Ostensibly Hoops

[Jungle Rat]

[youtube]J91hh1n9eAU[/youtube]

[crotch]

I feel bad for my friends in here (sort of), but the rival in me is glad UK didn't win last night...

Exactly how I see it when unc is playing.....

[goldenbear]

"They hit every free throw in the game so Cal decided to try to get two scores"

Bilas was talking about that this morning, the problem was, why foul with under a minute to go when the other team isn't in the bonus and reset the shot clock if you're determined to play it out and try to get a stop?

exactly,what I was saying, should have never fouled Napier with a minute left, plus he need two scores and only got one possession so his plan failed miserably.

You always try to extend the game and he did not do that at all.

[eCat]

The kids made it to the title game, beating some good teams along the way. Given how the season ended up, it was about the best scenario possible in terms of ending the season on a high note.

Napier was a veteran and to be honest, was not going to allow UK to win this game - it just reinforces how important a good PG is to the team.

Our backcourt had trouble penetrating which would have put our best free throw shooters on the line, and instead we had Dakari Johnson , Poythress and Randle taking our free throws and consequently shooting about 57% for them.

I really don't have any problem saying UConn was the better team that night and there was no way extending the game was going to result in a win or even a tie for UK. UConn wasn't going to fold.

Secondly, I don't think Rex Chapman was talking out of his butt and I think UK fans, most of them acting like jackasses toward Rex now for "ruining the karma before the game" will ultimately see that he did us a favor by (whether he meant for it or not) forcing the media to confront Cal about the game and have him address the rumor.

I didn't think Cal was ready to leave but I have had a bad feeling about his upcoming off season hip surgery.

[crotch]

UCONN under investigation for using drugs before title game.

[eCat]

in the fuck you Dooksucks department.........

A U.S. congressman is questioning whether the NCAA failed to hold the University of North Carolina accountable during a 2012 academic fraud investigation and is demanding answers from NCAA brass.

If he doesn't get them, he'll call for congressional hearings and subpoena NCAA President Mark Emmert, Rep. Tony Cardenas told CNN.

The California Democrat is referring to a probe in which the National Collegiate Athletic Association investigated UNC's system of "paper classes" -- independent studies requiring little work and no attendance. Athletes were able to get easy "A"s without actually going to class.

The NCAA declined to sanction the university, saying the scandal was academic in nature, not athletic.

"I think it's important to know if they are looking the other way," Cardenas said. "I think it's very suspicious."

A Penn St congressman has joined in as well due to the harsh restrictions placed on Penn St.

[eCat]

UCONN under investigation for using drugs before title game.

Huzlers.com?

[AlabamAlum]

Dirk is now 10th on the all-time scorers list, passing the Big O? Would not have guessed that...

[hedge]

I like how that article referred to the drugs as "skill enhancing"...

[hedge]

"A Penn St congressman has joined in as well due to the harsh restrictions placed on Penn St."

Buggery is going to bring down the NCAA...

[Jungle Rat]

If only the Big O played with the 3 point line.

[eCat]

[eCat]

Tell me this guy doesn't have an axe to grind..

-----

John Calipari watched the magnitude of the national title game overwhelm his young Kentucky team. He watched a player he used to coach, Kevin Ollie, outfox him on the sideline with a less talented team. He watched, for the second time in his career, a superior team squander a chance at a national title one bricked free throw at a time.

Afterward, Calipari got up in front of the assembled media and delivered a press conference filled with bluster, contradiction and utter ridiculousness that managed to surpass even his own hyperbolic standards. Suddenly, one of the greatest recruiting class ever assembled was a bunch of knock-kneed 18-year-olds. A team stocked with McDonald's All-Americans looked like a junior high team making its debut.

"I needed to do a better job for these kids today," Calipari said without flinching, "because they needed more help."

Calipari blamed himself several times, which was admirable considering how much he blamed his players last year after a first-round NIT loss to Robert Morris. It's always an extreme with the 55-year-old Calipari, and his polarizing personality on full display at the Final Four reminded everyone why he'll never make it as an NBA coach. Calipari and college basketball are stuck dancing in awkward hands-on-shoulders circles for the rest of his career.

Former Kentucky player Rex Chapman tweeted before the national title game that Calipari was headed to the Lakers, calling the move a "done deal." (Calipari shot down the rumor after the game.) This classic fake Twitter "story" was about as believable as Calipari's claim that he didn't get flashbacks on Monday night to the 2008 national title game against Kansas that his Memphis team threw away at the line.

But even in a star-driven city like L.A., it's hard to imagine there's a place for Calipari's shtick. The NBA is a players league, and its best coaches avoid personal attention as if it were a 98-mph fastball under the chin.

That's simply not John Calipari. It will never be John Calipari, who in his only NBA head coaching stint with the Nets reportedly had an intern call WFAN to defend him. Kobe Bryant would get motion sickness from rolling his eyes at Calipari before training camp ended. Calipari's best chance to go to the NBA was with the Knicks thanks to his cozy relationship with CAA, but that disappeared when the team hired Phil Jackson as president last month.

Calipari's me-first persona won't fly in the modern NBA, where the new wave of numbers-crunching general managers are looking for low-maintenance coaches like Boston's Brad Stevens, Memphis' Dave Joerger and Philadelphia's Brett Brown. If you are a college basketball fan, you've likely never heard of the latter two, and that's because they're grinder-types who don't draw much attention. The coaches aren't the show in the NBA.

