Big Blue Madness was one, big slap in the face to Louisville

Big Blue Madness was a lot of things. It was fun, exciting, program-changing, but it was also one, big slap in the face to the Louisville Cardinals.

Before we even dive into what transpired within Rupp Arena on Friday night, let’s just acknowledge the drastic difference in attendance. According to The Courier-Journal, 8,544 Cardinal fans were at Louisville Live inside of the KFC Yum! Center. The attendance for Big Blue Madness? “More than 20,000 fans“, as UK Athletics put it. Quite the difference there. Moving on…

The night got started as Kenny Brooks made his first-ever Big Blue Madness entrance in grand fashion. However, once he made his way to the court, he was handed a microphone, and he dropped some truth while taking a very direct shot at Louisville.

“This right here, [Big Blue] Madness, is the granddaddy of them all,” Brooks said in his speech. “There’s a lot of imitators, but this is the best Madness in the country.”

If you thought that was direct, well, he went a little bit further in his media day press conference as he previewed the event earlier in the week.

“You look across the country, and we have an eye on things because we have recruits that go to other places that — like what happened last week,” Brooks said. “I won’t say the names of places that try to emulate Big Blue Madness, but I think what we do here and the way it’s done here, it’s legendary. At Virginia Tech and James Madison, I saw Big Blue Madness, and that’s the one that you felt it was the best one. Anything else is just imitation. I’m excited to be a part of it.”

Kentucky had a pair of 2025 targets, ZaKiyah Johnson and Grace Mbugua, that attended Louisville Live, and both were in-house for Big Blue Madness as well. Brooks might as well had looked them in the eyes when he made that point. It was pretty clearly made for them.

Oh, and the return of Rick Pitino. Even after “winning” a national title at Louisville in 2013, he knew where home was. When Pitino was asked if he ever thought he’d be wearing Kentucky blue again, he gave the most Pitino answer maybe ever.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Pitino said. “Once I left Louisville, I said I’d sleep in Kentucky blue.”

Did Rick Pitino ever think he would be wearing Kentucky blue again?

“Yeah, I thought so. Once I left Louisville, I said I’d sleep in Kentucky blue.” pic.twitter.com/xKqn7yQpXW

— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) October 12, 2024

Ouch, Rick.