[Quality88]

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Ramel Bradley remembers the old days in Brooklyn, where his mother would wake him before sunrise to catch a train to school.
Inevitably, he would complain, and his mother would tell him the same thing -- that it would be over before he knew it. And by the last day of school each year, Bradley would think back and realize how right she'd been. "No matter how tough the road has been, no matter how long it's been, at the end you're always going to say, 'It went by fast,' " said Bradley, now the senior point guard on the University of Kentucky men's basketball team. "It's funny to say I'm a senior now. I feel like yesterday I was a freshman."
Time might have flown, but the days have been packed.
As Bradley and Joe Crawford -- the Wildcats' only seniors -- prepare for the start of their final season, they're doing it surrounded by new faces, including the main man on the sideline.
On Friday, UK will open practice with Big Blue Madness, the de facto start of Billy Gillispie's reign as coach.
For Bradley and Crawford, that means changing habits and breaking routines they followed for three years under Tubby Smith, who left last spring to take the coaching job at Minnesota.
"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tough," Crawford said. "I think (Gillispie) is going to bring a lot to the table for me. I think he's going to let me be able to play to my potential. The tough part is, once you've been going through something for three years, you're kind of used to it. Everything you used to do is changing, and you have to adapt to that change."
Not that UK's senior duo is resistant to change.
Crawford, who weighed 221 pounds in July and looks noticeably leaner than he did at the end of last season, said he's lost 12 pounds since Gillispie came on board. That's despite knee surgery that's limited his conditioning. Crawford said he's shed the weight at Gillispie's request -- and with hopes that it's a sign of more up-tempo play.
Bradley, too, has done his best to adjust. Like his teammates, he's met frequently with Gillispie.
"Right now, I see this as a very good change," Bradley said. "I see it potentially helping us end up a Final Four team."
And though UK likely won't be a Final Four favorite, reaching one is the goal for Bradley and Crawford, the only remaining members of Smith's most celebrated recruiting class.
"There's probably a little more pressure on those guys, and they should garner more responsibility," Gillispie said. "It's their last go-round. I'm sure they want Kentucky to win in the future or whatever, but I know for a fact they want them to win at the very highest level this year. That's their last chance to do some things that they probably want to try to do."
Both Bradley and Crawford have holes in their résumés.
Though they've combined to score 1,748 career points, they haven't won a Southeastern Conference title since they played supporting roles on the league championship team as freshmen.
That 2004-05 season also was the only time Bradley and Crawford advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
"Senior year's your last chance to go out there and show everybody what you got," Bradley said. "I just want it to be a great, fun year, a winning year, and go out with a Final Four ring."
UK's seniors are hoping Gillispie can help them achieve those goals.
Bradley has read up on Acie Law, the former Texas A&M point guard who butted heads with Gillispie when the coach took over the Aggies but developed into one of the nation's elite players -- and the 11th pick in last summer's NBA draft -- under Gillispie's tutelage.
Bradley is hoping for a similar emergence after a junior year in which he averaged 13.4 points and 3.8 assists per game.
"I know about that Acie Law guy," Bradley said. "I'm hoping that's Acie Law Bradley. History repeats itself."
And Crawford, who said he owes Smith considerably for his development as a shooter and an overall player, is hopeful that he'll grow into a more consistent player under Gillispie.
Last season Crawford averaged a career-best 14 points per game. He scored 20 or more points six times but had eight games in which he scored fewer than 10.
Crawford said he thinks he'll "be able to display my talents more with Coach G."
In order to do so, he'll need to get back on the court. Though Crawford's knee surgery was minor and he's expected to be ready for the start of practice, he missed valuable conditioning time.
Getting back in shape won't be his only adjustment. With a new coach, there are new practice policies, new terminology and new responsibilities.
"It's kind of like starting over," Crawford said. "But I think me and Ramel have been through so much, you can kind of take on that challenge."
The learning process started early, when Gillispie introduced new conditioning drills that both UK seniors described as grueling. It gets off to a more official beginning on Friday.
"This is the opportunity for, when you leave, people to say, 'I remember the team Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford were on was a great team. I love those guys. I want to play like those guys. I want to be in the NBA like those guys,' " Bradley said. "That would be just a great year."

UK seniors say they want to go out on top

[Tuck4Bama]

I would like to see the entire SEC show imporvement on the courts this year. The SEC has come a long way in their competitiveness in basketball.

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by Tuck4Bama

The SEC has come a long way in their competitiveness in basketball.

The SEC has rebounded back to beina force on the court.... they started to lack there for a few years. I'm hopin Kentucky can get back to the top of the heap again with the new coach. I'm lovin football season right now... but I'm amped up about Basketball season. I'm not expectin great things from the start, but in the seasons to follow.