UK wins on Mr. Wildcat day

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CSTV U-WIRE) LEXINGTON, Ky.—Familiarity.

On a day in which the Kentucky men’s basketball team honored what is considered one of the most famous faces in UK basketball history, Bill “Mr. Wildcat” Keightley, the Cats (6-3) got back to the familiarity of victory, defeating Mississippi Valley State 88-65 on Sunday at Rupp Arena.

Even Mississippi Valley State (0-10) had a face familiar to Cats fans. Its head coach is former UK player Sean Woods.

“It was awesome to come back to UK,” Woods said. “I was just glad I didn’t have to play against anyone that coached me.”

Something Woods may have noticed to be a bit different from his playing days were the uniforms the Cats wore for the game. Instead of the traditional home white jerseys, UK donned black uniforms with “Keightley” on the nameplate where individual names usually go.


The jerseys came as a surprise to the players &mdash they didn’t find out about the change until 10 minutes before the game when the alternate uniforms were hanging in the locker room. The homage to the longtime equipment manager is something sophomore Patrick Patterson said he wishes the Cats could do every home game.

“I wish we could wear black at home and white on the road,” Patterson said. “They make us look good. Plus, what can you say about the man that we honored with them? He is loved and missed every day.”

UK head coach Billy Gillispie reiterated Patterson’s comments during his post-game news conference. He said there is never too much you can do to honor Keightley, who died on March 31 from internal bleeding caused by an undiagnosed spinal tumor.

The Cats also honored Keightley with a video played before the starting lineup was announced, as well as several other videos throughout the game. Keightley’s retired jersey was re-raised to the Rupp Arena rafters, and UK coaches and staff wore a lapel pin of a No. 48 UK jersey. Keightley’s first year at UK was 1948.

“Everything today was perfect,” Gillispie said. “Well, except for these pins. They shouldn’t have made them slim-fitting. Mr. Keightley could never have fit into a slim-fit.”

While the man honored was the epitome of familiarity to UK fans, the Cats saw themes on the floor that have become familiar this season. Coming off a 73-67 loss to Miami on Saturday in which they trailed by 20 at halftime, the Cats started slow again on Sunday.

“There may have been a little bit of a hangover,” Gillispie said. “We did some good things today, but we definitely have some things that we need to improve on.”

One of the improvements was getting Patterson more touches in the post. The improvement allowed him to record his 12th career double-double, with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Jodie Meeks found his shooting stroke again and recorded 24 points.

“Coach Gillispie has a lot of confidence in me to make a play,” Patterson said. “My teammates always look for me down low and they did a better job with that tonight. I told everyone to put the ball up and I would go get it.”

While the Cats are 6-3 on the season, Gillispie said the ceiling for this team’s potential is extremely high as long as improvements are made in the right areas. Gillispie is looking for more leadership when the team is facing adversity, something he addressed in both post-game news conferences this weekend.

With six days before their next game against Indiana, Gillispie and Patterson both said they expect a hard week of practice that will translate to the improvement needed to get the Cats back to another familiar place &mdash in the top 25 and back in the talk for a national championship.

“This team is going to be really good,” Gillispie said. “Six-and-three is not a good record for us right now, but this team is improving at a fast rate.”

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