When Gators Attack: Is that a reptile in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

Orange and Blue Hue, both a friend and an ideological opponent of A Sea of Blue, takes me to task over my post yesterday about an article by Chris Diggs at the Courier-Journal which basically makes the point that the Gators' recent run of success doesn't elevate them to Kentucky's level.

I went further, and accused Gator fans of trying to achieve the status of "Kentucky Rival".  Gatorpilot, the author, frequent commenter and contributor to the AOL Sports Blog community, is aghast at my assertion and writes a long post debunking it.  His premise is essentially that the Gators are all about winning championships, and that how we Kentucky fans view the Gators is irrelevant.

Gatorpilot makes some good points, but his faux shock and outrage is actually kind of humorous, and in my view, validates my earlier comment.  He claims not to care how Kentucky fans see the Gator basketball program, then writes a thousand words or so explaining why they should.

Make no mistake, Kentucky intends to return Florida to it's rightful place as an also-ran in the SEC and nationally.  Now, whether or not we accomplish that remains to be seen, but a decade or so of outstanding basketball is something many teams have accomplished, and most of them (99% or so) return to previous form.  

Here at UK, we have been outstanding for 80 years.  I think the Gators deserve the recognition they are getting both in football and basketball right now.  But you don't become a rival of Kentucky by beating us 6 times in a row during down years.  Sorry, Gators.  Arkansas accomplished much more, beating us when we were very, very good -- and when you look at them now, realize that the odds are pretty good that will be Florida in a few years.

And hey, Gators, don't worry -- remember, its just like Gatorpilot said -- it doesn't matter what we think.  You don't need our recognition to declare yourselves a "rival", so why all the angst?  Just laugh us off, be proud of your trophies, and keep telling yourselves this is only the beginning of a dynasty.  Who knows, it may even be true ...

In your dreams.

Thanks to UK Big Blue Cats blog for the link to this post.  Also, UK Big Blue Cats points us to this article in the Raleigh News-Observer about Patterson's failure to "click" with the Blue Devils.