Todd Svoboda as the Y, Oscar Combs, Pope on SportsCenter, and more Colgate leftovers
We’ve talked plenty about Kentucky’s “weird” performance vs. Colgate last night. Hopefully, the Cats allowing the Raiders to come back from a huge first-half deficit and stick around most of the game was simply a Gonzaga hangover and/or a sign they’re looking ahead to Louisville and not indicitive of something more.
There were some non-basketball notes that warranted mention. Before we fully shift into Louisville mode, let’s dig into some leftovers.
What a moment for Todd Svoboda
In 2014, former Kentucky forward Todd Svoboda was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer. Doctors installed a mega prosthesis in his right leg and everything seemed fine until this past July, when he started experiencing intense pain. An infection had developed around the mega prosthesis and the only solution was to amputate his right leg above the knee.
Big Blue Nation rallied around Svoboda, raising over $40,000 on GoFundMe to help him and his family pay for a prosthetic and modify their home. He’s been spotted at several games this season and was reunited with Rick Pitino and his former teammates at Big Blue Madness. Last night, he was the honorary Y, a very cool moment for a Wildcat who has been through so much.
Right after that, Kentucky went on a 12-0 run. Coincidence? I think not.
Get well soon, Oscar Combs
Tom Hart snuck in plenty of fun KSR references into last night’s broadcast (Ryan Lemond’s inconsistency, the sage that got placed in a puddle of water) but his best shoutout was to Oscar Combs. According to Hart, Combs is recovering from a fall. The elder statesman of Kentucky sports media took to Twitter this morning to thank Hart and all of the fans who reached out to him.
“Big thanks to my friend Tom Hart of ESPN for kind words during UK-Colgate last night. I’m on the mend back. Will take some time, but will respond to everyone who texted or tweeted when I get to use my right arm again. I love my Big Blue Nation family.”
Shoutout to this lower-arena Rupp Arena fan
The atmosphere at Rupp Arena has been awesome this season. There are mixed reports about last night’s crowd — to be fair, it was a weird game — but one lower arena fan did his best to rally the troops. Shoutout to Nate in Section 13, who stood up despite the protests of those around him to cheer the Cats on. He even made an appearance on our Rapid Reaction, telling Drew Franklin that he hasn’t attended a game in a few years and he was ready to do what he could to help Kentucky get the W.
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We need more Nates.
Pope went live on SportsCenter after the game
Before heading to his postgame press conference, Mark Pope hopped on SportsCenter for a live hit. He covered a lot of topics in four and a half minutes, but my favorite comments were about his wife, Lee Anne, and the support fans gave the team both in Seattle and at Rupp Wednesday night.
“I’m slightly biased, but I’m blessed to be married to the most amazing woman on the Planet Earth,” Pope said of his wife. “She’s a gamer. She is an important part of this team as well as our daughters. And BBN, they were incredible tongiht. We were really in an energy deficit and BBN just stood up, all 20,000 of them and started giving us love that we didn’t quite deserve and that carried us through. It’s unbelievable. It’s just Kentucky. There’s nowhere like it.”
The SportsCenter crew also got Pope’s reaction to clips of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Davis talking about Kentucky’s hot start in the new era. Considering both played for John Calipari, this could have been awkward, but Pope handled it perfectly.
“It is incredibly important to us that we continue to make all the players and coaches that worked miracles here over the decades, that we make those guys proud because we get to enjoy this because of what they did. This was built by them. This Kentucky family, man, there’s an enormous pride in what this is. It spans through generation and generation. It’s our turn now to carry this torch and it’s a ton of brilliantly beautiful pressure to live up to the expectations and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
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