With 2008 coming to a close, I’ve been forced to reflect on everything the year has brought. Which brings to me to the year in review for UK and it’s athletic squads.

And in my reflections, I had one reoccurring theme — disappointment.

Can me a fair weather fan. Call me a Louisville fan. Call me whatever you want. But as we walk down memory lane, think of the present, not the optimisic future that many UK teams possess. We’re talking about the past/present. Oh and, on a technical basis, UK’s Music City Bowl win over Florida State isn’t included. It was played on Dec. 31, 2007. Sorry.

Just think, despite a great conference run, the basketball team was bounced out of the NCAA tournament quickly and for the first time in a long time, no one was quite sure the Cats would even make the tournament. Patrick Patterson’s injury worries the Big Blue Nation.

After storming out to another quick and forceful start, the baseball team falls apart in conference play. They stumble in the SEC tournament and miss out on another regional. The program building coach jets for alma mater and SEC foe Mississippi State. Many top recruits sign pro contracts instead of coming to Lexington, but a good class is still landed.

Women’s basketball semi-salvages a piss-poor season with a deep NIT run fueled by the opporunity to host week in and week out. But with only a few recruits, two of which are transfers and must sit out, there isn’t much hope for the next season.

And the softball and tennis teams struggle as always.

When fall starts, the football team stumbles mightily at the end with a 2-6 record and zero wins of note. Injuries and woeful offense make fans uneasy. On the basketball front, it’s clear UK is a two-man show and VMI decides to add itself to the list of recent Cat killers.

And the marquee win? A decent West Virginia team. The key loss, a five-pointer to a ranked Miami team that is respectable. The ugly? North Carolina, without it’s best player, showing UK has much farther it has to go until it’s elite again.

Oh and the volleyball team chokes away a share of the SEC crown and once again exits quickly out of the NCAA tournament.

Look at all that. Disappointing. It’s safe to say I’m ready to see 2008 end, as UK athletics is a shell of what we all thought it to be.

That’s why Mitch Barnhart is correct in his plan to return UK to prominence in all sports, as soon as possible.

2009 will probably be a good start. A win over East Carolina on Jan. 2 is the perfect time to start.

Boy I haven’t really ranted in a long time. But thanks to ESPN.com’s Bruce Feldman, you will be treated to one this morning. Why? Because Feldman is a busch league college football columnist. Feldman and Mark Schlabach released their pre-season bowl projections. A silly thing, I’m sure they’ll tell you, but it’s gets idiots like me to post about it, so I guess they win.

Anyway, the SEC has NINE bowl tie-ins and Feldman has UK listed for ZERO of them. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. And Feldman’s mistakes start at the top. His BCS championship game? Southern Cal. Versus Missouri. You had at me at hell no.

The sad thing is I like Missouri and Chase Daniel. But those boys won’t even win the Big 12. Feldman has Auburn in the Feista Bowl (vs. Pittsburgh) and Florida in the Sugar (vs. BYU, or Hawai’i redux). He has Ole Miss making the Liberty bowl. I’m OK with that. It’s possible. And forget about the Music City bowl, who broke an unwritten rule about taking a team in consecutive years already. But surely the PapaJohns.com or Independence bowls Bruce. Nope.

Arkansas likes the pizza bowl, Croom like independence. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Luckily, Schlabach slides UK into the Independence bowl against Oklahahoma State. I’m down with that. Not really, but it’s a third straight bowl.

I don’t know what ESPN did why Ivan Massel, who is much better at this bowl projections than Feldman. And that’s saying something. Feldman = busch league projections. Maybe you were going to the shake ups, the reaches. You win then Bruce.

But I think you actually believe Missouri will make the NC, BYU will crash the Sugar and Clemson can win the ACC. And I think you don’t watch college football.

I was going to wait a little bit before getting all worked up about UK’s chances to go bowling for a third straight year in football, but ESPN has left me no choice.

You see, College Football writer Mark Schlabach has released July bowl predictions to help keep people like me sane. And he has the Wildcats going to Mobile to take place in the newest SEC bowl (but not a new bowl altogether) the Papajohns.com bowl.

The good news: UK will be in a third straight bowl game. They would face a Big East opponent (Mark says Rutgers).

Bad news: The bowl is named after a website.

Now, the addition of the bowl gives the SEC nine tie-ins. I’m not quite sure if this is the ninth spot, but I doubt it since the Liberty Bowl projection has Ole Miss and the Independence Bowl has Mississippi State. I’m thinking this Papa John’s bowl jumped to the 7th best team in the conference. Or so I hope.

Of course, little brother Louisville is back bowling too in the International Bowl. Big East vs. MAC. The bowl may be closer in date to the BCS bowls, but you’d be playing in Canada. Not an upgrade.

Also, I went back and looked, this is the same match-up Phil Steele predicts. A bowl is a bowl right? Only if there’s free pizza!