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No matter the score, Kentucky basketball wins

Amanda's Approach

The sports fan inside me is usually hidden to the common eye. I don't seem like the rah-rah type at first, but my competitive mentality shows up in flashes, and at opportune moments. It asserts itself in the middle of a cross-country race or in an especially rowdy round of Mario Kart and sometimes when I'm rushing to be the first one to push the button on the elevator.

More than any other situation, this side comes over me when there's a Kentucky basketball game on. It's like I shed all my non-sporty traits and become this creature who's interested in three-pointers and shot clocks and yelling out phrases like, "What the heck are you doing, ref?" It's all very unexpected.

The need to root for Kentucky has set up camp somewhere deep inside, maybe next to a vital organ, I'm not sure. It's pretty engrained in me. I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, in a house about 10 minutes from UK's campus, and I was infused with the ins and outs of Wildcat euphoria about as soon as they could get that blue and white onesie on me. I didn't have much of a multiple choice selection process when it came to deciding what team I would be loyal to. It was all blue and white everything, pretty much all the time. They were my team, because everywhere I looked, from my teachers, to my best friends and family and the clerks at Kroger, UK was their team, too.

So, ever since I transplanted myself to Ohio, I've been getting a lot of nasty looks and pointed glares from my friends who aren't exactly Wildcat fans. Wearing my bright blue Kentucky T-shirt on a campus with Ohio State and Indiana and Notre Dame fans has a shocking resemblance to a scarlet letter type situation.

And I get it. Look at John Calipari's stripe suits and the one-and-done mentality and how they're the opposite of an underdog and it's easy to pick on Kentucky.

But for me, when it comes to UK's attempt at an undefeated season, my mind goes beyond the basketball court and the politics and the tournament brackets. I can't keep up with half of the banter on ESPN, but I do know that Kentucky basketball reminds me of my home, the first 18 years of my life and the overwhelming essence of being a part of a huge collection of people who are also screaming at the TV.

Cheering for UK is a reminder of saying "y'all" and singing Tim McGraw out of the car window and skipping school to bet on horse races. I'm reminded of white picket fences and my grandma's fried chicken and how it's easy to meet genuinely nice people everyday. There's an unspoken ideology that smiling and compassion are necessities, like tea being sweet.

A sense of loyalty and comfort and always kicks in as images of the Lexington I know fill my mind.

The specific scenery and smells and charm that only Lexington can offer adds up to who I am today. It's chalked up to so much more than what you get when you search "Kentucky" on Google. It's my home. And everyone that cheers on UK is a part of that. There aren't many things that unite people anymore, in a big high-five-in-the-middle-of-Walmart-because-we're-both-wearing-Kentucky-jerseys way. Rooting for your team is one of those. You are instantly connected to people who you've never met just because they also feel an attachment to this team.

So, whatever the outcome on Saturday, I know all of Lexington will be on the same page, and that's a feeling I love. When there's a basketball game coming up, the streets are quiet and the stores are empty and everyone weaves the game into their small talk.

In my house, we all sit in our lucky spots in the living room and we pass around chips and salsa and we drink coke with splashes of bourbon. Our eyes are glued to the screen and that feeling is all over the room, the sense that we're rooting for our home team and across all of Lexington, we're all playing a tiny part on that team, too.

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