Wednesday morning's mass move-in of Kentucky fans camping outside of Memorial Coliseum to land seats for Big Blue Madness didn't just happen without considerable planning and work. Kevin Saal and the rest of the UK athletics department are proof of that.
There was Kentucky's Senior Associate AD of Operations at 5 a.m., with wireless microphone in hand, coordinating the progression of 1,000 or so people across the Avenue of Champions, where fans would set up tents on the east and west sides of the Coliseum. His day started by waking up at around 2:30 and being ready for work by 3:45.
So if that sounds a little too early in the name of a public basketball practice, you're not alone.
"My wife would tell you it's not borderline," Saal said. "It is crazy." Oh, but Kentucky is not just any team, and Wildcats fans aren't just any fans. When you're the preseason No. 1 team in the country with the best recruiting class in the history of the game and have eight national championship banners, it's no wonder that a record 650 tents were put up by mid-Wednesday morning, then grew to 755 by Thursday. That's about 25 percent more than the 2012 total of 595.
"There isn't another event like it that we do," Saal said.
What goes into making this 72-plus hour event successful? Try about 125 people and $15,000-$20,000, Saal estimates.
The support workers list includes parking and transportation personnel, the school's police department, security, athletics staffers, EMTs, the fire marshal, and even UK bookstore employees. And let's not forget the stuff that's needed too: portajons, trash, recycling, portable lighting and crowd control barriers.
A maximum of four control cards (which guarantees each fan a max of four tickets per card) are given out per tent, and the tickets are then distributed around 7 a.m. Saturday. The better spot your tent occupies outside the building according to the numbering system painted on the ground, the better your tickets are for the Madness. But the turnout has been so great that anyone else wanting to camp out for tickets may be out of luck.
"It's a special tradition for the university, the Commonwealth, Big Blue Nation, the fans, our basketball program, and the bottom line is that it's a fun, free event, and the athletic department does a great job in the production of that event," Saal said. "The primary objective is to keep the process fair but most importantly to keep it safe."
By 5 p.m. Saturday, Tent City is gone and it's back to business as usual for Saal and Co. At least until Oct. 18, when fans descend upon Rupp Arena for Big Blue Madness.
SHOCK WAVES IN BOSTON
Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb are Boston sports talk radio hosts well-known for their smart-aleck style. They took that to the next level in an interview Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who's on a media tour talking up his new book "The One-Day Contract," by hanging up on the coach after introducing him.
Fred: We are joined by Rick Pitino, former coach of the Celtics, current coach of the Louisville Cardinals who won the national championship. Rick Pitino, hello!
Pitino: Morning, guys.
Fred: You stink. You ruined the Celtics.
And that was that.
The exchange does not come as a surprise given their style. Another instance of that: Shertenlieb commented to Rob Gronkowski in an interview in March 2012, cited by Boston Magazine: "It seems more often times than not, you are a gentleman who indeed likes to take his shirt off."
And ...
"When you go to a club, like, what's the percentage that you will take your shirt off when the music comes on?"
With all that said, the Pitino interview crossed a line into poor taste and clouded judgment.
BACK ON THE FLOOR?
Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena was flooded two weeks ago after significant rain, but the floor should be ready for Razorbacks basketball practice next Monday.
The news is quite important for a team lacking its own practice facility. Still, Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson is getting his team to make the best of the situation. It will open practice in the school's Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) building on Saturday, ArkansasNews.com reports, and it already has held workouts at Barnhill Arena, the school's old stadium.
"What do you do?" Anderson said, per the report. "You adjust. Good teams adjust and you make the best of it."
To restore the surface, the court is being resanded, repainted and refinished.
So what was the exact cause of the flooding anyway? Check out this "CSI" description from Arkansas' sports information department:
"Although the exact cause of the water infiltration is still under review, early assessments suggest that utility construction excavation in the vicinity of Bud Walton Arena, coupled with heavy rains during the night, contributed to the flooding. Based on the information available at this time, it is believed that subsurface groundwater overwhelmed existing foundation drainage pipes and backed up into the arena through a duct drain at the playing court level. While this is a preliminary finding, no conclusive determination regarding the cause of the water infiltration has yet been made."
The Razorbacks went 19-13 (10-8 SEC) last season. Maybe overcoming a little adversity will help get them to 20.
WOLFPACK'S BARBER SIDELINED
Get ready to see more of these notes in the coming days, weeks and years as the sports community continues to become fully aware of the seriousness and dangers of concussions.
N.C. State freshman point guard Anthony "Cat" Barber, a 2013 McDonald's All-American from Newport News, Va., is day-to-day with a concussion sustained Tuesday while battling sophomore teammate T.J. Warren for a loose ball in the team's first official practice. Warren was uninjured on the play.
Barber, ranked No. 40 in 247Sports' Class of 2013 and also one of the top point guards in his class, is expected to be a key contributor for a very young and inexperienced Wolfpack team.
Barber will continue to be evaluated under the school's concussion protocol.
Contributor: Roger Kuznia