Most of you remember the Kentucky Wildcats, yes? They're the SEC member appointed to "buffer" the conference and protect valuable football programs from a potential nuclear strike if the Yankees declare war again. We've also kept their membership valid because they're really into this basketball thing, and we're a fan of hollering about titles, period. Georgia's Gym Dogs taking home another NCAA crown? Make a damn t-shirt! We'll wear it! #DYNASTY
UK will kick off their Midnight Madness Friday at uh, 7pm local time. Midnight Madness is apparently an homage to a loophole about the permitted official start of basketball practices. Also, it's a really, really big event even though it's not at all an official game and takes places eons before the rest of the nation starts paying attention to the sport. The gang at Sea Of Blue are even writing poems about it.
So for fans of the other ten SEC programs (Quidditch season starts soon, Commodores!) straining to understand the novelty of this event, think of the bizarre, sold-out numbers Alabama posts for its annual Spring intra-squad scrimmage. They've even got the demagogue who failed to win in the pros and fans who commit psychopathic acts in the name of their beloved team. In fact, just take everything you know or might assume about the culture of Alabama football, give it a basketball and put it in the ominously lily white Commonwealth of Kentucky in a barren Appalachian winter.
For more on Kentucky hoops, visit A Sea Of Blue. For more on college basketball, check out SB Nation's college hoops hub. For more on college football, because it's only October, you just stay right here.