Reasons to Hate: Kentucky

Kentucky has risen to #1 in the polls and is a completely different team than the team Arkansas bested twice in the 2014 season, but Arkansas is also a different team.  Kentucky has a strong grasp on a #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and Arkansas is a lock to make the field of 68, but the Wildcats are chasing an historic 40-0 undefeated championship, while Arkansas is working to get a better seed, and for that alone.... I hate Kentucky.

1. It's Kentucky. The Wildcats can view Arkansas however they want. For many Arkansas fans, Kentucky will always be the ultimate basketball rival. It's blue vs red. Godfather-slick Rick Pitino vs Nolan Richardson and his boots and plaid jacket. It's the two SEC fan bases that genuinely care about basketball and at least used to make the SEC Tournament a ton of fun. Now we get the 21st century version with Calipari and Anderson and COME ON LET'S GO!

2. They're all dismissing last year...and the year before. The going line on Reddit is Kentucky fans are saying last year doesn't matter.  I think it matters to us... Even Iowa State fans are making wild wagers about us on Reddit.

Arkansas isn't going to beat Kentucky in Rupp. I don't care if they did it last year. Last year Kentucky was an 8 seed.

If Arkansas wins at Rupp, I'll get WPS tattooed on my butt.

Also, Reddit User rodsarethrown has been going around the SEC subreddits asking fans, "What's your weird tradition?" If you go to the Kentucky subreddit, there is one response.

Winning.

Which leads us to....

3. Arrogance. Entitlement. Audacity.  Pomposity.  More synonyms for their feeling of self-entitlement, that makes them think they deserve to be good.  That they deserve a championship and an undefeated season.  The media can't stop drooling all over them and how unlikely they are to be challenged before the NCAA tournament.  It would be one thing if Kentucky had a decade-run of Final Fours and consistently good teams built off of senior stars, but it's not like that.  I'm impressed that 3 of the 5 starters for Kentucky will be the same starters that walked out of Bud Walton Arena with an L last season.  That's surprisingly good continuity for them.

4. The Record. Oh, Wait.  We've won 4 of our last 5 against Kentucky, and 3 of those last 4 wins have come in overtime.

5. Kentucky's been bad. From the SEC tournament in 2001 to a regular season game in 2011, Arkansas didn't get a game off of Kentucky.  However, of those teams that beat Arkansas all those years, the best finish they had was a loss in the elite eight.  What I realized, is that when Kentucky is bad, Arkansas is bad.  Correlation doesn't equal causation though.  So that being said, I want those Kentucky bluegrassers to end up on the bottom of the SEC.  I want a 10-0 run against them.  I want them to spend 20 years trying to get a win in Bud Walton. I want Calipari to take an NBA job, then I want them to hire their next Tubby Smith, and then I want Calipari to come back to college and take a job at like Murray State or Western Kentucky.

6. Freakin cat people are weird.

7. They barely pretend to care about football. I mean what's that about?

Alright, now watch this on loop until we get another Michael Qualls highlight against Kentucky.