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John Calipari has done far more than hit a "home run" at UK, and he hasn't coached a minute.

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Continuing with our run up to Big Blue Madness 2009, we are presenting some excerpts from Wildcat Tip-Off for your viewing pleasure.  I know I missed yesterday, but we'll make up for it along the way.  It is Big Blue Madness season here in the Bluegrass, and I know UK fans are chomping at the bit to see our new team lead onto the floor by our new coach.  It's exciting in a way that we haven't been excited in a long time around these parts, and it sure does feel good to me.

I can almost feel the transformation coming over the Big Blue Nation even as I write this -- the adrenaline, the passion, the anticipation is literally palpable.  I wonder how many other large fan bases have suffered through a long, dry spell with little to celebrate and then have suddenly been reborn like this by a sudden change in coaching.  I know Alabama football fans have had this feeling, and as the time grows nearer, I could almost wish for it every year.  Who knows, perhaps my wish will be granted?

It has been long since Kentucky could celebrate anything.  I remember celebrating over the victory in the Las Vegas Invitational tournament last year feeling foolish, almost guilty.  You know it has been a long time coming when UK fans start celebrating minor tournaments like that as though they were an SEC championship or something.  Kind of a sad commentary, in a way, but also a hopeful one -- all that pent-up energy in UK fans is about to explode in the college basketball universe like a supernova born of a blue giant star, and it is going to be a spectacular, unforgettable sight that outshines the light from everything near it.  I can hardly wait.

Today's excerpt will be from my article entitled "Blue Storm Rising:  The Rebuilding of the Roman Empire of College Basketball," something I wrote to get the Big Blue nation in the mood for this year's version of the Wildcats, and it follows after the jump.

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A New Skipper Brings New Life

To the surprise of many, John Calipari, then of the Memphis University Tigers, rapidly became the leading candidate and in a whirlwind of activity, was signed as the new Kentucky head men’s basketball coach. UK had been unenthusiastic about Calipari in 2007, but in the interregnum, all Coach Calipari did was go 66 –6, reach the national finals, and have two of the better recruiting classes in NCAA history at Memphis. That got Mitch Barnhart’s full attention, and before you could say, "Beale Street," John Calipari was the new coach at tradition-rich UK.

Calipari was everything Billy Gillispie wasn’t: outgoing, gregarious, friendly to a fault, and relentlessly positive. Where Gillispie’s comments were often marked by sharp candor and almost cruel honesty, Calipari was the consummate sharp-witted media darling, giving interviews and making personal appearances almost as fast as he could be asked, and in basketball-mad Kentucky, he was asked very fast and very often. But Calipari displayed none of the surliness or careful vagueness of his predecessor. Instead, he appeared to revel in the attention and did far more than just "hit a home run"—John Calipari took the first pitch with bases loaded and sent it careening over the center field wall and out of the stadium still on the rise. It hasn’t come down to earth yet.

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I have been recently informed that the list of retail outlets for Wildcat Tip-Off will be expanded to include Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Books-a-Million, along with the places listed here.

via www.maplestreetpress.com