Hi all in just a few short months i will be moving to Harrodsburg to live with my fiance a UK grad.  I am trying to learn more about UK traditions (gameday, during game, etc.)

I am a sooner grad, so you wont have my heart when it comes to football.  Football gamedays in Norman are one of the things I will miss the most about Oklahoma. but I want to learn more about UK as a whole and BBall so I am ready when the season starts.

So tell me what traditions make UK special?

This says something to me about how great a player Tayshaun is becoming in the NBA when Joe Dumars says this about you.

Langlois: He’s played almost a season and a half’s worth of games just in the postseason these last six years. To get the chance to play that many postseason games over a six-year span is another benchmark of what you’ve accomplished, isn’t it?

Dumars: This group here, man. … I think also with that, maybe I’m wrong, but hasn’t Tayshaun played in the conference finals every year of his career?

Langlois: Yeah, six for six.

Dumars: This guy has never played in anything less than the final four of the NBA. That’s a pretty good one, too. There are some things going on with this group that are pretty special and I just hope … I hope … I hope people understand that what’s going on with this group is pretty special. Sometimes it gets taken for granted and you just shake your head when it is. This doesn’t happen all the time.

Langlois: Prince’s block on Turkoglu last night – and I just wrote something about this earlier this morning – I think the block on Reggie Miller is going to live longer on the highlight reels because it came out of nowhere and was so unexpected, but for my money this was more impressive. You see dunks blocked by big men sometimes who step away from their man to meet the driver at the rim, but to be on the hip of the guy you’re guarding and take him on at the rim without fouling, to me that topped the Reggie block.

Dumars: This was impressive. Miller never saw it coming. This was a mano-a-mano play. Hedo turned the corner and decided “I’m throwing it down. I’m not going to try to lay it up. I’m not going to try to float it.” And that’s a mano-a-mano thing you say to yourself on the court. And Tayshaun said, “I’ll meet you at the rim.” You have plays like that where both guys make up their mind that “I’m going to impose my will on you.” Hedo made up his mind and Tayshaun made up his mind. Those are the most impressive plays. Because there is no surprise element here. It’s one guy saying, “I’m coming.” And the other guy saying, “OK, I’ll be there.” And that’s impressive.

Langlois: I don’t know if you saw the replays or the great shot in the Free Press this morning – he didn’t come close to fouling him. It was hand on ball, no body, perfectly clean block.

Dumars: To be honest with you, I did not, when it happened live, I did not see what happened. I thought it slipped off his hand or he just missed it off the rim. But when the replay went up, I said, “Oh, my God – he got that.” It was impressive. Very impressive.

Langlois: At this point in last year’s playoffs, after playing very well through the first two rounds, he pretty clearly wore down in the conference finals against Cleveland. He’s going to have some time off now, and that will help, but do you believe there will still be residual benefits for not having played 38, 39, 40 tough minutes virtually every night of the regular season for him?

Dumars: I think there are several factors that are weighing in Tayshaun’s and the team’s favor. One is, no one got worn down during the regular season. Two is, for the first time I can remember in a long time, we’ve taken care of business. We have the benefit of rest heading into the next round. And three is, guys know how this thing unfolded last year. There is a strong reminder there. We took care of business in the first round last year, we went six in the second round, we were sitting as favorites in the conference finals and we didn’t get it done. I think the fact they’ve been rested all season and took care of business here with Orlando and they know what’s at stake here, I think all of that bodes well for Tayshaun and the rest of the guys.

Congrats to Sea of Blue on moving on up with the upgrade.

Also, I must clarify this now before questions get asked later.  My username is because I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan and they upgraded to the new system first.

Anyway, with the latest rankings that just came out.  GJ is a three star and I was curious as to if you think he will re-open his committment or if he will indeed become a Wildcat given that most of our recruits seem to be four and five stars as of late.

Just found this addition to Bill Keightley's Wikipedia article (started by yours truly) that states: "The Wildcats not only will not hire a new equipment manager for the 2009 season, but will in fact leave Keightley's chair on the Kentucky bench empty for the season in his honor." This would certainly be a classy move, and one several of us have called for, but the editor provided no reliable source for the edit. Anyone know if this is official? Anyone have a source? 

Comes now Bob Hill, mostly a political and culture commentator at the Courer-Journal, to scold college basketball coaches in general and Billy Gillispie in particular for recruiting so young.  Fortunately, his argument is so bankrupt it only takes a second to dismiss it.  Quoth he:

Does Harvard offer four-year scholarships to eighth-grade business tycoons with an eye on an MBA?

Does the Juilliard School guarantee full academic rides to eighth-graders adept at dance, drama or music? Would Northwestern University or the University of Missouri offer a budding eighth-grade journalist four years of free education?

