As fans waited for players to make a “Blue Carpet” entrance to this year’s Big Blue Madness, a security guard noticed Pamela buboltz’s mask had slipped off her nose. The guard motioned for her to pull it up.
Buboltz made eye contact with an onlooker (blush). Her gaze seemed to convey a mix of annoyance and can-you-believe-this? She shook her head from side to side after adjusting her mask.
“No one is wearing a mask,” she said when the onlooker asked about the exchange. “Look around. I see five people (wearing masks). They don’t work anyway.”
To talk to fans about the COVID-19 mask mandate at Kentucky home basketball games this season has been to hear a range of reactions. Resistance. Skepticism. Tolerance. Acceptance. Approval.
Buboltz came to Madness from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which is about 50 miles north of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan. Her daughter, Brooklynn, is a freshman on the UK Dance Team.
In deciding not to get a vaccination, Buboltz said she weighed what she perceived as a slight chance of contracting the coronavirus against “putting something in my body I’m not sure about.”
When asked about the mask mandate, Buboltz said, “Well, I don’t think they work. So, it’s senseless. No one wears them right.”
Joe Thompson, who is from Louisville, wore a black mask at the Blue-White Game that bore a message. On one side were the words, “I stand for the flag.” The other side read, “I kneel at the cross.”
“I really don’t want to wear it,” he said, “but in order to come to the games, you have to wear it. To me, the mask isn’t doing anything.”
Thompson had not gotten a vaccination for the coronavirus, which has killed more than 700,000 Americans.
“I am a Christian,” he said. “And I believe if you get it, you get it. I’m not going to live my life in fear.”
Five members of his family had contracted COVID after getting vaccinated, Thompson said.
Eric Lindsey, a director of athletics communications and public relations for UK, pointed out that the mask mandate is a university policy, “Not UK Athletics’ policy,” he said. UK’s policy calls for masks to be worn when inside any building on campus or housing a UK function such as a basketball game.
There’s a three-times-you’re-out enforcement, Lindsey said. After two warnings, a third violation results in the person being asked to leave.
JD and Jessica Hall came to the Blue-White Game from their home in Tiffin, Ohio, which is about 90 miles north of Columbus. Both have been vaccinated. Both had contracted COVID, Jessica in December of last year and J.D. a month later. Jessica cited a family gathering for Christmas as the likely time they became infected.
As for the masks, J.D. said, “I’m fine with it. Whatever it takes to have a full arena again.”
Fans all but shrugged when asked if masks could inhibit cheering, booing and other reactions.
“As long as you’re vaccinated,” Jerry Johnson said before his wife, Diamond, completed his sentence by saying, “boo away.”
Or, Jerry added, “yell louder.”
The Johnsons came to Madness from New Albany, Ind. They wore masks.
“It’s OK,” Jerry said, “but just OK.”
Sally and Jason miller and their children, Julia, 2, and Jackson, 5, wore masks as they waited for the Blue Carpet entrances. They came from Nashville.
“It does make us feel very safe,” Sally said of the masks. Being masked indoors was “very important,” she said.
Sally spoke of accepting the possibility of masks stifling cheering and booing.
“It kind of stinks,” she said. “But at the same time, safety first.”
Portal to expand?
If you don’t like players changing teams via the transfer portal, stop reading this note. Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes expects the portal to increase — not decrease — in volume going forward.
“I think the transfer portal is going to be bigger than ever,” he said during a recent teleconference. “Because I think the transfer portal is big now because I’ve always said, I don’t think coaches are always truthful in recruiting. They promise minutes and they promise things they truly hope people forget about.…
“That will be another reason for kids to leave places.”
Overtimes
Rick Barnes suggested a first step in dealing with the coaching challenge of allotting playing time for a roster bursting with seemingly productive players.
“Well, the first thing is you’ve got to let them understand minutes,” he said. “(Understand) that there’s only 200 minutes in a game.”
Before every season, Barnes said he asks his players to write down how many minutes they think they deserve.
“We need about 16 overtimes to get everybody’s minutes in,” the Tennessee coach said. “They think everybody is going to play 25 minutes a game.”
Keyontae update
Florida forward Keyontae Johnson, who hasn’t played since collapsing on the court against Florida State early last season, has had a non-playing role for the Gators this preseason.
“He’s very much a big part of our program,” Coach Mike White said during a teleconference before adding, “no change in (playing) status at all.”
Johnson is not practicing, but he is coaching, helping organize practices, “doing some officiating” and active in drill work, White said. “He’s getting a taste of some individual meetings with guys at times, trying to motivate, trying to hold (players) accountable.
“He’s doing whatever he can. He’s an unselfish guy. He’s a winner (and) he’s always going to be. And he’s doing whatever he can to help his teammates and help us as a staff.”
Groomed for success?
Florida forward Anthony Duruji married this past summer in a small family ceremony in Gainesville. He said his wife, Lauryn, is a blessing.
“I would say marriage helped me to be more focused and disciplined,” he said. “I’ve always had a vision for my life, and she fits that vision. So, it just helps me to be focused on things that are far greater than things on the court.”
Marriage has also helped him be a better leader and more grateful as a player, he said.
Father-son
A father-son story line will be part of South Carolina basketball this season.
Brandon Martin, one of Coach Frank Martin’s sons, transferred from USC Upstate to play for his father as a senior. He averaged 5.3 points and 2.4 rebounds in a 56-game career with USC Upstate.
Coaching his sons has not been one of Frank Martin’s goals.
“I had never coached my two boys,” he said during a recent teleconference. “I let other people coach them. I want to be their dad.”
But something Brandon said when talking to his father about transferring changed that.
“He said to me, ‘Dad, I’ve always dreamt of playing for you,’” Frank Martin said. “As a father, when your son says that to you, I mean, what do you do?”
Before agreeing to add his son to the South Carolina team, Frank Martin checked with a higher authority.
“I had to bring my wife into the equation,” he said. “And she wasn’t a big fan of it. … She doesn’t want our family to be strained because of basketball.”
To help make it work, father and son agreed not to bring home any basketball unhappiness involving the twosome.
Corrections
Sahvir Wheeler called attention to two corrections needed in last Sunday’s note about his given name.
His sibling named Montana is a brother, not a sister. Montana Wheeler is named after his father’s favorite quarterback, Joe Montana.
And Sahvir said he came up with the name Lincoln for another brother.
Happy birthday
To Daimion Collins. He turned 19 on Thursday. … To Aaron and Andrew Harrison. The twins turned 27 on Thursday. … To Devin Booker. He turned 25 on Saturday. … To former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer. He turned 92 on Saturday. … To former LSU coach Dale Brown. He turns 86 on Sunday (today). … To Alabama football coach Nick Saban. He turns 70 on Sunday (today). … To former West Virginia coach (and UK assistant) Gale Catlett. He turns 81 on Sunday (today). … To Chuck Verderber. He turns 62 on Wednesday.