When you have a fan base as passionate as Kentucky’s, you’re bound to find people out there who don’t share our sentiment. For one reason or another, they’ve decided not to accept the smothering embrace of the Big Blue Nation. Then you have players or coaches who have managed to twist the knife, etching unforgettable scars on our memory. So here we present another edition of The Big Blue List, the Ten Biggest Villains in Kentucky Basketball History.
To note, this list shies away from media members, print, radio, video or otherwise. We all know a few media types who can’t be objective and seem to let their hatred of Kentucky basketball hang out as an open secret. We’ll just not be mentioning them here at all.
The opinions expressed are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nationofblue.com or its partners.
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[B]10. Edgar Sosa[/B][/CENTER]
I know what you must be thinking. There were a lot more annoying players who played for Louisville than Edgar Sosa! And in a way, you’re absolutely right. As a matter of fact, there are several more annoying characters on UL’s current roster than Sosa. (I’m looking at you, Mike Marra!) But most other players don’t lay claim to a 25-foot jumper to steal a heartbreaker from the Cats.
In 2009, tied at 71 with 22.9 seconds to go, Sosa brings the ball up the court and sets the play. Kentucky guard Michael Porter is on defense as Sosa sets the play. Inexplicably, with about ten seconds to go, Porter backs off somewhat, putting a good ten feet between the two. Sosa takes advantage of Porter’s mental lapse, takes two steps to set himself and drains a 25-foot three pointer with two seconds to go. Caught off guard with no time outs remaining, Porter heaved a desperation 40-footer that wouldn’t have hit sand if it fell off a camel to seal the dagger loss.
The worst part of it, Jodie Meeks had scored seven straight points to rally to the 71-all tie. All for naught.
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[B]9. Digger Phelps[/B][/CENTER]
I know we said we were shying away from media members on this list, but the Digger Phelps/UK feud goes back long before the curmudgeonly Phelps started color-coordinating his highlighters with his pocket squares. Phelps was the coach of Notre Dame from 1971-1990, a period where The Fighting Irish played the Cats pretty regularly. A lot of animosity supposedly centered around an agreement between the two schools to play their series on a neutral floor. Before Phelps was hired as Coach, the two schools signed a long-term agreement to play all their games at Freedom Hall in Louisville. Phelps was never a fan of this arrangement and made his feelings known to whoever would listen. He’s had many run-ins with UK fans, players and coaches over the years.
The icing on the proverbial cake was a Sports Illustrated interview in 1989, in which he said Kentucky’s recent NCAA sanctions stemming from the Emory Worldwide Scandal were far too light.
Since Phelps only had a 4-12 record against the Cats as a coach, and our non-inclusion of media types on this list, he falls to number nine. But I’m sure that if we included his constant negativity towards BBN in his current ESPN gig and the “Vanderbilt College Gameday Incident”, he’d be much, much higher than ninth.
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8. Mike Krzyzewski[/B][/CENTER]
There’s probably not many coaches out there who draw more ire than Coach K. From his smugness on the sidelines to his constant goading of the officials for calls, the man seems to always have a bulls eye on his back. It’s odd that a coach who has only played against the Cats five times in his career has garnered so much heat against him, but he has.
Maybe it’s because of the constant fawning and pawing by the national media types, who consider him a saint who could do no wrong. Or maybe it’s because he was able to play a player (Corey Magette), who admittedly took money from a summer league coach in high school, but didn’t have to vacate any wins for it. I hear the same thing happened to a coach out of Massachusetts some years ago and they had to vacate all their wins. What was his name again? Or maybe he catches it all because he was the coach of “that game” in 1992.
Whatever the reason may be, Coach K has certainly become a thorn in the Big Blue Nation’s collective paw.
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[B]7. The NBA[/B][/CENTER]
I know, I know. We should be proud of all our Cats who play professionally in the Association. And we are. But tell me, what other organization keeps stealing away our best players, or in one instance, our coach? Over the years, several of Kentucky’s biggest and brightest have foregone their remaining eligibility to play professionally. Some were no-brainers (Jamal Mashburn, Rex Chapman, Antoine Walker, et. al.), some were head-scratchers (Kelenna Azubuike, Randolph Morris, Marquis Estill), but every time, we had to say goodbye to a guy who we’d grown attached to. This is much more true in the modern era, where the “one-and-done” has taken prevalence over the college game. Whether you agree with the rule or not, you can’t deny that the NBA has taken away many of our favorites.
