It feels strange, this year, to be so satisfied with looking down at an NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament bracket, finding the name "Kentucky" and seeing next to it the number 1... followed by another 1.
We are an 11 seed,
and I'm perfectly okay with that.
The truth is, as most of you I'm sure are aware, it has been doubtful that we would even receive our invitation to this dance ever since, oh I don't know, the last time I was on ESPN.
I can remember the drive home from Rupp Arena that day.
It was the second most miserable one that I can remember (the first being the time we ate at B-Dubs right before the game and had to leave at halftime...if you know what I mean). Hopes had been so high for the one called Billy Clyde. Now we were falling to the likes of San Diego and Gardner-Webb. It was almost enough to make a Big Blue faithful find himself wishing for football season (what?)...Anyway, that was then; this is now. In less than three days, we will be facing a tough Marquette team in the greatest show in sports. And even though we are missing our best player; in spite of one of the rockiest non-conference seasons I can remember; despite coming up short in our first SEC tournament game, we have a chance. Clearly, one of the most beautiful things about looking at those 64 converging little lines is that they represent, above all else, the simple notion of chaos. "Anything can happen."
All that is to say, I think that my 11-year old self would be ashamed to see how relieved I am with the current state of affairs. A true Wildcat should never be content with anything less than a 1 seed, maybe a 2. A lot of people here (read "Indiana") don't really understand why UK fans seem to hold their team - players and coaches alike - to such a high standard. I will resist the temptation to insert here the obligatory Kelvin Sampson joke - you know, the one about including "high standards" for coaching and the state of Indiana in the same sentence. I digress.
The point is, if you don't understand why it is SO frustrating to see the University of Kentucky Wildcats Men's Basketball program performing at such a "low" level, you didn't grow up in Central Kentucky during the mid-1990s. It's a fact. If the following series doesn't make your heart beat a little faster - Delk, McCarty, Walker, Epps, Mercer, Anderson, Edwards, Padgett, Sheppard, Turner, Evans, Mohammed, Magloire, Mills - you don't get it.
Well, get it...
Go 'Cats!
3 comments:
Sigh... those were the good ole days! Billy has potential with this team and excitement is building slowly, slowly...
Just because my mood doesn't completely sway with the success or failure of my Hoosiers does not mean I don't expect a great deal from them. And just cuz you weren't hardly alive back when Kentucky was breaking all the rules, doesn't mean they didn't screw up. And, Cheaney, Alford, Bailey, Henderson, Graham, Graham, Jeffries, Coverdale, Guyton, Anderson are some pretty good names as well. Go IU!
Oh. Wow. It's hard to believe that any team was ever that dominant at that point in history (not the 60s and 70s when there were seven teams that got all the recruits). The college basketball landscape has morphed considerably even since the mid-90s, and those who think North Carolina and Memphis steamroll their competition now need only take a look at the 'Cats 94-98 to remember what real transcendence is on a basketball court. It's tougher now, but my honest prediction is that in 2 years (Patterson's junior campaign) The University of Kentucky Wildcats will once again cut down the nets at the Final Four. As a matter of fact, I'll go ahead and order the frame so I can hang Patterson's picture with the net draped around his neck, the Championship Trophy in one hand, his M.V.P trophy in the other up in my office.
And let's not compare programs with IU. You'll only hurt the Hoosiers' feelings.
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