My mother isn't a sports fan.

Repping the Big Blue, late 70s.

It's kind of crazy, really. My daddy used to be a basketball coach, as was his daddy before him. My beau and I live and breathe UK basketball and football. My brother is an obsessive fan of both of those Cincinnati pro teams. Any time my family gets together, the conversation turns to sports, sports, and more sports. There's at least one person sporting a team logo at any given time, while my poor mother fakes her way through it.

Music City Bowl, 2007

And so, we find ourselves in late October. I'm, as you can well imagine, obsessed with the upcoming basketball season, one in which we have the potential to win it all. I'm studying up on Coach Cal's latest Dream Team and counting the days until the season starts. Yesterday, my mom hit me with an odd query: "The news keeps referencing a potential new stadium. That seems kind of extravagant in the current economic climate, doesn't it?"

I own a lot of Kentucky shirts.

I immediately answered her with all of the pros and cons of Lexington's great arena debate. I presented the economic benefits that potentially exist for the University and for the city. I tried to frame it in reference to the campaign platforms of mayoral candidates. But, ultimately, my answer came down to recruiting. I want my team -- my grad school alma mater-- to succeed. That's my number one agenda item. And if first-class facilities are the key to another title, then facilities are what I want, whether refurbished or rebuilt. I realized that the conversation between my mother and me wasn't about an information exchange. It was a bigger-picture debate among Kentuckians: those of us who live for basketball, and the quiet minority who don't.

Unpopular opinions are something that we here at Her Kentucky have been talking about quite a bit lately. We've been discussing many of the Kentucky traditions that one or more of us just don't get. Burgoo, mint juleps, hot browns, Ale-8, even my beloved Kentucky basketball. Just because we're all Kentuckians, we don't all love "Kentucky things."

Over the next few weeks, Her Kentucky will bring you a series of blog entries about unpopular opinions. We'll be discussing some of the Kentucky traditions that fall short of our expectations. We'll give you some ideas that you don't quite see in the travel brochures. We'll most likely drop the phrase "there, I said it" a time or two.

Until then, we'd love to hear any unpopular opinions y'all may have.

What Kentucky traditions fall short of expectations for you?