03/21/1999: Michigan St. 73, Kentucky 66 (Elite 8) (St. Louis)
03/18/2000: Syracuse 52, Kentucky 50 (Second Round) (Cleveland)
03/22/2001: USC 80, Kentucky 76 (Sweet 16) (Philadelphia)
03/22/2002: Maryland 78, Kentucky 68 (Sweet 16) (Syracuse, N.Y.)
03/29/2003: Marquette 83, Kentucky 69 (Elite 8) (Minneapolis, Minn.)
03/21/2004: Ala-Birmingham 76, Kentucky 75 (Second Round) (Columbus, O.)
03/27/2005: Michigan St. 94, Kentucky 88 (2 OT) (Elite 8) (Austin, Tex.)
03/19/2006: Connecticut 87, Kentucky 83 (Second Round) (Philadelphia)
03/18/2007: Kansas 88, Kentucky 76 (Second Round) (Chicago)
03/20/2008: Marquette 74, Kentucky 66 (First Round) (Anaheim, Calif.)
2009 -- No NCAA Bid
03/27/2010: West Virginia 73, Kentucky 66 (Elite 8) (Syracuse, N.Y.)
I saw every single one of those games. And every time, I thought that Kentucky had a chance to win. And they lost them all. Something always went wrong. Sometimes the other team was just better. Sometimes they were hot and we were cold. Sometimes we complained about the officiating. Sometimes we complained because, no matter how good the Cats were, the NCAA sent them to a hostile region. (True fact: this was only UK's second appearance in the NCAA's South Region since 1998.)
The point is that even for a great basketball program like UK's, trips to the Final Four are rare. This is my 38th season following the Cats, and it's only the ninth time I've seen them get this far. And yes, I remember how we would have met Louisville in the 1986 Final Four -- but we were upset by LSU in the Elite Eight. So on a day like this -- when our team has done such a great thing, you take time to be grateful. Many seasons I have watched the clock run out on UK with the disgruntled feeling that I was more upset than the coach or the players. Not this year. These kids and this coach have given us everything they have. The team they have created not only plays a beautiful style of basketball, it is also one of the smartest teams I have ever seen. They have made us all proud, and I for one am ecstatic that we get to hang a banner in Rupp to celebrate their accomplishment.
Next up we have the re-match with Louisville. This is not the time to discuss that game in detail -- there will be plenty of time for that. Personally, I don't mind playing Louisville. I respect Louisville's program, its fans, its players, and its coach. No two teams from the same state have met in the Final Four in 50 years, and these teams and this state deserve that honor.
But we'll have more time to think about Louisville. What about this game? There's not a whole lot to say, really. Or, rather, there is one big thing to say: this game shows what happens when a normal good team with a normal good coach goes up against this UK team. For months now, it's seemed like we've either been playing conference foes who are obsessed with beating Kentucky, or emotional rivals with deep basketball traditions and great coaches, like Louisville, Western Kentucky, and Indiana. We've also played a high number of repeat games against teams we've already beaten. No team can really look its best under such circumstances. The opponents know you too well. They know where on the floor to shoot from. They know where you want to go and where you don't want to go. They know who to guard and who to leave open. It makes everything more difficult -- as we will see next Saturday.
Baylor, on the other hand, didn't seem to know anything about UK. Scott Drew, their coach, said after the game that the Cats were much better than he had expected -- and that was pretty obvious from the way Baylor played in the first half. The Bears are a fine team -- they were 30-7 going into this game, ranked number 9 in the country, and they had at least two really solid players in Perry Jones III and Quincy Acy. After a few minutes, they were up 10-5 and felt pretty good about themselves. (At this point, CBS put up a graphic showing that this was UK's "largest deficit of the tournament." Thanks, CBS!) Baylor seemed to feel like they could treat UK like any other good team -- Missouri, say, or maybe Kansas State.
