Let the kids stay up! Nick Mingione encourages no bedtimes for NCAA Super Regionals

Nick Mingione guest starred on Kentucky Sports Radio’s Wednesday morning radio program, joining guest host Tom Hart and the rest of the crew by phone from Kentucky Proud Park as the Wildcats prepare for the upcoming series against Oregon State. Late in that 18-minute conversation, Mingione was asked about Kentucky drawing the 9 p.m. time slot for Game 2 on Sunday night. “The start times did not do you any favors,” Hart told him.

Unbothered, Mingione shrugged off the late start in the Supers, citing sold-out weeknight crowds in Rupp Arena and more than 50K fans at football games next door as examples of UK fans rallying around the Wildcats. It’s why #WeAreUK is his favorite hashtag, he said, because the University of Kentucky is one.

“I’ve been here for eight years, and I’ve sat in Rupp Arena and, Tom, you’ve been in there at nine o’clock at night on a Tuesday, and there’s 24,000 people there,” Mingione said of UK’s fan base. “Twenty-four! You’ve been there. You’ve been there. You’ve seen it. You’ve been in our football stadium; we’ve had over 50,000 people. So, look, a nine o’clock start, I’m really not concerned one bit, because I’ve seen what our fan base has done.”

He then recalled Kentucky winning its first-ever regional championship in 2017 in his first season as head coach, beating NC State at the old Cliff Hagan Stadium in the middle of the night. “That game did not finish till after one o’clock in the morning. The game did not start till after nine o’clock after a lightning storm on a Monday night, and the fans were there,” he reminded KSR and its audience.

“So I actually am not concerned, and I know they’ll come because that’s what they do. They support our programs as well as anybody, I mean, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a midweek or a Sunday night; there’s no school, so I know the kids and where they’re going to want to be.”

A message to BBN: Let the kids stay up

Nick Mingione left KSR listeners with some parenting advice for any fans who may be questioning whether they should allow their children to stay up for Kentucky’s late games in the NCAA Super Regional, the first-ever Super Regional in Lexington.

“Hey, I know the kids got to go to bed. “I’ve got a nine-year-old. But we’re interested in not giving Reeves, our son, things. We’re more concerned about giving experiences. And a kid at 11 or 12 o’clock at night will remember that baseball game more than they would staring at the back of their eyeballs in a bed on a random Sunday, June night. So Big Blue Nation, let’s give our guys and our kids an experience that they will never forget. And they will not forget that.”

This message from @Coach_Mingione had me ready to run down Nicholasville Road to the stadium pic.twitter.com/lK07xQ5paS

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) June 6, 2024

Hear Nick Mingione on KSR with Tom Hart, Ryan, and Drew

Listen to KSR’s conversation with Mingione halfway through the second hour of today’s podcast. You can listen to the entire show here.