NASHVILLE, Tenn. _ As surprises go, Kentucky fan reaction to the Southeastern Conference possibly following the NCAA's lead and prohibiting fans from attending its tournament was like Immanuel Quickley making a free throw. The fans did not like that idea.
"I'm not going to be very happy with them," Shelly Coleman said Wednesday when asked about the SEC keeping fans outside Bridgestone Arena. "It will upset me if they do that."
Coleman, who is from Brooksville, Ky., said her traveling expenses for the SEC Tournament totaled $2,500.
"They've already opened it up for two games," she said of Wednesday's first-round doubleheader. "Why not keep it open? That doesn't make any sense."
Scott Nesmith, who lives in Florence, called the NCAA's action an over-reaction.
"How many people get the flu every year?" he said. "I just think it's an over-reaction to the unknown. And people are scared of the unknown."
Sherry Watts of Oldham County fell into the over-reaction camp. She said her job as a purchasing manager for a company that makes speakers requires her to make trips to China about every two years. She said she had been familiar with the coronavirus before it began making headlines in this country.
"I'm not worried," she said. "I know all about this."
If the SEC kept fans from attending its tournament after Wednesday, "I'd be devastated," Watts said.
Some UK fans accepted, if not welcomed, the limit on attendance.
Will Snell of Paris said he'd have a mixed reaction if the SEC prohibited fans from attending its tournament.
"I'd be disappointed," he said. "But, it wouldn't be unexpected. We have to keep everything in perspective. There's bigger things than basketball."
Snell said he works as a professor at UK.
"Obviously, you've got to take health and safety into account," he said.
Kathy Kenney of Richmond saw the ban on fans affecting the Kentucky team.
"I worry about Kentucky being able to win without the fans there," she said. "I think Kentucky really reacts well to fans. And they really get the energy from the fans."
Nesmith said the NCAA's action might put a damper on one of this season's potential Cinderella stories.
"How would you like to be Dayton?" he asked. "They're having a great season, and now they'll be playing in the NCAA. Nobody's going to see it.
"That's what this (NCAA) tournament is all about."
Coleman suggested the NCAA ban was illogical.
"Where do you think all the fans are going to go?" she asked. "They're going to go to bars. We're going to be more in each other's faces at bars."
Kenney said she was attending the SEC Tournament for the 19th straight year.
"I had been planning to go to the Final Four," she said. "I'm glad it wasn't this year that I had made those plans."
