If you’re anything like me, you’re still riding on cloud nine after Kentucky’s national championship win. Not only did the Cats win the tournament and etch their names forever in the record books as champions, but they did so in grand fashion too.
If you look at it, they opened the tournament with a win over an in-state program (Western Kentucky), beat two of their bitterest rivals (Indiana and Louisville), and to top it off, they put down another storied program (Kansas) to do it. It couldn’t have played out much better than it did.
Or could it?
How would you, the Nation of Blue reader, script the PERFECT tournament run next year? Who would you play? Would they be close, nail biter games? Or would all the games be blowouts of epic proportion, with no mercy shown on either side of the floor? Let us know on our Facebook pages or in the comments section how you’d like to see your perfect tournament run go.
As for me…
First Round – East Tennessee State, 16 Seed
In my version of the perfect tournament run, Kentucky is a natural number one seed. It may be more dramatic for them to be lower in order to build drama toward the end. The only problem with that is, who do they play in the first round? Even if a team like Louisville or Tennessee lost every single game in the regular season (how magical would that be, by the way?) and they put on a miracle run in their conference tournaments to make it into the show, the selection committee probably wouldn’t put them in as a sixteen seed. Thirteen or fourteen, maybe, but not sixteen. Not to mention, even IF the Vols were slated at sixteen, they wouldn’t match them up against UK. The Selection Committee tends to not schedule conference foes to face each other anywhere in the first two rounds. So what small conference school would you play at the beginning to make things more gratifying? I thought of adding one of our in-state schools here, but the committee pulls that crap all the time. I’d like the opportunity to cheer for our in-state schools in those early rounds (except for Louisville, naturally), so that’s out. So I figured if we can’t play a chief rival, why not pound on a school from the chief rival’s home state? If we can’t play Tennessee, why not put a beatdown on their second cousin to the east?
Cats win, natch. 123 – 66.
Second Round – Cincinnati, 8 Seed
Again, we’re somewhat hamstrung by the “Committee Doesn’t Schedule Conference Foes in the First Two Rounds” rule, so who do you play in the second? You could say Indiana, but they’re probably a lot better than an eight or nine seed. I’d put Cincinnati here for two reasons: 1. I think UK should play a regular series with Cincy, get back to one of the older rivalries, and 2. Cincy always tends to put good teams on the floor. If we’re going to play, we might as well watch some good basketball to boot.
Cats win again, 94 – 70 in what will be their last big blowout of the tournament.
Sweet Sixteen – Indiana, 4 seed
NOW we get a chance to sink our teeth into some rivals. Some may say a four seed may be a little low for an Indiana team that’s predicted to contend for a championship run next season. Well let’s just say I’m not completely sold on that just yet. A four seed is perfectly fair for a Hoosier team who appears good on paper in the preseason.
Cats win in a nail-biter, 84 – 79. The game is close throughout, but the Cats pull away with free throws at the end.
Elite Eight – Duke, 2 Seed
Don’t need much explanation here. It’s time to erase 1992 forever. This one’s going to have FOUR overtimes and another last second shot. But this time, the good guys win.
Cats, 122-121 in 4OT
Final Four – Florida, 4 Seed
Could the Gators make the F4 next season? I don’t know, maybe. But I had to ask myself, who would you rather beat? Florida, who always seems to always field a team of impossible to like players? Or North Carolina, for essentially the same reasons? Normally I’d pencil in UNC here, but I got to thinking. How could would it be to beat Florida not once, not twice, not even three times, but FOUR times? It’s possible. Two regular season games (permanent rivals, remember?), once in the SEC tourney and once in the Big Dance. How completely demoralizing would it be for a Florida fanbase to know they got schooled by the same team four different times in one season? And in the Final Four to boot! Sorry, can’t pass this up.
Cats win (duh!), 88-82.
National Championship – Louisville, 1 Seed
At first I was thinking that I’d hate to give Louisville fans the pleasure of making it this far. Imagine how insufferable Cards fans would be “We’re a one seed too! Whoo! We’re in the Final Four! Look at us, we’re in the championship game! WON’T SOMEOME PLEASE LOOK AT US!!?!?”
But then I got to thinking. This couldn’t work out any better. Look at last season for example, how Louisville made it to the Final Four, and how overjoyed the Card faithful was. (Although calling them “Card faithful” is an oxymoron considering who their coach is, but I digress) Then the Cats came and took it all away. I remember reading come Card message board and seeing how disenfranchised their fanbase was. ( I was thoroughly enjoying every minute of it, of course.)
Just imagine ramping that up to a National Championship game. Card fans would be falling on their swords across the state Louisville half of Louisville. And to think, when they look up into the rafters of the Chicken Bucket, and see that banner that reads “2013 National Runner-Up”, they’ll remember all over again.
Oh yeah.
Cats win, 105 – 104.
Go Big Blue.
It’s still not too late to cast your vote for Nation of Blue’s Top 50 UK Players of All Time Poll. All you have to do is send a list of at least five, but no more than ten, of your favorite Kentucky players to [EMAIL=”[email protected]”][email protected][/EMAIL]. Voting ends July 1, 2012, so get your selections in!
