New Orleans, LA - Mar. 16, 10:55 a.m.: Charles Smith shuffled into the Knicks locker room in a mediocre suit matched only by his mediocre low-post game. His teammates realized he was injured and wouldn't be playing tonight. Pat Riley looked right at Charles and said, "If you could give me as little as one minute tonight to help win this game, would you do it?" Smith hemmed and hawed. "Uh, well, I'm hurt, but..." Riley: "Ok, how about 30 seconds. If you had to give me only thirty seconds so we could win tonight's game, would you do it?" Smith: "Uh, yeah." RILEY: "THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE DOING IN THAT SUIT. GET YOUR UNIFORM ON!"

Flash forward about 10 years. It was the 2003 SEC Tournament and we were awash in a sea of 'Cats fans. Every year, 12 SEC teams and their fans come together for the tournament. Assuming each school brought an equal amount of support, each school would account for about 5,000 fans (8%). But as anyone who's been to the tournament will tell you, every year at least 50% of the fans are from the Big Blue Nation. 2003 was no different. Despite UK being the farthest school geographically from New Orleans, we still ran riot on Bourbon St. and all points nearby.

Eggie and I were working on Day Three of our Bayou Bender. We had gotten up early on Sunday for the noon tip off ($@$# you, CBS!) of the championship game. The evening before had been a doozy, with a nightcap at the casino, where none other than Jaime Foxx, in town to film the a Ray Charles movie, saddled up next to us at the blackjack table and started play $5 hands. (Jaime, Jaime, Jaime...you cheap muth)*$@$.) Eggie got ready for the game his usual uniform: khakis, Brooks Bros. shirt, loafers. I stared him down, "Eggie, if you could give me just one piece of Kentucky gear to earn us just one point today, would you do it?" "Damn staight," he fired back. So I went to shower, and when I came back, this is what I saw. It was simply glorious. I mean, it was like the dear Lord put him on Earth for the express purpose of dressing for this game. Look at the ethereal glow on the UK badge on the neck of the jersey!

Needless to say, we slapped Mississippi St. around that day like a red-headed stepchild from Mississippi St. on our (yes, 'our') way to an undefeated regular season and tournament. 19-0. I'd like to this this getup had something do with it. Simply put, it was the best weekend of the year (sorry Catskills, you were a mighty close second).