So Long to 2011-12

With Arizona's victory in the College World Series, the 2011-12 NCAA season comes to an end. We bid it adieu with the following thoughts:

Congratulations to the Alabama Crimson Tide, who won national championships in softball, women's golf, and at least one other sport.

Congratulations to the West Virginia Mountaineers, who crushed Clemson 70-33 in the Orange Bowl to capture the Unofficial College Football Championship for the first time since 1926.

Congratulations to Ohio State Buckeyes, who get to have Urban Meyer as their new football coach.

Congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats football team, who finally beat Tennessee this season.

Congratulations to the Indiana Hoosiers, who won a big basketball game at home in December (by one point on a last-second shot), and who have been celebrating ever since.

Congratulations to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, who won the Sun Belt Men's Basketball Tournament after the Administration finally gave the fans the coach that they wanted years ago.

Congratulations to the Louisville Cardinals, who went to the Final Four with a tough, scrappy team that played with remarkable fervor throughout the NCAA Tournament.

Congratulations to the Murray State Racers, whose men's basketball team was ranked most of the year, who got to host Dickie V for the first time ever, who won the OVC Regular Season and Tournament titles, who won a game in the NCAA Tournament, and who generally had the best season in their history.

Congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats rifle team, which finished second in this year's NCAA Tournament.

Congratulations to the Baylor Lady Bears, who went undefeated in this basketball season and who should go undefeated in the next basketball season.

Congratulations to Pat Summitt, who retired after one of the very greatest coaching careers I have ever seen.

Congratulations to the Kentucky Lady Cats, who won the SEC Regular Season title for the first time since 1982.

Congratulations to the Arizona Wildcats, who won the College World Series for the first time since 1986.

Congratulations to the Vanderbilt Commodores, whose men's basketball team won the SEC Tournament for the first time since 1951.

Congratulations to Mitch Barnhart, who has built the strongest athletic program I can remember at the University of Kentucky.

But most of all, congratulations to Darius Miller, Anthony Davis, Coach Cal, and the rest of the Kentucky Wildcats' men's basketball team, who went 38-2 to win UK's first national championship since 1998, and who will be remembered forever in the hearts of their fellow Kentuckians.

All in all, it was a great season for college sports. And another one will start in about two months.