NBA general managers don't want egos. They want people who are easy to work with. And Calipari, all the way back to his "Refuse to Lose" days at Massachusetts, has been about flash as much as substance. Who else would give Drake a 2012 national championship ring and invite him in the locker room last weekend? Who else would attempt to repair the bad reputation he's received for "one-and-done" players by attempting to rebrand the term "Succeed and Proceed"? (Sorry, Cal, that one has a New Coke feel to it. )

Calipari's Xs and Os certainly didn't distinguish him on Monday night. When we look back on this box score in 10 years, we're going to say, "How did Kentucky lose this game with all of those NBA players?"

Calipari could sense something was wrong early as Kentucky started the game dazed and confused. Calipari pulled star forward Julius Randle less than three minutes into the game because he said Randle was tired. (CBS reported that Randle had cramps, but Randle denied anything was wrong physically). So why did Calipari take his star forward out so early?

---------------

it goes on an on

so lets recap - the story isn't about UConn's great run, or even the two time national championship coach Billy Donovan losing as the #1 overall seed to a #7 seed, but the #8 seed UK Wildcats, who knocked out 3 of the 4 of last years NCAA final four including an undefeated #1 seed Wichita State being outcoached in the national title game.

You know I can see criticism but I can't for the life of me understand how an editor with any sports knowledge doesn't ask these basic questions when he presents a story like this to be printed in Sports Illustrated of all places. You want to at least present the image of objectivity, right?

[hedge]

Now that's the kind of UK fan I'm used to, disgusted with anything less than an NC...

[hedge]

I have to admit, Cal's penchant for trying to have it both ways is somewhat annoying. You assemble the most talented team almost every year based on the deliberate strategy of getting the most freshmen who probably wouldn't even ever play college ball if the NBA allowed for drafting them out of high school, but yet then you use their youth and inexperience as an excuse when you lose. Just ride the horse that brung ye and quit poor-mouthing when it stumbles...

[eCat]

I have to admit, Cal's penchant for trying to have it both ways is somewhat annoying. You assemble the most talented team almost every year based on the deliberate strategy of getting the most freshmen who probably wouldn't even ever play college ball if the NBA allowed for drafting them out of high school, but yet then you use their youth and inexperience as an excuse when you lose. Just ride the horse that brung ye and quit poor-mouthing when it stumbles...

yea I agree with that - no UK fans wants to hear "but they're freshmen"

but this year has put Cal in a great place with UK fans - even though he's probably pissed off at us for riding him (don't fucking lose in the first round of the NIT next time Cal), now all he has to say is "look, its a process, you may not like the team now but by March they will be firing on all cylinders, and he can milk a few elite 8's that way without feeling much heat. Then he puts together an OOC schedule like Indiana and plays the sisters of the poor, beats UL and a few SEC teams, has a 23-7 record, goes into the tourney as a 4 seed (he'll never get an 8 seed again with a loaded team of freshmen) and its all gravy.

for the record, I do believe Rex Chapman (well except the #donedeal part) and I think him leaking it shitted a big old turd in Cal's sandbox. Cal was just too quick to condemn the fans this year (via the ruse of him pretending to slam the media) for talking shit about his team, but that is horseshit on his part. You don't get up there and talk about "we are college basketball, we move the needle", talk about how talented the team is, don't shoot down expectations of 40-0 talk , talk about how he tells his players "I can't hide you" - and then get all bitchy and moany when the natives get restless because you can't beat teams in a bad SEC.

Cal's mistake is thinking UK fans on the whole are sophisticated enough to separate his hyperbole to the media which is 90% recruiting pitch, 10% truth from the reality of the team. UK fans live for the moment hyperbole becomes reality.

But as I said, this team came within a pussy hair of making that hyperbole reality and putting together the greatest run in recent tournament history and add to the legend of UK basketball. UK fans can live off that for a pretty good while and Cal has as much credit in the bank now, if not more, than he had prior to the 2012 run.

[aTm]

When you finish national runner up, I don't care what fucking school you're at, there should be no need for an excuse. Sometimes you get beat.

[Owlman]

When you finish national runner up, I don't care what fucking school you're at, there should be no need for an excuse. Sometimes you get beat.

exactly

[hedge]

Yeah, but it is kinda cutting into Crow's historic calling card, something about "when UK gets to the FF, they usually win it all! We don't count FF's, just championships!" That's actually the attitude of alot of UK fans, in line with "we don't rush the court" and "we don't hang banners for anything but national championships" (although from pictures I've seen, this latter isn't true). I agree with you, FF's and championship game appearances, even if you lose, should be matters of pride. Certainly nothing approaching the pride of winning it all, but still not to be discounted out of hand, which is the attitude that some UK fans at least try to pretend to

[hedge]

UNC fans probably overvalue FF appearances, mainly b/c we've been to so many with so relatively few NC's to show for it (I guess). I guess too that if you think about it, if you're a one or two seed and a traditional power, you really should expect to win your first two games of the tourny with relative ease, and a win in the Sweet 16 shouldn't be viewed as a huge accomplishment, either. I would say that most times by the elite 8 you're going to have to play a more or less equal team, but hell, you should at least have a 50/50 chance of winning it. So if you look at it like that, getting to the FF as a high seed maybe shouldn't be considered that great of an accomplishment, but I do anyway...