Date Posted: 11/8/2007

In the day after Gardner-Webb pulled off the Atlantic Sun's first upset of a nationally-ranked team in almost four year, the Bulldogs remain the talk of the basketball world. National college basketball reporters have chimed in with their analysis of the stunner from Rupp Arena.

From one of the broadcasters most associated with college basketball, ESPN's Dick Vitale wrote, "It has already been shock city in college basketball, baby!

Think about it, baby! How many kids from Gardner-Webb were recruited by a big-time school like Kentucky? Are you serious? Bulldogs coach Rick Scruggs and his staff came up with a great gameplan and there was no intimidation going into Rupp Arena. Gardner-Webb jumped out to a 14-0 lead and the Big Blue fans were totally stunned. The Wildcats never climbed over the mountain and the Bulldogs earned a trip to Madison Square Garden.

I give Gardner-Webb credit because every year, this program plays a rugged non-conference schedule in an effort to get exposure. Last season, the Bulldogs played North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Georgia, Wake Forest and NC State, all on the road. This season, the schedule includes trips to Clemson, Connecticut and Charlotte following the trip to Rupp.

It just goes to show in college basketball, so many kids get left behind and don't get the opportunity to play in the big-time environment but shine when given the chance. Gardner-Webb was so fundamentally sound, with great passing skills and outstanding shot selection."

From Mike DeCourcy's blog at SportingNews.com: "What's most stunning about what happened Wednesday night at Rupp Arena was not necessarily that Kentucky lost a basketball game, or that it lost to Gardner-Webb or even the 16-point margin of victory.

Although, I must admit, any one of those items could floor you.

What's most stunning is that coaches who work in the Atlantic Sun Conference and media personnel who cover it projected during the preseason that the Bulldogs would be only the eighth-best team in the league.

So maybe their prognostications will turn out to be dead wrong and Gardner-Webb will became the scourge of the A-Sun. This is a team, though, whose two top returning scorers averaged a combined 19.6 points last season. This result is not the same as Virginia losing to Chaminade, but it's nowhere close to Missouri losing to an excellent Davidson team, either...

Kentucky did not lose to a mid-major power. It was blown out at home by a team that was a No. 7 seed in last March's Atlantic Sun tournament and meekly ended its season in an 18-point loss to Belmont. It was blown out by a team picked to finish eighth in a league that ranked 27th in the Ratings Percentage Index a year ago. Who could have predicted that"

From ESPN.com's Andy Katz: "Gardner-Webb coach Rick Scruggs had no idea what to expect from his players as he walked into the Rupp Arena halftime locker room up 11 points over mighty Kentucky.

Scruggs, a former coach at Pikeville College in the state, had always dreamed of playing against the 'Cats in Rupp.

Still, he had nothing. He wasn't sure what he was going to say, that is, until his cell phone rang.

'I felt it buzz and vibrate and I started laughing,' Scruggs said, speaking by phone at 1 a.m. on Thursday morning while still inside Rupp Arena. I told our guys, Should I pick up the phone and say I'm too busy to talk right now because we're kicking Kentucky?'

'I'm on cloud nine right now,' said Scruggs, 51. 'It's unbelievable. I can't even describe the feeling. I never would have imagined this at Pikeville. I'm living a dream right now. You dream all your life to go backdoor or shooting it to make a basket to win at North Carolina or Kentucky, and we did it for real...'

This is from a man who sent Dick Vitale cupcakes a few years ago after Vitale called out Colorado State's schedule for playing a "cupcake" like Gardner-Webb. Now, Vitale is scheduled to call a Gardner-Webb game next week at Madison Square Garden.

'I may bring him more cupcakes,' Scruggs said. 'He seemed to like them.' "

From ESPN.com's Pat Forde: "It's a 110-mile drive from Boone, N.C., home of the Appalachian State Mountaineers, to Boiling Springs, N.C., home of the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs.

Unfortunately, no major roadway directly links the two. Perhaps it's time to build one and name it Giant Killer Highway.

Rural North Carolina has become the cradle of upsets in the most unnatural college sports year of 2007. App State and Gardner-Webb have become the twin towers of small-school power.

In September, the Mountaineers traipsed into 110,000-seat Michigan Stadium and stunned the lordly Wolverines in football. A little over two months later, the Runnin' Bulldogs have sauntered into 23,000 seat Rupp Arena and taken down almighty Kentucky in basketball...

And you must adore the star of this show, sophomore guard Grayson Flittner, a former walk-on from Sharpsville, Ind., (pop. 611). All Flittner did was torture Kentucky with 22 points and five assists, repeatedly making rally-killing baskets whenever the Wildcats even hinted at a comeback.

Flittner looks like a fine player. But if Kentucky cannot handle him, what will it do with Chris Lofton, Ty Lawson, Eric Gordon and Terrence Williams -- all on the schedule in the coming weeks? If Gardner-Webb can blitz the Cats for 84 points, is there any way Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana and Louisville don't score 100?

Related Links:
 • Mike Decourcy - The Sporting News
 • Andy Katz - ESPN.com
 • Pat Forde - ESPN.com
 • Interview with ESPN's Tom Brennan
 • Dick Vitale - ESPN.com