Meeting the 2017 Wildcats!

Last year I discovered tent city and the night when the men's basketball team comes out and meets the fans and gives out pizza to everyone. (Which you can read here Visiting Tent City)  It was a pretty cool experience and it was fun to have some interaction with the players. This year it just so happened that Jennifer was working and I had both kids on the day this was gonna happen. I had kind of just wrote it off as something that I wasn't going to do. Then about 30-40 minutes before the players were supposed to arrive I asked the kids if they were interested in going to meet the players and get some pizza. Brinley was on board for the pizza, but Landon said he wanted McDonald's. I told him that if we didn't get any pizza then I would promise them some McDonald's and then we were set. The kids went and picked out their "Go Cats" clothes and Landon made me search the house for his UK hat. Then we headed off downtown. We got to the Joe Craft Center with plenty of time to spare before the players came out. The kids were running around and Brinley was teaching Landon how to dab, which is not something I taught her so I have no idea where she learned it. Then the players slowly started to trickle out.

First player we saw was Jonny David. Here the kids just stood in front him, but I didn't really like how the picture turned out. I would have just preferred he bent down close to the kids for a little better picture, but I can't really complain because there is nothing saying that these guys have to do any of this. This at least made me realize that I should maybe hold the kids so that they would be closer to the players heads and it could maybe be a better picture. This is where the problem of not having enough hands came into play. I needed to hold both kids and take a picture. I wasn't gonna let a lack of hands stop me though.

Next guy I spotted was Kevin Knox.

Then the guys started handing out pizza and I caught Tai Wynyard in the doorway in between handing out slices. I couldn't quite get us all in a picture in selfie mode so I asked a random person in line to take a picture of us all. The light above us made every thing look a little dark.

While we were waiting for the guys to come out I was standing next to a man with a nice camera. We got to talking and he actually worked for a newspaper. He told me that he sits court side at the basketball games and takes pictures. He said that if we are ever at Rupp Arena to come on down and say hello and he would take a picture of us on the court. He looked slightly surprised when I told him that I had season tickets. Looks like me and the kids might get some nice pictures a little later this year. He also just happened to be right beside us when we were taking to picture with Tai and snapped this one of us. It is amazing what a nice picture you can get with a higher quality camera.

Photo taken by a new friend Gary Moyers of The Cats' Pause.

We got all the way up to another line to meet Nick Richards. As soon as we got up there he went and sat down for a little bit. He is the only player that I wanted to get a picture with that eluded us. He can be seen in the background talking with some of the managers.

Another rather dark picture with us and Jemarl Baker.

A few of the guys getting interviewed.

Wenyen Gabriel

It was right about here that I really started to lose the interest of the kids. They turned down the option for pizza, mainly because they had heard that McDonald's was an option. This is when the players were really starting to go around and sign autographs and pictures. I kept telling them just a few more minutes and then we could leave to go get their happy meals. That appeased them for quite a while. Thankfully they never got to the point of screaming or going crazy. I had to alternate holding each of them so that they could both get a turn.

Jarred Vanderbilt

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Sacha Killeya-Jones

Kevin Knox

PJ Washington 

Hamidou Diallo

On the way back to the car I spotted some of the UK Hoops girls sitting in their car. I said good luck to them this season and they said something about how cute the kids were. I told them to show off their three goggles and then asked if we could get a picture with them. The girls all hopped out of the car and took a picture with my two little wildcats. I told them that we would be there sometime this year to cheer them on.

Did I ever happen to mention that all of this happened on a school night. On the way home I was a man of my word and I stopped and got them Happy Meals. They were being so good in the car and I told them we would wait until we got home to eat so that we wouldn't make a mess in the car. They agreed and then Landon said he wanted to play quiet as a mouse. I turned around about 2 minutes later and both of them were completely passed out. I woke them up at home so they could eat and then by the time the kids got in bed it was about 11:00. The next morning was quite a struggle to get up for everyone to get to school. They might not have thought it was worth it, but I thought it was an awesome night and plan to try and do it every year that we can. Brinley even got on the video that UK basketball put out about the event. You can watch it here: Brinley at Tent City. Thanks for reading and God bless! Go Cats!

Enjoying their reward for going to meet the players. Maybe one day I won't have to bribe them to go!

These just came in the mail today. We are ready to get in Rupp Arena to watch the CATS play this season. Be sure to keep an eye out because there will be a couple of games this season that I won't be able to make due to work. Let me know if you are interested and I will let you know when tickets become available.