UK alum Tom Leach has been the play-by-play “Voice of the Wildcats” for the football Cats for 12 years and nine years for men’s basketball. He is a four-time winner of the Kentucky Sportscaster of the Year award. Tom offers an entertaining and insightful perspective into UK athletics. Column entries will be posted twice per week through April. Read Tom’s full biography
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Count Kentucky coach John Calipari among those against the idea of expanding the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
In the pregame interview for last week’s LSU game on the Big Blue Sports Network, coach Cal was asked for his thoughts on the debate on expansion of the tournament to 96 teams. He does not endorse the idea.
“No, I don’t. I think it cheapens league play and it cheapens league tournaments,” Calipari said. “And I don’t know why you’d mess with anything that’s as successful as this (NCAA tournament). If you want to add a couple of play-in games for teams that have to win their league tournaments, I’d be for that. I have a different viewpoint. I’m not saying mine is right.”
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“It’s certainly an exciting team to watch. They captured the imagination of all Kentucky fans and all of college basketball to be honest. It’s such a dramatic turnaround. I don’t know if there’s ever been one like it.”
So says NBC’s Tom Hammond, who is spending the next few weeks in Vancouver, where he will do play-by-play on figure skating for the network’s Winter Olympic coverage.
That assignment has helped to lessen the withdrawl pains for Hammond, who is not calling Southeastern Conference basketball on television for the first time in three decades. Before Hammond became the SEC’s TV voice, he covered UK sports for Lexington’s WLEX-TV, so he is well-equipped to put the current Kentucky basketball season — and first-year coach John Calipari’s work — into some historical context.
“It (Kentucky basketball) gives people in this state something to be proud of,” Hammond said. “It’s a rallying point, and from the outset coach Cal understood that. He’s reaped the benefits of that. Winning all but one of your games doesn’t hurt either.
“He’s taken the tradition that coach (Adolph) Rupp began and totally embraced it. That hasn’t always been the case here. He understands the psyche of Kentucky fans. Coach Rupp was pretty much of a tyrant and you can’t have it that way anymore. In press conferences after a loss, sometimes he was hard on kids. Coaches today have to be more of a diplomat.”
Hammond says the intense spotlight that is focused on the Kentucky program means this job is not for everyone.
“Every slightest nuance becomes headline news,” Hammond said. “It means so much to Kentucky fans that everything is second-guessed and every little bobble — a misstatement by John Wall that he probably didn’t mean — it’s headline news all over the country. You have to be able to embrace that living in the spotlight that the Kentucky coach has to deal with.”
And Hammond says the return of Kentucky basketball to an elite level nationally is good for business in the SEC.
“Even the rival coaches would admit that,” Hammond said. “As Kentucky goes, so goes public perception of the SEC. It’s good for the SEC — heck, it’s good for all of college basketball — when Kentucky is good. It’s like when the Yankees are good, it’s good for baseball. Those marquee teams, when they’re good, interest increases in all of that sport.”
