I’ve got a huge headache as I write this!

But I love it.

You know why? Because I had a great start to my latest stretch on the road Monday as I got to spend time with my mentor and great friend, Charlotte Bobcats head coach Larry Brown.We crammed so much basketball talk into one day I thought my brain might explode!

We spent seven strong hours mostly going over the dribble drive, and the input Coach Brown was able to give me was simply amazing. You’ve got to understand, Charlotte has a 400-page playbook – four hundred pages! That shows you what an incredible basketball mind Coach has.

Most of our time was spent trying to figure out how we want to run the dribble drive this year at Kentucky, especially as it pertains to Patrick. Coach watched tape of our practices and I watched highlights of his team as well. It’s incredible the things he picks up on and then how he takes those observations and turns them into suggestions that we can go back and forth on. It’s a true exchange of ideas and I know it makes both of us better coaches – we’ve been doing it for so long it’s like we never stop.

As I discussed in “Bounce Back,” Coach Brown was initially hesitant to embrace the dribble drive when I first brought it to him after being introduced to it by Vance Walberg (whose son, Jason, is on our staff at UK). He couldn’t understand why I wanted to mess with the success we had running the motion offense for most of my career.

I’m not going to say Coach is a total convert. He still doesn’t buy into all of it, but the great thing about Coach is that he knows how much I believe in it and because of that he puts his own preferences aside and works with me on adding wrinkles and adapting it to the personnel we have. To me, that is another sign of why he has been so successful in his distinguished career.

We had a fantastic dinner last night and I was able to spend some time with my former player, Antonio Anderson (right). I could tell right away as I watched Antonio in a pick up game that he’s really been working hard over the summer. His body looks great and Coach Brown believes that Antonio will – and should – be in the League.

I’ll be here as the Bobcats open camp on Tuesday and then I have some more recruiting to do before getting back to Lexington later in the week.

As excited as I was over our two workouts this past weekend, I’m now even more pumped to start experimenting with some of the concepts Coach Brown and I worked through on Monday.

***

I saw where my guy, John Daly, was in the Commonwealth over the weekend to help open a new golf course in Clark County and I really want to thank Big John for putting more pressure on me!!! John has one of the biggest hearts I know of and I wish more people would understand that. He’s very basketball savvy but LOVES those Hogs. I’d love to have him out for the game on January 23.

I’ll say this about John – he will win and win big in the near future. (Right back at you, big guy!)

Swing hard, grip it and rip it!

***

Lastly for today, here are the two winners in our “What Should David Expect” contest.

From Donita R.:

David Should Expect. . .

. . . Goosebumps at the beginning of a game.  I get them every time I am fortunate enough to get to a game. 

Passionate fans–even at those early games that we are expected to win.  (What am I thinking, we are supposed to win all of them.  LOL!)

UK fans will stay to watch the Coach’s postgame radio broadcast.  

Basketball knowledge from everyone you meet.
 
As far as living in the Bluegrass, expect to not understand some people’s accent and possibly for people not to understand yours. It will happen. People talk more slowly in Kentucky so you might want to slow your speech down just a bit. I would expect people to ask you to repeat yourself a few times. There are very few places in the country quite as friendly as the people in the bluegrass state or the south. I live close to a border and I can tell the difference once I cross that state line.
 
Expect breathtaking scenery all year round in every area of the state—horses grazing on green grass, spring flowers at Keeneland, sun glistening off the Kentucky Lakes, snow covered mountains in Eastern Kentucky.

Awesome Kentucky food and hospitality. Make sure when you go to KY Lake to eat at Patti’s 1880s settlement and take an appetite. If you like playing Rook or other card games, come join us in the executive cottages. You will find at least one cabin with UK license plates on the SUV. I did mention hospitality.
 
Expect the weather to change every few days.  t will be 40 for the high one day and a couple of days later it can be 70.  This summer has been unusually wet.  Some days does get a little dreary around December and January, but we UK fans have basketball to keep our spirits in high.

A word of caution, people don’t know how to drive in the snow and Kentucky is not equipped with enough snow plows to handle that much either so school is cancelled regularly. I know schools that cancel from even a threat of snow. Expect there to be a mass exodus to the grocery store for bread and milk if there is snow in the forecast—no matter how much.

