Blue Chips II: Return of the Wildcats

The movie Blue Chips was released back in 1994. As a young 12 year-old Orlando Magic fan basking in the glow of the Shaq and Penny days, it was only natural that I became a huge admirer of the film.

Featuring the pair of Orlando superstars as two-thirds of the blue-chip prospects recruited by fictional coach Pete Bell (Nick Nolte), the movie unraveled the story of a once prominent collegiate program, the fictional Western University, that had since fallen on hard times, struggling to compete in a league it had thrived in for years.

While Bell had traditionally stood by his morals of honest and fair recruiting, he slowly started to realize that he was one of the last good guys swimming in a league that had matured into a sea of scandal and vice.

Going against his ethics, he cheats, paying the risky but advantageous tab to bring in the nation’s top recruiting class in an effort to get his program back on track and appease the appetites of raging fans and the school’s bigwigs.

While the movie undoubtedly focuses the light on the NCAA’s biggest problem, fans of the film tend to focus on the thrill ride of turning a losing basketball program around with a couple of tantalizing recruits in just one summer.

 Minus the scandal (more on that later), the University of Kentucky is undergoing their own Blue Chip-like scenario this offseason.

Kentucky is coming off an embarrassing year for a school rich in tradition. After losing eight of their last 11 to close the season, the Wildcats failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, capping off their dismal campaign with a loss to Notre Dame in the NIT.

The team fired second-year coach Billy Gillespie, and what followed next was a scene best suited for TMZ, with Gillispie fleeing from reporters as he awkwardly bobbed and weaved down school halls to avoid interrogation from the press.

Topped off with counter lawsuits between the coach and school and you have what might be considered the worst year in school history from a PR perspective.

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