Diehard Kentucky fans from Spain attend first game, dissect offensive issues

The Big Blue Mist is known for touching all four corners of the United States and everything between, traveling to Kentucky basketball games across the country no matter the event, venue or opponent. “You people are crazy,” head coach John Calipari says after seeing neutral-site and road games essentially become home matchups thanks to blue-heavy crowds.

That’s just America. What about outside the country’s border? Fans may not be able to see games in person and the time zones are off, but they’re there — worldwide.

The latest example? Jacob and Jairo Bravo, brothers from Spain who also happen to be diehard Kentucky fans. After a lifetime of cheering on the Cats overseas, the duo finally got the chance to see UK play for the first time ever in London to open the month of December. And it was a good one, with the Wildcats taking home a 73-69 victory over the Michigan Wolverines at O2 Arena.

“We are great fans of college basketball, and in my case, a huge fan of Kentucky — the No. 1 team in the world,” Jacob told KSR prior to the event in London.

Where did that fandom start? You’ll have to go back over 25 years during the Wildcats’ national title run in 1996. Since then, it’s been all-Kentucky everything.

“The ’96 Final Four, you know? That team was exciting to watch and I really fell in love with Kentucky,” Jacob said. “After that, I just started to follow the team, learned a lot about our tradition, our history. Every year, every season I’ve been following the team. … I will always bleed blue and I’ll always be a Kentucky fan whether we win or lose.”

Fast forward to 2022, and his first chance to see his beloved Wildcats in action finally came during their trip to London. Next up? A trip to Lexington to see Kentucky play inside Rupp Arena.

“It’s a dream come true for me, having the opportunity to watch the team live. It’s something I could’ve never imagined, you know?” he said. “Seeing the warmups, seeing the full game, it’s a very important day in my life. Kentucky basketball has been with me for more than half of my life. It’s a dream come true. My next step is going to Lexington and watching a game live at Rupp Arena.”

His brother Jairo is the host of a Spanish-speaking college basketball podcast called College 360. During KSR’s visit with the two brothers, Jairo shared his perspective of Kentucky’s offensive struggles from across the pond — and it’s clear the local gripes are actually worldwide.

“Who is the go-to guy?” he said. “Who has to shoot? I’m someone who thinks (Oscar) Tshiebwe doesn’t need a lot of touches to produce, you know? You don’t need to get him the ball in the post to create anything, he’s going to get 20-10. It doesn’t matter how you involve him in the game. You need to make Cason Wallace more efficient offensively, you need to get (CJ) Fredrick and Antonio Reeves the touches to shoot.”

“On offense, we’re stuck,” his brother Jacob responded. “Something must be changed with Calipari. We’ve seen things collapse around Oscar. From there, you need shooting outside to have a more efficient offense.”

“I quite like the idea of Cason Wallace running the point more often, but I understand it’s college basketball. Sahvir Wheeler is the experience,” Jairo added. “He’ll probably play the last minutes of the game, but I’d like Cason Wallace to be more free to generate for the team. Wheeler, I know it’s controversial with Kentucky fans, but he should have his 20, 25 minutes and leave Cason Wallace to be the main guy offensively.”

The analysis extended into talk of Chris Livingston playing the four and an emphasis on Wallace, CJ Fredrick and Antonio Reeves sharing the floor together, among other talking points.

Check out KSR’s complete conversation with the diehard fans from Spain below:

Basketball Bennies aren’t limited to America, that’s for sure.