seriously, that would be the only reason I would have cable here. I watch literally nothing else on television, and when I go visit family I end up watching TV with them. Every. Single. Time. I leave and think to myself, "I wouldn't pay $20 a month to have cable now".

There must be a better way.

Here's a piece of information to better illustrate my situation: I moved to this apartment back in October of 2014. My television ( I do own one, and some speakers lol) sits in the garage. Still in the box.

[Joneslab]

I use my Kindle Fire HD a lot. And we watch some movies. My wife watches reruns and HGTV. But generally our television isn't used unless the Cats are on.

I heard that Verizon is coming out with something where you can pay for what channels you want. That will be a glorious day...but of course the channels the Cats are on will probably be like $25 a piece, so it will probably come out about the same.

[DA#23]

I also want to reiterate that I'm superstitious to a fault, and we reached a point last year where I had not watched the games...and we were undefeated. I wouldn't have accepted a $1,000 cash to watch a game after Cincinnati (watched it because I knew they were joke).

[DA#23]

Honestly this thread is empty until Crazzed weighs in. Not JFCats22, I mean the real deal, CrazzedCats.

[Joneslab]

I'm superstitious too but I also get nervous when I know Kentucky is on and I can't watch. Like, embarrassingly nervous. I almost can't do the DVR thing unless I just have something and absolutely can't watch live.

And if it's not a vital event and Kentucky is playing, I'm not coming. The good thing is that almost everybody in my family is the same way. My mother-in-law, who's one of the only non-fans in my wife's family, jokes that her husband (my wife's deceased father) refused to do absolutely anything during Kentucky basketball season and would just laugh whenever anybody asked him to do anything on game night. I appreciate that sort of stance.

[Wonderstruck]

It's difficult for me to admit, but I think I've cooled a bit on the Cats in last 3 years or so, mostly due to work schedule and missing out on many of the games. I still come to this site and KSR daily to keep up on the news, and the game threads here help me develop some idea as to what happened and what I missed. What's different now is that I'm ok with that, whereas a few years ago I would have been pretty aggravated with missing out single games much less the majority of a season. I sat down and watched 4 games last year, and 4 of the 6 games from the Bahamas.

Which is crazy because it will be a while before we're this pampered again.

This is interesting. I wouldn't say I've cooled, but I've definitely gained more perspective since having my boys. When my twin boys came along, it really shifted. I fell asleep during the games. I missed games. I couldn't focus on every possession. It became more challenging to be "interested" in subpar mid December games. And it was weird at first because it was completely different from what I had been done for the past 20+ years. And I wondered if I was still an "avid" fan. I would question whether I was as big of a fan as someone else. Then I realized that was pretty silly of me and it doesn't matter.

And for me, having my 3 boys has helped me to be more happy as a UK fan. Seriously. Even the loss to Wisconsin, rough as it was/is, I just don't react to them the same way I would have before having kids. The losses stink, but the whole perspective is just different. Not life or death anymore.

[Joneslab]

An interesting thing happens when your kids get old enough to watch, too.

When my son was really little and didn't care about the games, that always gave me some perspective. I used to look at him after losses and think, "Man, he doesn't care whatsoever about what just happened."

Now my son gets as fired up as I do and watches both UK football and basketball obsessively. I think that actually adds to the fandom--this idea that you're passing something down.

Again, it's not life-or-death important. But something like that does have at least some importance in the scope of things. I've been to baseball games with my son and have been stopped by fans who've told me that it's great I'm passing down the love of baseball to my children. I feel the same way about UK basketball. There's something about it that's like a gift.

[DA#23]

You guys remember fall of 2002 when it took a Keith Bogans shot to beat either Athletes in Action or Team Nike (one of those teams of former college stars, had Teddy Dupay)...my Dad, Grandfather, and I listened to it on the radio and I thought I was going to experience my first seizure. Well, that probably wouldn't to me now, although I'd still be pretty peeved.