Is Josh Hopkins the Male Ashley Judd?

I know y'all got sick of seeing this, too.

Remember back in the late Nineties, when Ashley was on that hockey poster and every frat guy had it framed and hung on the wall?  This was way back when she was still a Kappa Kappa Gamma from Boyd County, not a European (you know, the way Madonna is European) diplomat and activist.  It was well before she was writing tell-all books about her reality.  It was back when the world considered her our team's biggest (and, arguably, prettiest) fan. And then, the hockey posters became a whole thing, with McSteamy's wife and a whole bunch of chicks I didn't know, and Ashley started pissing people off, and suddenly only Dickie V cared about her being at the game.

Yeah, it seems like a long time ago to me, too.


My point is, there was a time when Ashley Judd was the Wildcats' most high-profile fan.  She was always camera-ready at big games and she spoke knowledgeably about the games.  She was one of the things that the national sports media came to associate with the University of Kentucky's basketball program. Now, she still shows up now and again, but she's off saving the world with Bono or whatever.   In the past year or so, it's seemed that Josh  Hopkins is the new Ashley.  And, in addition to still being a straight-up Kentuckian, he is so, so pretty, y'all.



The way I see it, Josh has way out-Ashleyed Ashley in so many important ways:

Image via Herald-Leader

• Josh is an actual working actor, and therefore, legitimately famous. His TV show actually runs on a major network, not USA at 2 a.m.
• Josh is on the Calipari train. That so trumps sitting tête-à-tête with Joanne Pitino.
• Josh dates Erin Andrews.  Longtime Kentucky Girls readers know that Erin is our girlcrush. Casual SportsCenter viewers know that Erin is an SEC alumna. 

In fact, the only negative thing I can say about Josh is that he went to Auburn.  But, let's not focus on that little detail.  Instead, we'll call him a Lexington native.  And a Sayre alum.  And an SEC guy. And the guy who did the John Wall on a sitcom.

And the guy who reps the Cats wherever he can.

Barfly: Coach Cal's town by FOX_Sports_Interactive

And he wears these cutie-pie glasses.  Top that, Ashley.