The Rupp Arena stander tells his side as the Sit vs. Stand debate splits the fan base

We’re a nation divided, BBN. For years, the sit/stand debate has split The Greatest Tradition In College Basketball, or, at least, the lower bowl of the home arena of The Greatest Tradition In College Basketball. During the Louisville game on Saturday, the issue came to a head when a police officer was sent to ask a fan to sit down during the rivalry game.

A short video of the incident in Section 15 circulated on social media after the game, garnering over a million views. The timing of the clip is funny because the benches cleared in the game, causing everyone in Rupp Arena to stand as the officer dealt with… standing.

Blue Jacket just sent a cop down to tell a dude he has to sit down or get kicked out. Blue Jacket went down snd told him to sit like 5 minutes before this.

Also… a Fight! pic.twitter.com/Pp4V679Qvq

— Immanuel Quickley Enthusiast (@SadKentucky) December 15, 2024

Details around Saturday’s situation are muddy, which is why KSR has been hesitant to further publicize the story that went viral on social media, but we can’t ignore it any longer after hearing from the stander himself on today’s show.

“Caleb,” a senior at UK, called in to KSR on Monday to explain his side as the stander. As he tells it, he stood for the first couple of minutes of the game and then didn’t stand again until there were 10 minutes left.

“I stood for the first two minutes of the game, and a bunch of the fans behind me were yelling to sit down,” Caleb explained to KSR. “And then one of the Blue Coats came down and told me that I had to sit down or I was going to be kicked out. So, I sat down, standing up periodically, but I sat down until there were 10 minutes left in the game, and then that’s when I stood back up and remained standing even though the people behind me were yelling to sit down.”

Caleb added that the fans seated directly behind him told him they didn’t mind him standing. “They said it’s completely fine.”

According to Caleb, it wasn’t fine with the police officer, who told him to sit down or go to jail. When Caleb asked about the crime in standing, the officer told him he would find out if he didn’t sit. Caleb followed orders to avoid any further trouble or potential jail time.

Hear Caleb’s call and KSR’s thoughts on the situation in the second hour of today’s show.

Caleb the Rupp Arena stander on KSR

Here we are, two days removed from Mark Pope winning his first game in the Kentucky-Louisville series, and there is drama around a fan standing up. How would one even explain that in jail?

“How’d you get in here, man?”
“They got me for standing. I was cheering for Kentucky to beat Louisville in Rupp Arena.”

It’s a good thing the Wildcats don’t play in Rupp Arena for another two weeks because Section 15 needs some time to cool off. There is a lot of basketball left in Lexington, including several marquee games that will require some standing.

A UK fan says he was allegedly threatened for arrest for standing at the UK/UL game pic.twitter.com/v3SyRGEOzO

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) December 16, 2024