Commentary: Wildcats

still one of the

game’s blue bloods
By Steve Behr, sports editor

This one has the dynamic of a familiar situation, only involving football.

Appalachian State travels to Louisville, Ky. to take on Kentucky, at noon on Sports South, for the first time in the Mountaineers’ history. It’s a chance for Appalachian State to make history, if not nationally, then certainly in its own program.

Appalachian State has its share of victories against power conference opponents. The Mountaineers went to Little Rock, Ark. last year, right around this time, and beat Southeastern Conference member Arkansas.

They also beaten Vanderbilt, another SEC school, in the 2006 San Juan Shootout. A win over Virginia gave them the San Juan Shootout championship.

But this one is a little different. This game is against Kentucky.

The Kentucky. One of the blue bloods of college basketball. Rupp's Runts. Louis Dampier. Dan Issel. Jack Givens. Seven national championships

That Kentucky.

In spring, folks in the Blue Grass State turn their attention to horse racing. In winter, it’s Kentucky basketball. They live college basketball in Lexington like they do in Chapel Hill, Durham, Kansas, Indiana or UCLA. They are also blue bloods, but those programs have won as many games as the Wildcats.

Does all of this remind you of another Appalachian State game, only involving the football team?

A lot of players say, no matter who they might beat, that “nobody gave us a chance to win” when they pull off an upset.

However, Appalachian State chose to ignore those people when it went to play Michigan.

Good for them.

Nobody outside of those guys in the visitors locker room at Michigan Stadium thought they had a chance.

Gotta admit, I didn’t either.

I thought it would be close, but close as in the Mountaineers’ 24-0 loss to LSU in 2005. Just play hard, stay with the Wolverines until the fourth quarter and keep the score respectable.

Little did we all know Appalachian State would actually win 34-32 and touch off a firestorm of publicity from all over the country, ranging from ESPN — the sports conglomerate with a heart — to major newspapers covering ASU’s next game against Division II Lenoir-Rhyne.

Beating Wisconsin, or Northwestern, or Illinois is not the same as beating Michigan. The Wolverines have tradition in football few teams — Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas, LSU and Oklahoma come to mind — can match.

This game has a similar dynamic. I know Kentucky is down. In fact, the Wildcats are not even in the top 25 of either poll. Their rivals, Louisville, is No. 9 in the AP poll.

Still, you don’t get this chance to play a team like this very often. Kentucky is the all-time leader in victories, like Michigan is in football. Kentucky sells out a huge arena every year, just like Michigan sells out the Big House.

They have tradition. They have a rabid fan base. They have great players.

Just like Michigan in 2007.

The only reason why a win over Kentucky would not bring a similar reaction is that the Wildcats have already lost to VMI earlier this season. Of course, Gardner-Webb ruined it for anybody else to pull off THE shocker of the century when it beat Kentucky last season at Rupp Arena.

Still, a win over the Wildcats would be the biggest feather in the cap of Mountaineers coach Houston Fancher. Time would tell as to whether it would be his Michigan. A win over North Carolina, at this point in time, would likely get more of the local’s attention.

Nevertheless, should the Mountaineers pull off a shocker Saturday, it wouldn’t hurt when it came to attention to the program. While attendance, helped by three national championships, has soared with the football program, the basketball team still plays in a half-empty Holmes Center.

Maybe a win over the Wildcats can change that.