Gameday a Success! Rupp puts on a show like no other.

When the University began to publicize their goal of getting 24,000 people to fill up Rupp for a TV show on a Saturday morning, many were a bit skeptic and thought it had the chance to be an embarrassing epic fail on national television. I too, had my doubts, but I tried to rally the troops as much as I could, buying 8 tickets myself and spreading the word to every Cat fan I knew. The entire Big Blue Nation rallied together and proved once again, that nobody does it quite like us. Some may call us cocky or obnoxious, but days like Saturday give us the right to be. We don't just have a really good basketball team, but we rally behind them and show unbelievable support, even in seasons like last year, that is unparallelled to anywhere else.

When you have that much pride, passion, and support that we all displayed on Saturday, with a total of probably about 40,000 different people (as Coach Cal pointed out...most of us there Saturday morning did not have tickets to the game that night) throughout the course of that day walking into Rupp and making noise, we have the right to be very proud! We have the right to pump our chests out because we're not like your stereotypical fair weather UNC or Duke fan that likes a team for no other reason than the fact that they're really good. At Kentucky, it's just so much more than the team itself. It's being a part of the Big Blue Nation and the passion that comes along with it that is simply absent at other schools. It's about feeling connected with our program, something that Coach Cal understands and has done a brilliant job of doing this season!

Whenever The Nation has an opportunity to show everyone else just how big we are, we come out in full force. Whether it be for Midnight Madness, Gameday, preseason tournaments in Mexico, or the SEC Tournament, the Nation is everywhere and it always steps up when called upon. Perhaps, the next Big Blue record setting attendance event could be in Commonwealth Stadium? Cal talked about having Madness there this year, and it could be a possibility again next year. Hopefully they'll also be having a pretty big event in early April when the team comes back from winning #8 in Indianapolis.

UK promoted the opportunity to sell Gameday out and actually distribute tickets (which hasn't even been done before for the show) and of course, the fans responded. The team responded as well, as they have all year long in hyped up crowds at Rupp, with a double digit win over the 12th ranked Volunteers. The Bob Knight-less Gameday crew did a great job interviewing Calipari and putting together a piece on the "John Wall Dance". The event also included a game of HORSE afterwords with Wildcat Legends Chuck Hayes, Jodie Meeks (in town for the Tennessee game- how fitting), Kyle Macy, Richie Farmer, Goose Givens, Wayne Turner, Tony Delk, Scott Padgett, Cameron Mills, and Kenny Sky Walker, among others. Capping off the night with a win, it was a great day in Lexington!

Below are a few pics I was able to take from my upper level seats. Enjoy.