Monday, March 16, 2009

Rome is Burning.

On Friday I sent out a text message to some friends that said “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no NIT,” but the truth is that I do fear the NIT. Since I was Sophie’s age, the University of Kentucky has always made the NCAA tournament (except for those years that an express mail package busts open filled with cash). To say that I feel adrift is an understatement. Being a Kentucky basketball fan is more than simply cheering the local squad. In many ways it a defining quality of what it is to be a Kentuckian. And right now, the program is separating the men from the assholes.

My fear of the NIT is that if we do very well, it will be akin to a 19 year old beating up a 7th grader at the playground. And if we suck…. well, I don’t really want to think about that. My fear was compounded yesterday when the NIT bracket was released and we received a 4 seed. You read that correctly, the storied Kentucky basketball program received a 4 seed in the NIT.

As I made clear in my earlier post, I am not advocating that we publically lynch Coach Gillespie. Ignoring the fact that we need to give the coach more than two years, it would be very counter-productive to the program to fire a coach after the team achieved a winning season. Simply having more wins than loses is not acceptable; but, it could have been worse.

So I sit in the middle of March with nothing to do. I could watch and enjoy the NCAA tournament even though my team isn’t playing but it seems weird. I am sure that many of you do this (I am looking at you South Dakota readers) but part of me feels like I should give up on the tournament as a sort of punishment. Yes, I realize how stupid that sounds.

Before anyone suggests that I support one of the other three Kentucky teams in the tournament, I plan on doing just this (even Louisville but I am gritting my teeth).

So what else happens in March?

22 comments:

  1. FYI - SD has its first ever Division I BB team that made it to "a" dance this year (not "the" dance, however) - the SD State Jackrabbits! (women). You can root for them if you like.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just an interesting tid bit of info I found after doing some research for a post on UK Sports Discussion Boards....you know how UK Fans are always saying its about Championships at UK..well in over 100 years we've won 7, average of once every 14 or so years...check out these stats of some of the greatest coaches

    I just bring this up because everyone says "At Kentucky it's about Championships"....Other than John Wooden some of the greatest basketball coaches of all time have won 3 or less national titles.....
    Rupp: 4 in 42 years
    Bobby Knight: 3 in 38 years
    Coach K: 3 in 28 years
    Dean Smith: 2 in 36 years
    Roy Williams: 1 in 21 years
    Rick Pitino: 1 in around 20 years in college
    Jim Boheim: 1 in 33 years
    Joe B Hall: 1 in 13 years
    Tubby: 1 in 10 years....why was this sooo bad compared to the others based on Championships per year?

    We are holding our coaches to an unrealistic standard by saying it's about Championships. Nobody wins them on a basis of more than once every 10 years!

    ReplyDelete
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