UK Excited to Play in Front of ‘Catlanta’ Crowd
ATLANTA – Blue gets in. It’s a well-established fact of life in the NCAA Tournament.
It was true again last weekend, but the Big Blue Nation was stretched in Boise, Idaho. The contingent of Kentucky faithful that made the trip westward was outnumbered by fans siding with underdogs Davidson and Buffalo.
The Wildcats will once again be the favorite this week, but their fans will take a back seat to no one this time.
Not in “Catlanta.”
“It’s going to be packed with blue tomorrow,” Kevin Knox said. “So, that’ll give us a lot of confidence, a lot of momentum. It’s basically going to be like a home game. They’re going to be with us the whole game. They’re going to be loud. So, we’re really looking forward to it.”
Atlanta is home to the South Regional, where fifth-seeded UK (26-10) will take on No. 9 seed Kansas State (24-11) at approximately 9:37 p.m. ET on Thursday night. It will also be second home to Wildcat fans, which is music to the players’ ears.
“We always play good when you got a lot of blue in the crowd,” Wenyen Gabriel said. “The Big Blue Nation always brings their energy to the game and I feel like that helps fuel us.”
Kentucky fans have habitually overrun Atlanta anytime their beloved team plays there. Not surprisingly, their team has habitually won and won at a high level there too.
Each of UK’s last two national championship have taken the Cats through Atlanta, with Kentucky winning first- and second-round games at the Georgia Dome in 1998 and Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in 2012. Kentucky also won five Southeastern Conference Tournament titles in the Georgia Dome and sports a 28-8 record in Atlanta since 1995.
Games this week, however, are in Philips Arena, the home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. UK has only played two games in the facility, which has a more modest capacity of 21,000, losing to Georgia Tech in 2000-01 and beating Georgia State in 2005-06.
Whether the games were being played in Philips Arena, the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium or the construction site where the Georgia Dome used to be, Kentucky fans would show up. That brings an advantage for the Cats, but also expectations.
“It’s definitely a lot of weight on our shoulders, but it’s just another game is how we see it,” Hamidou Diallo said. “We’re going to have a lot of fans here and it’s definitely a big advantage, but we’ve still got to come out and play Kentucky basketball.”
