Kentucky Playing at the Rose Garden in November!

by **Stonehouse** on Fri May 21, 2010 2:11 pm

Anyone hear Wheels at Work today? John Calipari was on to talk about Terrence Jones, and he said that Kentucky will be playing in the Rose Garden in November. He didn't confirm an opponent, but said he has talked to three teams.

Hmmmmmmmm... remember when we played Duke in the Rose Garden? Could something like that happen again?!?

by mattywizz on Fri May 21, 2010 3:12 pm

Stonehouse wrote:remember when we played Duke in the Rose Garden?

I do not recall such an occurance. Please tell me more.

by **PilotNut** on Fri May 21, 2010 3:19 pm

How sweet would that be?!?! bounce

That Duke game was pretty cool... we hung with them for a while, IIRC (which is saying something, for the state of the program during the late 90's), before they ran away with the win.

We also set a State of Oregon attendance record for college basketball at that game.

Oooooh man, please let this be a game vs. the Pilots!! Make it happen! I would like the chance to personally kick Calipari in the shins... Razz

by **up7587** on Fri May 21, 2010 3:54 pm

mattywizz wrote:
Stonehouse wrote:remember when we played Duke in the Rose Garden?

I do not recall such an occurance. Please tell me more.

It was amazing how many Duke fans crawled out of the woodwork for that game. One of our guards swing his elbows to clear some space, and hit the star Duke guard in the nose. Coach K went ballistic. Crybaby!

by **PilotNut** on Fri May 21, 2010 5:06 pm

Hmmmm.... Beseda chiming in, saying we are close....

Oregonian

Pilots basketball: Portland closing in on deal to play Kentucky at the Rose Garden
By Jim Beseda, The Oregonian
May 21, 2010, 4:00PM

The University of Portland is close to finalizing a deal for its men's basketball team to play the Kentucky Wildcats on Nov. 19 at the Rose Garden, the Pilots confirmed Friday afternoon. An official announcement could come as early as Monday.

Kentucky coach John Calipari is said to be looking to make at least one West Coast stop before taking his Wildcats to Hawaii for the March 22-24 EA Sports Maui Invitational in Lahaina.

The Wildcats, who signed Terrence Jones of Portland's Jefferson High School to an aid agreement Wednesday, are coming off a season in which they went 35-3 and reached the finals of the NCAA Tournament's East Regional before falling to West Virginia.

The Pilots are expected to return eight players, including guard Jared Stohl and forward Luke Sikma, from a team that placed third in the West Coast Conference and finished 21-11, losing to Northern Colorado in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

If this works out.... Sweet! Very Happy

by **Stonehouse** on Fri May 21, 2010 5:47 pm

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!

This would be sweet... oh so sweet! A big, high-profile game like this is exactly the type of thing we need to get some really good publicity and lots of eyeballs watching them play.

Credibility and awareness in the Portland market have been difficult to build... a marquee event like this would be huge. Of course, it's too bad we won't have TJ and Nik and Robin, but oh well... Kentucky will be a completely different team with a ton of freshmen. Super talented, of course, but hopefully we'll be able to hang with them.

Oh, and of course I remember Travis Andrews elbowing Jay Williams and giving him a bloody nose... it was a beautiful thing! I think at one point in the early going Diaby Kamara had more points than Duke.

by mattywizz on Sat May 22, 2010 6:24 am

Stonehouse wrote: Kentucky will be a completely different team with a ton of freshmen.

Different than what, this year's team lead by freshmen, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and all those other froshies out there?

by **MesaPilot1** on Sat May 22, 2010 9:03 am

Wow,

This would be a great game for the Pilot's!!! I wish I could watch it in person with you guys Rolling Eyes

. Just think of the Publicity it will give the program. Even though I don't care for Cal and his methods it is nice to be able to play him if it all pans out.

Just another good event for the Pilot Mens program....

Mesa

by onetouchfutbol on Sat May 22, 2010 11:29 am

It will be a great game as long as we don't get our butts kicked and lose by 20-30 points. Honestly, I'd personally rather play a heady and successful team like Butler. It will be interesting to see how coaching and blue chip recruits stack up to the 5-star top 10 recruits of a school like Kentucky. If it's close, Rev deserves a lot of credit. This is like a 1 vs. 16 match-up at best. We might be in for a thrashing.

by **MaizeBluePurple** on Sat May 22, 2010 9:06 pm

I was not here for the Duke game. This would be almost as good.

by cjacks14 on Sat May 22, 2010 11:58 pm

Holy sh*t. That would be a big game. Hopefully we have a good showing and get some decent publicity coming our way again. Keep the momentum going.

by onetouchfutbol on Sun May 23, 2010 2:56 pm

Unfortunately, I think we'll be more like a blip on the radar for Kentucky fans and national publicity compared to the teams at the Maui Invitational. It's thrilling to get teams like Kentucky onto the schedule in any way, shape, or form, however, I still would rather schedule the most successful mid-majors like Sienna and Butler. If we added Sienna and Butler and played the other big dogs of the WCC (Saint Mary's and Gonzaga--as we always do) we'd have a great schedule as far as mid-majors go...and we'd have teams that we could consistently compete against. A match against Kentucky is more of a David vs. Goliath thing like the matchup against UCLA last year. They'd have to have an off year for us to compete or beat them. But, they are really just reloading and rebuilding next year, so, who knows...

by **DaTruRochin** on Sun May 23, 2010 8:14 pm

Yeah, but can a mid major provide the rather sizable purse that will come with hosting a traditional power with one of the largest followings in the sport? On top of that, any time a big team like this is willing to come into your own city to play a game, well, you jump on that no questions asked. Even if there is a chance of getting run out of the building. Our team is a big time ??? with the lack of a proven PG or player with a proven shot-creating ability, but if you want to be the best you have to be willing to play the best.

For all the things he may do or not do, coach Cal has always been unafraid about playing teams, as evidenced by playing the home and home with GU the last few years.

by dholcombe on Wed May 26, 2010 7:02 pm

Maybe this is the year I finally pull the trigger on season tickets rather than just attending a game or two then? Hopefully the schedule is as good as promised in addition to getting Kentucky.

by **Stonehouse** on Wed May 26, 2010 7:48 pm

Don't think we'll be hosting any teams from high-major conferences in Chiles, but I would definitely expect some really solid programs from conferences like the MWC/WAC and a handful of quality mid-major programs. Not to mention Gonzaga and Saint Mary's (two potential Top 25 teams) and all the improved WCC teams: LMU, USF, SCU.

I'm very excited to see how it all shapes up... I know that people who follow college basketball will really enjoy the heck out of the schedule that is shaping up.

Kentucky Playing at the Rose Garden in November!

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