It’s been almost three days since Kentucky came back to beat Tennessee in the denim throwback uniforms with the 1996 team in the stands. By all accounts, it was a fantastic night at Rupp Arena, one that everyone there will remember, from fans in the upper deck to The Untouchables behind Kentucky’s bench.
BBN is all in on the denim, lining up for hours for the exclusive launch of Devin Booker’s denim Nike Book 2s, and gobbling up the Nike Denim Collection and the remake of the Converse CONS Blue. The most coveted item, aside from the actual uniforms? The jackets the 1996 team wore at the game.
The Nike denim bombers feature the “Kentucky” wordmark on the front and the “Kentucky Basketball, an Unparalleled Tradition” interlocking UK basketball logo from the uniform shorts on the back. They are undeniably awesome. On Saturday, rumors spread that you could buy the jackets at Fan Outfitters in Lexington for $350. Last night on Mark Pope’s radio show, Tom Leach said that’s not true, and that the jackets were made exclusively for the players. A limited supply could also have been available and quickly sold out.
Or, Nike may have pulled the jackets when they realized they made one small mistake. Shoutout to KSBoard member JWilson20, who noticed a typo on the back. Instead of “Kentucky Basketball, an Unparalleled Tradition,” the jackets read “Kentucky Basketball, an Unparalled Tradition.” Whoops! We’re not above typos here at KSR, but come on, Nike! The Untouchables deserve better.
UPDATE: You can buy them after all, at least at the UK Bookstore — if you hurry!
Allen Edwards reflects on his return to Rupp
If anything, the typo makes the jackets even more unique. It certainly doesn’t taint an awesome night at Rupp Arena, as generations of players and fans came together to celebrate why Kentucky Basketball is so great. Mark Pope is still marveling at it all, including his former teammates’ comments on the postgame radio show; Allen Edwards’ stood out to him the most.
After hanging up his sneakers in 2001, Edwards returned to Kentucky to complete his degree and work (unofficially) for Tubby Smith on the 2002-03 staff. From there, his coaching career was born. He joined Kyle Macy at Morehead State as a full-time assistant in 2003 and stayed three seasons. Over the next decade, he was an assistant at VCU, Towson, Western Kentucky, and Wyoming before taking the head coaching job in Laramie in 2016. He was let go after four seasons and returned to the assistant coaching ranks, coaching at Loyola Marymount, and now, for Frank Martin as the associate head coach at UMass.
So, between all those jobs, Edwards hasn’t really had a chance to return to Rupp Arena over the past 20-plus years. He made it on Saturday — but just barely, leaving UMass’ triple-overtime loss to Coastal Carolina early to make his flight. It was well worth it.
“I want to talk about BBN, yeah, because I was sitting next to [Anthony] Epps, and I was just observing the crowd, and I kept looking around, and I said, man, this is crazy. And we got to talking, and I said, when we were here, we were so focused on basketball that we never really paid attention to the crowd, per se. But I’m sitting there, and I’m looking around, and I said, this thing is packed all the way to the top. And I saw people way at the top, and I said, man, this is unbelievable.”
“I don’t want to speak for them, but I don’t know if I truly appreciated that when I was here, because with Coach Pitino and even Coach Smith, it was about the game and doing what we needed to do to win, and obviously putting ourselves in position to compete for championships. But you know, as you grow older in life, and you have this conversation about experiences, and I thought today, just sitting there and just cheering for these guys and watching the crowd cheer for them, and people coming up to you and just talking to you and introducing a lot of faces I hadn’t seen in 20, 30, years, that was just unbelievable. And I just enjoy being here, and I’m glad I had an opportunity to enjoy this experience with the guys again, and watching our brother Pope coach.”
“But his comments after the game were — he played in Rupp for, I don’t know, 100 games, you know, 70 games, give or take something,” Pope said of Edwards on his radio show last night. “And he was just so shocked to be in the building where he could just take the time to look around and see the people sitting at the very, very top of the upper deck and and really take in people’s reaction to great plays or bad plays, and smell the food and see people, just see the ambiance of the gym, and you don’t really take that in as a player.”
“I thought it was special for our guys,” Pope continued. “It’s crazy to think that some of our guys haven’t been back in this gym just to take in a game that way. But he left, and he was really in awe. He’s like, ‘Man, I can’t believe I got to play in this gym and do that in front of this crowd.’”
Anthony Epps gets emotional
Saturday night was special even for the 1996 players who return to Rupp for games regularly, like Jeff Sheppard, Cameron Mills, Jared Prickett, and Anthony Epps. Epps teared up when talking about Saturday night; for the Lebanon, Ky. native, it hit all the feels.
“These other guys probably don’t understand it like I do, because I’m a Kentucky kid. This right here is what makes Kentucky basketball special. You know, a lot of you guys sitting at the very top get the come down after the game. It means so much to you, and it means so much to me to watch these guys fight to get the win in the second half like they did today. And I just want to salute you guys.
“Being a Kentucky kid, you guys are what make us who we are. Thirty years later, we can still come into our palace and still get the same love. But my kicker is, no matter what goes on throughout the rest of this season, win or lose, stay on the wagon, because it’s going to be a great ride.”
Even if this team doesn’t go on to win a title like the 1996 squad, nights like Saturday are a needed reminder of what makes Kentucky Basketball unparalleled — or rather unparalled.