NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A few times around here, usually on a Saturday, this city of music has splashes of black and gold.
A few more times, usually on Sundays, the color theme is a light blue with dark blue trim and white.
Those are the colors of the Vanderbilt Commodores and Tennessee Titans.
But this week, there will be a tidal wave of blue and white.
It will start today, and by Thursday, every restaurant within three blocks of Broadway will be crammed with Kentucky blue -- well, maybe not The Palm, although it will have a few Kentucky season-ticket holders, but everywhere else.
This is the time of year for the annual Kentucky Invitational, sometimes known as the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
If you took all the fans of all the SEC schools other than Kentucky and combined them, they still would be outnumbered.
Wildcats Nation will be despised this week because there is strength in numbers, and the only time Kentucky fans aren't pulling together is when they are trying to buy tickets.
Then it is every man, woman and child for themselves.
Understand, not every person wearing blue and white this weekend will arrive with tickets. In fact, most don't, and they are not counting on hooking up with ticket scalpers.
Many will be lined up outside Bridgestone Arena tonight waiting for the Tennessee-Auburn conclusion so they can buy the ticket books from the fans whose team just lost.
They hope to get them for pennies on the dollar but will probably go as high as 50 cents on the dollar. While they may not gladly pay that much, they are grateful to have a chance to see their beloved Wildcats in person.
A few years ago, Kentucky changed its ticket policy, and suddenly Rupp Arena season tickets were in the names of grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.
The waiting list for tickets is seemingly forever, and when the policy changed those who are accustomed to being part of the mink-and-diamond crowd at home games ensured their tickets would stay in the family for decades.
Several years ago while eating at a Lexington, Ky., restaurant, the waitress talked extensively about players, schemes, ball movement, spacing and other aspects of the Wildcats team.
It was remarked that she must never miss a game.
"Oh, no sir," she said, "I've never seen a game in person. Hope to someday, though."
That makes the Kentucky Invitational a once-a-year opportunity to see the Wildcats play in person.
Some enterprising fans -- and Arkansas fans used to do this as well -- have become donors to places such as Missouri, Auburn, Mississippi and Mississippi State so they can buy tournament tickets.
They make a minimum donation and have little problem buying tickets for the tournament from an allotment that would have gone unsold.
Pretty smart if you think about it, until one of those programs improves, but generally when one program gets better, another gets worse.
The enterprising contingent will find a way to get a ticket.
So for the next few days, this city of hopes and dreams for singers and guitar players will become a sea of blue and white as the Kentucky Invitational begins.
They will sit on bar stools for hours nursing a beverage. Linger over lunch or dinner. All waiting for the Wildcats to take the court, and that's why they are here.
To see the storied Kentucky Wildcats play in person, something very few in the bluegrass state really ever get to experience.
Sports on 03/09/2016