-Tradition is something that fans of Kentucky men's basketball have come to inherit, something that has stood the test of time and coaching changes. No matter who took the reigns, Kentucky was always had a coach who both respected the tradition of the proud program and also wanted to do everything in their power to further it.
New UK coach John Calipari's move today makes me wonder whether he is that coach.
Calipari has basically given walk-on guard Landon Slone the silent treatment according to reports by Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal, which in turn, has been Slone's indicator that he is not welcome in the hallowed halls of Rupp next season.
While this situation may play itself out in the next few days, it seems like this is something that the fans of Big Blue Nation are sorrowly overlooking.
Richie Farmer, Brandon Stockton, John Pelphrey, all players from rural Kentucky counties who have played for the Big Blue. It's been the roots for the fanbase, they are players the common fan can relate too. Granted yes, these are all former Mr. Basketball winner in the state, but the concept is still the same.
Slone played sparing minutes last season for Billy Gillespie. In those minutes, he proved his worth. The kid bleeds blue, he's always been a Wildcat fan, and would gladly sit the bench for three more seasons if that means success for the Cats, just being able to practice and play for UK is enough for him.
But according to Slone, he was ignored by Calipari and instead talked to an assistant coach who told him that Calipari's teams feature a total of two walk-ons in his nine seasons at Memphis (and one was last season, J.J. Henry, who was used to lure his younger brother and top-10 2009 prospect, Xavier, to Memphis. Xavier signed with Kansas after de-commiting for Calipari when he left for UK).
As a lifelong Kentuckian and someone who has seen the devotion to the program that I have seen over the years, the fact that UK fans are not at all upset about this confuses me and gets me to thinking that the rose-colored glasses are fitting a little too tight to their collective faces. Yes, this is a new era of UK basketball. Calipari has the best recruiting class possibly ever coming to UK, he has support, charisma, more money that most second-world country's annual budgets and a reputation of winning as of late. But all that has made for a possible loss of tradition that could be imminent.
It's not a crime to let Slone go. But it could be the first step in UK losing the tradition it has held on to for so long. Kentucky graduates players, Cal's teams at Memphis routinely graduated less that 10%. UK keeps a clean program (excluding the Eddie Sutton years), the 1996 Calipari-coached UMass team was forced to vacate it's Final Four appearance after players received improper benefits.
People can change, Calipari may do so. Maybe the new coach comes in and not only reforms the teams ways on the court, but also reforms his reputation off it.
But something that doesn't need reformation is the proud Kentucky traditions, and they must hope that Slone's cold-shoulder treatment isn't the first step to that.