Monday evening was the beginning of the Mark Pope era at Rupp Arena. It’s our 20th season as season ticket holders and our first in our new seat location. My teenage son and I arrived at Rupp Arena 40 minutes prior to tip and took a walk around the concourse to see if there were any changes to start the new season. The first concession stand in lower arena seemed to have changed to a grab and go type of area, was that new or had that changed last season? We made our way to the upper arena area and bought a hot dog, box of popcorn, and two Cokes for a total of $24. I should have gone for the Buffalo Mac and Cheese bowl but that will have to wait until next time.
We made our way to our seats to eat and settle in to our new location, our 6th over the years. Other than having to walk past a half dozen folks and trying not to step on their feet with my own oversized feet, we were both pretty pleased with the location and view. Speaking of the view, that new floor is such an improvement over what we’ve been watching them play on the last few years. We had a few empty seats in our row. The true test of the seat comfort in our row will be during the more crowded games during conference play.
I have to say, the player intros prior to tipoff were accompanied by the loudest fireworks I’ve ever heard during introductions. Did they pack the gunpowder extra tight?…maybe I’m just getting old and those things might annoy me now more than they used to in my younger days but it seemed extra loud. As far as the game goes, I was really impressed how the Cats came out with purpose and I never felt the game was in doubt after the first few minutes. You won’t catch me bashing Coach Cal too much, but one of my main criticisms had been with those young talented guys overlooking lesser competition. I don’t think we’ll see that with this bunch and I think this coaching staff will prevent going forward. We should see a similar level of competition on Saturday but then it ramps up big time next Tuesday in Atlanta against Duke. I’m really looking forward to seeing us play against some elite talent and think we have a good shot with the way Lamont Butler and Otega Oweh defend on the perimeter.
I’ve written very infrequently on this site over the last two years but will try to pick up the pace with this new basketball team and fresh start. It should be a fun brand of basketball to watch but I imagine there will be games where the Cats may succumb to superior athleticism and talent, as it is a very difficult conference and non conference schedule as well. We’ve seen them for a grand total of 40 minutes of real basketball, but I’m predicting a 22-9 regular season record. Well, that’s it for now, thanks for reading and Go Cats!