Recruiting eighth-graders is nuts for any reason at any school -- even as we all realize it's long been done in athletics at the high school level. It's been the subject of years of angry debate and attempted legislation in and among private and parochial schools in Indiana and Kentucky.

Two words for you, Bob -- child prodigies.  Academic and arts institutions like the ones you name have been fighting over these young talents for years.  These young people actually enter college at the ages we are talking about guys like Avery merely deciding on one.

Spare me the nonsense, Bob.  Go back to writing about things you have at least a puncher's chance of having an informed opinion about.

Nothing earth shattering here.  The big news is that Jasper has pretty much decided to leave.  It should be finalized this week.

Other tidbits:

• Williams has been granted an unconditional release, which we knew.
• Meeks is progressing nicely from his surgery
• Patterson is out of his cast.  Doctors are encouraged by his progress.  He will be in a walking boot for 4-6 weeks.

Those are the most interesting details.  More details to follow later.

If you test a man, boil him down until nothing is left except the thing that makes him take one more step when all others around him have fallen, then you are left with the reason why grown men love sport.

  Absent war, sport is the single greatest instrument for revealing character in a man. Politics, love, intellectual pursuit…. All pale in comparison to sport for revealing the fabric of our will when condensed under pressure and layed bare before frothing masses. Some are granite while others crumble to nothingness and trickle away like the ball squirting behind a fragile and broken Bill Buckner.  

 In one instance the entire measure of a man's life becomes due. Like soldiers on a battlefield, it's not until the ultimate questions are asked do you know whether or not you have what it takes to go over that wall. All the training, all the preparation, all the hard work mean nothing when the final bill comes due and you are lacking.

 In sport, as fans, we watch and wait. Sifting through countless hours of ho-hum viewing. Watching and waiting to see if one of those rare moments present themselves where one man will be asked the questions and we hold our breath collectively and await the answers. No movie, no play, no other form of entertainment can compare to those intoxicating moments.

 Rarer still are those players that are born for such moments. Pete Rose, hatless, rounding third and heading for home under a full head of steam. Mohammed Ali pacing the canvas like a caged lion staring through an invincible George Foreman on a steamy night in Africa. Joe Montana with a minute and thirty-nine seconds left on the clock in the Super Bowl.  

 Patrick Patterson is such a player. Inside Patterson's cast iron heart winning and losing are not statistics, they are life and death. Patterson, as in all truly great athletes, takes defeat personally. Long after all hope of winning has vanished the great ones play on because the very thought of losing is hateful and an affront. Men like Patterson play because they must play. In some ancient primordial swamp when men clawed for their existence against great beasts of prey, Patrick Patterson still roams. 

 Loincloth, club, or basketball, he would still be the same man. Patterson is the perfect sum of a million years of evolution. A modern savage at war upon the sterile battlefield we call an arena.  

 Thousands of years ago we roared in approval as the strongest and most gifted among us went forward to slay great beasts in the night. Centuries later we still feel that connection. That admiration.   So the next time you stand at a game in a big moment, maybe it's okay to go ahead and let out your best roar. Scream savagely and perhaps you too can feel that ancient connection to why grown men love sport. We were born to.    

Hey there,

Lots of changes, obviously ... and while there are notes on the main page about who to contact with issues, it's sort of confusing, I know.

So if you have questions, suggestions, issues that you want addressed, post them here and we can pursue them vigorously...

ISSUE #1:
REMOVE Duke ringtones as ad on KENTUCKY SITE...for the love of jiminy...if htey can't control this, they got problems across the network ... rivalries are what college sports are all about!

Good morning and welcome to the new A Sea of Blue, guys and gals.  Below, you will find a very informative post from Trei  Brundrett, the guy who managed the overall process of SBN2 development and migration.  It has been a huge undertaking, but Trei and his team have done a fabulous job with this new platform, and I expect it to deliver a far better blogging experience to our users.

Be sure and migrate your account right away, it is really easy.  When you're done, study the post below and begin enjoying our new home.  Don't be afraid to break anything, just take your time.  The interface is very intuitive, but like all software, it isn't without its little quirks.

Have fun!  Do what you do.  I'll be bringing up a new post soon.

Tru

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Hey A Sea Of Blue,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to A Sea Of Blue from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of A Sea Of Blue and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

A Sea Of Blue now has all the basic information about the Kentucky Wildcats and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Kentucky Wildcats material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

But I just saw Wesley Woodyard's Cat Walk at the Music City Bowl.

Kentucky fans are one amazing group of people be it basketball or football or another sport.

It took him almost 10 minutes to get through that crowd. He was hugging multitudes and signing things for the young kids.

What a great guy and a UK football player.

I wish him the best in the NFL.

Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSGfgI-5KxE&feature=related