***

From Shawn O.:

Before I truly get into what to expect when you get here, I would like to add one point of view than most Kentuckians might not be able to add.
 
My wife is from East Providence, RI, and moved to Kentucky after college to be by me (I am a blessed man for her to move down here 12 years ago, but that’s not really the point of this story). When she moved down here, college sports weren’t a very big deal to her, since she went to Wheaton College in Norton, MA, which wasn’t known for its athletics, and there just aren’t that many other colleges in the area that make college sports huge like in other areas of the country.
 
She had always told me this, but it really hit home last year when I had to go to RI for a funeral, and afterward tried to catch the UK vs. Arkansas game (A CBS Telecast) and was unable to find a bar that had the game on.
 
I had always told her about how important UK basketball was down here, told her that I couldn’t imagine Red Sox Nation even being more rabid than Big Blue Nation. It didn’t take her long once here to see what I was talking about.
 
I could go on for this part of the story, but I will just leave it at saying that I am married to someone who went through almost the same transition as you are about to, and I think you will enjoy the ride.  he things below are just a few of the things that will sell you much like they sold my wife.
 
Now as far as what to expect in your new home in general, Kentuckians run a bit slower than those from New England. I won’t say one or the other is better, just simply say that we take a little more time to enjoy life as it passes us by, not being scared to smell the roses along the way. I know my wife took a while to adjust to this specific thing as well as to this.  e Kentuckians are a friendly group, and when random strangers start talking to you or saying How’s It Going” as they pass by, don’t think it odd, strange, or even scary, we are just happy to share life with people.
 
Now as far as basketball goes, everyone has a story that will just amaze you, so I will just give you a few quick ones.
 
There is one thing that I found amazing when I first went to UK, and had to experience first hand to believe. If you stop by the Lexington Cemetery before a game, you will always find people who stop by the grave of Adolph Rupp to share a shot of bourbon” with our legendary coach.
 
Before any game, take the time to go across the street from Rupp to Sawyers to join in the thousands of people who stop by for the best burger in Lexington as they walk over to the stadium. Or just go down to the Hyatt Shops or Bars to join in a great basketball pre-game warm-up.
 
As far as My Old Kentucky Home goes, learn the words, but I’m going to let you in on a Dity Little Secret: Most Kentuckians don’t know all of them. However, when March 7, 2010, comes around, and Florida comes to Rupp for Senior Day, don’t be late. The pre-game festivities are second to none. And when 24,000 sing my old Kentucky Home, it might start a little quiet, as maybe half are a little unsure of all of the lyrics.  But when the chorus brings us Weep no more my lady, Oh weep no more today, We will sing one song for my old Kentucky Home, For my old Kentucky home far away” and 24,000 people let you know how we feel, you will get goose bumps by the moment.  (On a side note, Coach, if you read this, on Senior Day, all seniors must start, no questions asked.  Role Player, walk-on, doesn’t matter, they start on Senior Day, or you will hear about it).
 
And enjoy Cat Calls on the radio. It might be on an hour, might be three, but there is never a shortage of fans calling in. You could have a 24-7 call-in radio network, and there would never be an open phone line to get through. People wanting to know how Pat’s finger is doing, or why they don’t run enough screens to get Jodi open, or at what point is the full court press going to get used more.
 
When you find time, please tour our commonwealth. When you go down to Appalachia, and you enter Coal Country, you won’t find a more dedicated group of UK fans. Things are rural” down there, and its pretty common to find people living in old farm homes or trailers. Some of these houses still have outhouses on the property.  So cable TV isn’t exactly everywhere. But every one of these places has a satellite just to make sure that they catch every UK game on TV.
 
Big Blue Nation elected our beloved Richie Farmer as our Secretary of Agriculture.  I can’t really tell you his qualifications, but I can tell you he won in a landslide.
 
The stories can really go on and on, but I will end it by saying this. As a proud member of Big Blue Nation, I would like to welcome you into the group, and to our beloved Commonwealth.

-CC-