You know that Kentucky Wildcats are crazy.
But you didn’t know that they have reached this level of insanity. Last year’s all-time “Big Blue Madness” (the Lexington version of Midnight Madness) campout record has been broken with an estimated 760 tents set up as of Friday at 9 a.m. ET. The 2013 campout held the record previously with 755 tents. With the record number of tents on site, the school said that any new campers will not be guaranteed entry to the event.
Yes, Kentucky Wildcats fans are camping out to watch practice.
“Practice, not a game. But practice,” channeling my inner Allen Iverson. At least for Krzyzewskiville at Duke the kids are camping out to see an actual game. And not just any game, but the bloodfeud versus North Carolina.
But this is practice.
Coach Cal is doing his part, and John Calipari made a staged public appearance to give away a bunch of pillows to the campers and one mattress to one lucky fan. The event was kind of news-ish, but at the same time was also a publicity stunt created to shill bedding supplies so we shied away from reporting it. I hope other outlets did as well, because it was really more of a product placement photo opp than it was college basketball news.
Nevertheless this is quite impressive Kentucky Wildcats fans. We’re very impressed by the level of devotion.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN2.