Forty Minutes To Glory

"That's two hours of work, fellows," he says. "You can kill snakes for two hours. You can swim in the ocean and fight sharks for two hours. You can run uphill for two hours. You can do anything for two hours. And we got 40 minutes of that time today. Forty minutes."

The first half is anything but easy for Kentucky. The Wildcats have shot close to 60% during the past month. Now, befuddled by a zone defense, they shoot 40% and trail 27-22. Kentucky is so tight that it's squeaking, but Hall is not in a conciliatory mood.

"Oh for four, Claytor!" he yells at his junior guard in the locker room. He runs down the rest of the team, blasting performances, and slams his clipboard down on a table in disgust.

Then he goes to the blackboard and tells the Wildcats that he is moving Robey to the high post. As the team walks out the locker-room door, Hall mutters to another assistant, Leonard Hamilton, "We're in trouble." Hamilton suggests that while Robey is at a high post perhaps he could set some picks for Kentucky's guards. Hall agrees to try it, and he also orders Kentucky into a 1-3-1 zone. The zone puts the Spartans on the defensive, and Robey's massive picks make Michigan State defenders commit foolish fouls. The Wildcats take the lead with 6:16 to go and win 52-49 when Macy, who has used Robey's picks with extraordinary deftness, coolly swishes two free throws with eight seconds remaining.

In the locker room Hall tells his squad, "We got 80 minutes to play. We're on our way."

The ride home tonight was great. As soon as we crossed into Kentucky on I-75, there were people all along the road holding up signs, even though it was cold and windy and it was getting dark. All the way to Lexington they were out on the overpasses and in the fields. People ask what I mean when I talk about the pressure at Kentucky. That was the pressure, right alongside the road tonight. About two years ago a widow in Hopkinsville died and left the basketball program $42,000. No one around Lexington even knew her! She just wanted to do something for the team because it had given her so much enjoyment over the years. That's the pressure of Kentucky .

The pressure has led to problems for Hall. But the fans seem to ignore issues of this sort, and there is seldom any mention that in its zeal to win, Kentucky found itself in trouble with the NCAA over recruiting methods used in the basketball program. The NCAA—which received some press criticism for not penalizing Kentucky as harshly as other schools—limited the Wildcats to only three new scholarships in both 1977-78 and 1978-79. In its report, the NCAA said the head basketball coach "failed to report to university officials...[his] knowledge of and involvement in violations."

Sunday, March 19—Hall heads for his 160-acre tobacco farm, located between Cynthiana and Paris. He bought the spread as much for its good fishing stream as its good soil.

"Done any plowin'?" Hall asks his tenant farmer, Furman Johnson, upon arriving.

"This time last year I'd a had got the 'baccer beds planted," says Johnson, a small, wiry man with an expressive, crinkled face, false teeth and a battered hat.