The Rupp Arena crowd was straight outta the 90s against Georgia State

If you are too young to remember what Rupp Arena was like in the 1990s during Pitino’s run, all you had to do was watch the game against Georgia State in 2024 to know the feeling. It was as if the Uber I took the game to was a DeLorean blasting me back in time to an era when a first-half three-pointer against a mid-major spawned the same level of excitement as a Final Four buzzer-beater.

Shout out to all the out-of-towners who were visiting Lexington for the holidays and were so tired of their family arguing politics over turkey, they channeled that energy into cheering for the only Kentucky game they will watch in person all year. We feel you.

From the proverbial Blue Hairs to the folks with blood-red hairs in their noses from sitting up so high, everyone absolutely brought it. On Koby Brea’s first 3-point attempt, 20,000 people shouted, “THREEEE!” when it left its hand like he was a Travis Ford or Antoine Walker wearing Converse. All we needed was Jock Jams blasting over the loudspeaker.

Don’t get me wrong, Rupp has been great in the last 25 years. But its rowdy moments have typically been reserved for when teams like Kansas have been in the house, or when an opposing player misses two free throws in the second half, earning everyone free Chick-fil-A. You have to go back to the days when Mark Pope was wearing a jersey and not a suit on the sidelines since Rupp was this loud for a November game against a team from the Sun Belt.

On this Black Friday, a packed Rupp gave no discounts on being raucous, organically starting, “Go Big Blue” chants, collectively sighing with each miss or turnover, and willing Kentucky to pick up the defense when the game got uncomfortably close for a short time in the second half.

There was even a ’90s-era on-court skirmish! When that happened, Rupp Arena Blue Coats had to jump out into the aisles to make sure several hundred dudes drinking Coors Lights whose best days were in the ’90s didn’t join the melee. Clash Peters, who threw the cheap shot on Amari Williams to get the technical foul fiesta started, is lucky his flagrant foul wasn’t on Jamal Magloire.

Heck, even the men’s bathroom line at halftime was full of, “I can’t believe the line is this long,” comments as everyone seemed to appreciate there was an extra presence in the halls. When the ‘Cats ran up the score late in the game at the hands of an Otega Oweh reverse dunk, it sounded like Derek Anderson just posterized a Louisville player.

Kentucky won. We can nitpick all the details on how that happened, but if nothing else, appreciate that Kentucky has its soul back in the form of Rupp Arena partying like it’s 1996 again.