Yes, at some point I'm going to post about the last game of the World Series. I haven't had time yet.
I haven't posted anything so far about the 2019-20 Kentucky basketball season. 2019 was the first year since 1988 since I had a rooting interest in the World Series, so I haven't had as much time to brood over the Cats as I usually do in October. Also, last year I was very fired up for that opening game against Duke -- and that was just embarrassing. Furthermore, it didn't really mean anything -- by the end of the year, UK and Duke were basically equal. They were even knocked out of the NCAA Tournament on the same day. We lost in overtime; Duke lost by one point. So the opener against Duke turned out not to mean much at all.
That brings us to tonight's game. Michigan State is number one in the country, they went to the Final Four last year, and they play every game as if their opponent owes them money. Coach Cal, on the other hand, will likely treat the game as a glorified exhibition. Whoever runs this event with UK, Duke, Kansas, and Michigan State used to give Cal a couple of games to get ready -- but last year they changed the schedule so that this is literally the first game of the year. That makes a huge difference to UK, which really needs those first few games to get going. So I'm assuming that tonight should be a pretty easy win for MSU -- but I'm also assuming that won't tell us much about the Cats. I'm going to wait until they've played the rest of their November schedule, and then we can start making some useful judgments in December.
We're 30 seconds into the college basketball season, and ESPN is already using that stupid sky cam for the Kansas-Duke game. This could be a long year.
ReplyDeleteKansas is number 3, and Duke is number 4. They're playing in Madison Square Garden. I'm not sure there's been a season since 2008 where I actually thought Kansas was better than Duke. Statistically, these two programs are close. But using NFL analogies, I think of Duke the same way I think of the Patriots, and I think of Kansas in much the same way I think of the Vikings.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't ever expect Duke to lose to a team that's not from the East Coast. The Devils are currently up 8-5 with 16:34 left in the first half.
ReplyDeleteI used to wonder about what would happen to Duke after Coach K retired. But I don't even think about that possibility anymore.
ReplyDeleteAt the first TV timeout, Duke leads 10-9.
ReplyDeleteAt the second TV timeout, Duke leads 15-12. So far, Kansas is doing much better against Duke than UK did last year.
ReplyDeleteKansas won the national championship in 2008. Since then, here are your champions:
ReplyDelete2009: N. Carolina
2010: Duke
2011: Connecticut
2012: Kentucky
2013: Louisville
2014: Connecticut
2015: Duke
2016: Villanova
2017: N. Carolina
2018: Villanova
2019: Virginia
Kentucky and Louisville are the only teams on this list who are not from the East Coast.
So I tend to think of college basketball as Kentucky, the East Coast, and Everybody Else. Kansas is part of Everybody Else.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Everybody Else has handed UK some heartbreak. Michigan St. in 2005. West Virginia in 2010. Wisconsin in 2015. Auburn in 2019. But I never think of those teams as being strong contenders to go all the way -- and in fact, none of them did.
ReplyDeleteIn 2016, UK went to Kansas for an SEC-Big XII showdown. UK led by eight with fourteen minutes to go, but lost 90-84 in overtime. In that game, UK shot 22 free throws. Kansas shot 47.
ReplyDeleteWith 6:58 left in the first half, Kansas leads Duke 22-18.
ReplyDeleteIn the 2018 tournament, Kansas beat Duke 85-81 in overtime. That was a huge surprise to me, and may have been the high point of that tournament.
ReplyDeleteGrayson Allen killed Duke in this game. It was his last game, and he went 2-9 from 3-point range and 1-4 from 2-point range. Plus, he kept taking key shots down the stretch when it was clear that he was missing.
DeleteThe next week, in the Final Four, Villanova blew out Kansas.
DeleteWith 4:28 left in the first half, Duke leads 25-22. Kansas calls time.
ReplyDeleteWith 1:23 left in the first half, Duke leads 31-30. KU just scored on a steal, and Duke calls time.
ReplyDeleteDuke leads 33-30 at the half. The big story here is that Kansas had 17 turnovers, to only 9 for Duke. The Devils are going with a smaller lineup that is creating a lot of turnovers. But they have a hard time stopping KU when they don't turn them over.
ReplyDeleteYes, sir.
ReplyDeleteSo happy for my mother-in-law, a retired Kentucky public-school teacher who figured out early voting so that she could cast against Bevin before traveling to New York with a tour group this week to see UK upset Michigan State.
It turns out that Tyrese Maxey had other plans.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, here are the other times that Kentucky has played the AP Number 1 when UK was the AP Number 2:
ReplyDelete03/31/1975: UCLA 92, Kentucky 85 (San Diego) (National Championship)
12/26/1981: N. Carolina 82, Kentucky 69 (E. Rutherford, N.J.)
03/30/1996: Kentucky 81, Massachusetts 74 (E. Rutherford, N.J.) (Final Four)