Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Quotes

In 2000, I was covering the Kentucky–Florida game. Florida had a great football tradition, and, well, let’s say that Kentucky had a great basketball program. UK had never beaten the Gators during Steve’s time at the helm. As I recall, the Gators were putting a whipping on the Wildcats, 45–7, with less than a minute to play. Florida had the ball just their side of midfield. Most coaches would have just let the clock run out. Not Steve. He called in the play and Jesse Palmer (who later went on to become TV’s Bachelor) dropped back and threw a perfect strike for a touchdown. Final score, 52–7. After the game, Steve was asked in a peevish tone by one of the writers why he’d called that last play. In so many words, Steve said that nobody had scored half a hundred on Kentucky and he wanted to be the first to do so. His grin was a lot louder than the silence that followed his utterance.