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[B]6. Rasheed Wallace[/B][/CENTER]
If you were a fan of college basketball in the early 90’s, you HATED North Carolina. Heck, you probably still hate UNC, but that sheer hatred was white-hot in the turn of the decade. And their big man, Rasheed Wallace, was the poster boy for that animosity. Big, obnoxious and as dirty a player as there ever was, Wallace was universally vilified during his Tarheel career.
During an Elite Eight game against UNC in 1995, Wallace had taken several cheap shots at his defender, Andre Riddick. The last straw came with a vicious elbow to the head only four minutes into the game. Riddick snapped and grabbed Wallace by the throat, causing teammates to separate the two. The crowd was loving every minute of this, watch the replay and you can hear the fans get excited to see Wallace’s comeuppance. It took a team full of players, Rick Pitino and his assistants and three officials to get Riddick off Wallace, who sold shock and innocence the whole time.
I still say Riddick should have pulled an Undertaker and just chokeslammed him then and there.
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[B]5. Joakim Noah[/B][/CENTER]
Just look at the guy. That ugly mug of his is reason enough to call him a villain. Between his overt cockiness, that dumb-looking ponytail and his big mouth on and off the floor, Noah has earned the distinction of being the most hated player to come out of Florida. And that’s saying a lot for a school that has produced Matt Walsh, Jason Williams and Teddy Dupay.
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[B]4. Dean Smith[/B][/CENTER]
You could pretty much carbon copy Coach K’s entry and put it here without much of a change. Although he never admitted it publicly, it was always rumored that Smith despised Adolph Rupp and only stayed in coaching as long as he did just to surpass Rupp on the all-time wins list. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but the long-rumored malice has been the stuff of urban legend.
UNC fans and media types like to paint Smith as a saint, but one only has to look at his past run-ins with other teams’ players. In a 1977 East Regional Final game, Smith ran on to the court , shoved a finger in Rick Robey’s face and called him a cheap player, and something not fit to print here. Smith denied ever saying this, and even had some close associates act as impromptu character witnesses, saying that Smith would never say such things. But one only has to remember that Smith has a history of having cheap, dirty players on his team (Hello again, Rasheed Wallace).
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[B]3. Bobby Knight[/B][/CENTER]
Yep, you almost saw this one coming. You just knew Knight was going to be on this list. He may be curmudgeonly now, sitting on his ESPN gig and mumbling about one-and-dones, the early bird menu at Shoney’s and kids getting off his lawn, but he was just as unlikeable and crass during his coaching days.
Where do we even start? Well there’s the incident with Joe B. Hall in 1974 where Knight smacked him on the back of the head, and assistant Lynn Nance had to be pulled off him.
There was also the Lawrence Funderburke saga, where the talented Funderburke wanted desperately to play for UK, but due to the NCAA’s ongoing investigation into Kentucky’s recruiting practices, made a rash decision to sign with Knight’s IU team. Knight and Funderburke didn’t get along at all, and Knight kicked him off the team. Not long after, Funderburke started showing up at Kentucky games. In traditional Bob Knight fashion, he flipped out and refused to give Funderburke his release. The press got so bad that Athletic Director C.M. Newton had to publicly announce that Funderburke would not play at UK. When all was said and done, Knight would only allow Funderburke out of his Letter of Intent if he transferred to a list of schools of Knight’s own choosing, which included Tennessee, Cincinnati or Southern California. Funderburke decided to defy Knight and chose to walk on at Ohio State.
At the end of the day, Knight did a lot of things that set off Kentucky fans. But he didn’t do as much to draw the Big Blue Ire than…
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2. Rick Pitino
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…Mr. Benedict Arnold himself. It was one thing to accept the Boston Celtics Coach/General Manager position in 1997. Kentucky fans were upset that they were losing the best coach in the NCAA, but took enough solace in the fact that they were taking the very best. We even supported the Celtics and hoped for big things. And we were legitimately bummed out when he was asked to resign his post. But when he agreed to become Louisville’s next head coach, the whole state saw red. (Pun intended) How could a beloved coach like Pitino go willingly to our primary arch rival? This was a pure act of treason, and one that wouldn’t be forgiven.
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[B]1. Christian Laettner[/B][/CENTER]
You know why.
(Dis)Honorable Mentions: Matt Walsh, Chris Lofton, Pervis Ellison, Allan Houston, Devan Downey, Miles Simon, Billy Gillispie
