Better Get Used To The Haterz

As documented recently at A Sea of Blue, media sports writers seem to have it in to speak negatively about the University of Kentucky basketball team everywhere you turn around. In fact it's become so bad lately that the whole concept of irrationally hating on Kentucky has spawned Big Blue Nation's next best thing in the UK blogosphere: UK Bias. Just one visit there and you'll get the bitter taste of how bad it really is, and with the Patrick Patterson signing, hating on Kentucky is just going to get easier and easier for those who despise Kentucky's rich history in college basketball.

I'll leave the documenting of such events in the media to UK blogger colleague UK Bias, however recently with the booming of his site and one recent incident involving ESPN has got me fuming about how media guys who claim to follow and know Kentucky yet use their national audience to speak or … suggest by their awful spelling disrespectfully against U of K. And is it coincidence or have these guys honestly not do their homework which normal joe schmoe guys like you and me would expect these guys in much higher positions to report fairly and unbiasedly the news in sports. Maybe we're just naive to think maybe these guys wouldn't be influenced by their salary and fame.

At first when I heard of fans talking about how Kentucky has been treated unfairly in the media, just go to ASOB who links to some fairly convincing instances here, and here for example, I thought it was an overreaction, but now that it has come to my attention, I begin to see, with thanks to UK Bias and other links that Tru over at ASOB spits out for us from time to time, that maybe the reality is Kentucky is the most hated college basketball school. Add the seven titles, countless final fours, and UK's role in the 1966 title game and all of a sudden every UK fan is a racist trailer park redneck who can't spell but can stack beer cans in his spare time on his mom's coffee table while making YouTube vids calling for Tubby's head!

Now, I don't like calling people out, I rarely do, but when I do, it's usually because I'm very upset such as this next case considering who it is behind the subject.

JL Blue at A Sea of Blue directs us to an instance just as recently as yesterday where ESPN's Andy Katz misspells Ramel Bradley's name Jamel.

Now, you may think oh that wasn't that big of a deal, but it is. This is ESPN. These are guys who are professionals and self-proclaimed experts in the field they report in and yet they don't proofread what they write before they post it on the net? Andy Katz doesn't realize he misspelled Ramel's name or did he actually think his name was Jamel? That's what I want to know. He's the expert on Kentucky. Not me who is just a normal joe schmoe racist redneck fan of Kentucky (I'm exaggerating, I'm not a racist redneck - far from it) who helped drive Tubby out of town, I can't possibly know a damn thing about Kentucky now can I! But Andy, did you, the ESPN expert, even know Ramel Bradley's name to begin with?

And you know, if wasn't for A Sea of Blue's post I wouldn't have never noticed because I, probably like many many UK fans out there, didn't notice the error because Mr. Andy Katz corrected his major screw up before Big Blue Nation could notice for themselves.

And in fact, this isn't the first instance that ESPN screwed up on behalf of the Big Blue Nation which makes me seriously consider that U of K and it's fans are the most hated in the nation.

Via The Sports Guy, Matt Mowery also posts on the Andy Katz Screw Up, and he's the one that also points us to Dickie V's Screw Up, not once, but TWICE in the same sentence! What are the odds that two highly recognized ESPN college hoops analysts make the same mistake?

In fact, Dickie V doesn't have the least bit of professionalism to correct his mistake. It's still up! Yo, Dickie V, although I appreciate what you do with the Jimmy V Foundation, this is a public disgrace on Kentucky's basketball team, more specifically to Jodie Meeks and Ramel Bradley, and to all their fans. It's uncalled for, and I suggest before you post another stupid column to satisfy your own selfish ego to proofread your jabber and at least research Kentucky's team before going off sounding like you're the authority expert on them.

And while I'm on the subject of Kentucky hating, you can go over to AOL's Kentucky Fanhouse and see that one of the internet's best sports blogs, AOL Fanhouse could do more of an effort to make Kentucky's page worth reading to the average UK fan. I mean I find it hard to believe that Jamie Mottram can't find one avid Kentucky fan who is capable of passionately blogging about Kentucky. And that's not a knock on Jamie, I find him to be a very polite and good guy from the times I've talked with him, but it's obvious the Kentucky Fanhouse could do 100% better for an overall sports blog that wants to be the best whether this is done conscientiously or not.

And lastly, head over to Fire Billy, an article first posted that Patterson picked Florida about 30 min before he picked Kentucky. Yeah, I guess it happened. Imagine that.

Hmm, conscientiously or not? To the Kentucky fan, it really doesn't matter now does it? With Billy G's success or not, Kentucky is plainly just disrespectfully hated my many, at the very least, a very close second to Duke, and it's not going to get any better either as long as Kentucky continues to be the most winningest program in NCAA history.

UPDATE: If that's not enough for ya, I forgot to mention that Jeff Goodman over at FOX Sports thinks that the Patterson press conference was laughable. And I'm sure if Patterson had picked Florida that Goodman himself would write an article describing how giddy he was which made him soil his pants while eating a bag of cheetos during his lunch break. Nevermind writing something worth reading like how much Kentucky needed Patterson, but because it's Kentucky, it's laughable. Laugh till you cry. You know he wasn't the only one who held a news conference to announce his decision. Hater.

LIVEBLUE