It's understandable that Big Blue Nation is hurting right now. Doubts abound as to the future of the head coach, the immediate potential success or failure of the current squad and everything in between.
But I swore I would try not to pen yet another "Our fans sorta suck" post. It's hard right now to stay positive about the UK fans, quite frankly. While I'll acknowledge that the vast majority of fans want what's best for the program, there is one thing that I cannot condone, and one which the UK fanbase seems particularly prone to doing: piling on.
We know by now that Tubby Smith hasn't done a great job in recent seasons, even a barely passable one by his and our standards. But the ugliness that a small but vocal contingent of fans are exhibiting goes far beyond the pale and borders on its own sort of bandwagoneering.
Do you really need a fourth message board post on Tubby's supposed "failed" recruiting? Is that post in which you respond to an already debunked rumor about Randolph Morris not going to class by saying that this season is "Team Turmoil III" really the best you got, Anonymous Internet Hero?
And we wonder why the more logical and thoughtful concerned fans for Kentucky basketball get drowned out nationally by the Youtube videos of unintelligible stupidity by a grown man and his "benefactors."
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It's sad to see, actually, since UK fans were once known as obsessed but knowing. Now? We're reduced the sum of our worst parts.
This is not about Tubby Smith at some point. It's about the soul of the program, about what's most important to us collectively. And about what voices we let represent us as Kentucky fans.
So prepare to choose, intrepid Big Blue fan. Are you going to side with the Katmans of the world? Are you really going to blame Tubby Smith for rumors that you cannot prove but simply choose to believe? Are you going to choose to believe rumormongers and stats mavens over your own experiences?
If so, then go ahead, knock yourself out, Joe UKFan. If so, you lose your moral high ground. If so, you choose the easy way out. There are no mulligans here.
Because the piling on is amateur, embarassing and not worthy of our long and gloried history. Watch the world point and laugh at us. Watch it and realize it's laughter at our expense, and be sure to thank your fellow fans who couldn't resist the urge to belong to the new hip crowd of the "Anti-Tubbies."
Watch and wonder what will become of us if they get their way. Because if they do, and all their rumors and hopes and dreams come to fruition, then they have won the soul of the program.
And judging by the last few weeks, won't that be fun?