Some gems from days gone by.....

Well with the news that Chad Gray has been told that he is not academically on Kentucky basketball's level (somewhere Shagari Alleyne is laughing), there actually is little news to report today. Thus I thought it might be good to look back at some memories from the past. And while perusing a couple of message boards, I found an interesting discussion of "Best Quotes about the Kentucky Basketball Program." It was an interesting discussion, but one that focused on all the serious, "UK is great" quotes from the past. But then someone compiled the best quotes from former UK whipping boy, Rick Majerus. Old Rick has always been someone that has entertained me, and these quotes brought back a number of memories. From his creepy lusting over Ashley Judd to his use of horse imagery to describe his annual beating by the Cats, Majerus actually has a special relationship with the Kentucky program. The man who lives in a hotel seems to really enjoy Kentucky and these quotes should help entertain on an otherwise slow day..... About how the Utes' season keeps ending with a loss to Kentucky.. "When I die, they might as well bury me at the finish line at Churchill Downs so they can run over me one more time." [New Orleans Times-Picayune 3/9/1999] Responding to Kentucky coach Rick Pitino's tongue-in-cheek assertion that his Wildcats would be the underdog in their 1996 NCAA Tournament game ... "If we're getting in a sumo ring, he and I, then he's the underdog. I'll crush him. But on the court, we're in trouble." [Salt Lake Tribune 3/24/1996] He said that he had tried to arrange a home and home series with the University of Kentucky, but they refused. "I'd play Kentucky home and home every year. Book it right now. I'd do anything to get them there. They want to ski on a mountain, I can get them a mountain to ski on. For privacy I can get them to Redford's place and they can eat like kings. But Kentucky ain't coming to play us." "I also said I'd like to date Ashley Judd and you know, she ain't gonna do that either. That was her dad that was here with me before. He looked at me and he's happy I'm not dating her either." "I am like Kentucky's favorite punching bag. People in Kentucky love me. 'I'd like me too if I lost every game." [Louisville, KY newspaper, 2000] On how he planned to stop the Kentucky Wildcats in a 1996 NCAA tournament match-up ... "Food poisoning!" [Houston Chronicle 3/20/1996] About the difference in talent between his team and Kentucky in 1996: "They have all those McDonald's All-Americas. We have four guys on our team who don't even have a McDonald's in their town." After Kentucky defeated Utah for the national title in 1998, Ashley Judd gave Utes coach Rick Majerus a hug, something he will never forget: "She hugged me as a consolation because we lost," he said the other day. "I went to bed for two years with that as my sex life." During the last minute of a 20-point blowout of Tennessee by Kentuckyin 2005: "Well, there's not much to look forward to from here on out, so I'm trying to find Ashley Judd in the crowd. It beats the adult videos at the hotel."