The results were fascinating. Suddenly the Cats were playing a team who didn't have a detailed game plan designed to beat them, and who weren't showing the sort of religious fervor Indiana brought to Friday's game. And so Kentucky just slaughtered Baylor. The Bears would go driving into the basket as if Anthony Davis was just another good center, and suddenly the ball would go steaming back the other way and quickly become a slam dunk. The Bears would sag off of Darius Miller, and he would nail a jump shot. They wouldn't get back quickly enough on defense, and Michael Kidd-Gilcrist or Marquis Teague would beat them down the floor. They would make typical passes in the lane -- and see them intercepted and turned into run-outs. By halftime, their offense had completely broken down -- they looked as though they were more concerned with not having the ball stolen than they were with scoring.
The numbers were staggering for a game between two top-10 teams. In the first half, UK shot 55.2 percent from the field; Baylor shot 32 percent. Baylor made 9 turnovers; UK had only 3. At one point I think UK made 10 consecutive field goals. Kidd-Gilcrist and Davis together had 31 points, nine more than the whole Baylor team. The halftime score was 42-22 -- the biggest halftime margin in the Elite Eight since UConn beat Alabama in 2004.
By the second half, Baylor had learned their lesson. They played with a sort of sullen rage that looked much more like we normally see from our opponents. The Cats looked sort of bored -- and a bit nervous after Anthony Davis went down with what appeared to be a painful knee injury, but from which he quickly recovered. The referees, who seemed terrified that violence would break out unless they kept blowing their whistles, called foul after foul. (UK ended up going 30-44 from the line, and you could hear the folks in Indiana resentfully counting every miss.)
It was all pretty desultory -- but it was wonderful, as every Elite 8 game you win is wonderful. You had time to think about all of the Kentuckians who had bought tickets to the Atlanta Regional hoping UK would get sent there -- or who had just driven down after Friday's victory over Indiana. And you saw the tens of thousands who filled the Georgia Dome -- just as they had filled so many stadiums in so many places all year, and for so many years. And you thought: Those fans are what made this possible. They're the reason Coach Calipari left Memphis. They're the reason we have those great facilities the recruits like so much. They're the reason everyone who plays at Kentucky instantly becomes famous. And all of us suffered for so long, and had so many people tell us that you couldn't expect to win them all, that times change, that the big football schools like Florida were the future. But we didn't believe them, and we fought until we got the coach we wanted. And we were right.
But of course we can only do so much. So on this great and glorious day, we thank Coach Calipari -- who picked up his 100th victory since coming to Kentucky. His all-time record with the Cats is now 100-14.
We thank Eloy Vargas, who plays hard every chance he gets, and who always seems to be saying something funny when we see him on the bench.
We thank Kyle Wiltjer, who really is getting better, and who could be truly great once he convinces Coach Cal he can play defense.
We thank Marquis Teague, who took so much grief at the beginning of the year, but who is, in many ways, better at running the offense than John Wall or Brandon Knight were.
We thank Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, whose work ethic will become legendary among Kentucky fans, and whose soft touch around the basket destroyed Indiana and Baylor.
We thank Anthony Davis, who I honestly believe is the greatest UK player I have ever seen, and whose competitive spirit and decent personality is a living rebuke to all of those cynics who believe that today's kids don't respect the game.
We thank Doron Lamb, Number3Son's favorite player, who is the best outside shooter we have had at UK, and who scored 14 points in the second half to hold off Baylor after the rest of the team had gone cold.
We thank Terrence Jones, who made everything possible by coming back for his sophomore season, and who is one of the most unselfish great players I can remember.
And finally, we thank Darius Miller, the kid from Maysville, Kentucky who took Mason County to the State Championship, who spent his freshman year watching the program fall apart, who hung in there as big stars like John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins came on board, who kept getting better and better, who this year became a true leader, and who started the game by yelling at the rest of the team that he was not ready to see his season end!
We aren't either, Mr. Miller. See you in New Orleans.
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