As much as this run for the Wildcats surprises people, at the same time it makes complete sense. Go back and look at the stats. During the regular season, nearly every Kentucky loss came by less than five points. They played in close game after close game, and their superior talent just couldn't quite mesh (And yes, every game Kentucky has played they have had more talent, except for perhaps Florida. The NBA draft in a couple months will validate that statement, and especially at this point in the tournament, I don't think anybody could argue it). Now, after playing together for months and months, it's all finally clicked. Kentucky was able to beat Wichita State, Louisville, Michigan, and now Wisconsin. In everyone of those games, Kentucky may have been the lower seed, but in each one they controlled the game because of their superior size and talent. The Harrison twins tower over most backcourt tandems in the country. James Young has the worst hair in the game today, but one of the smoothest shots in the game today. Julius Randle is a bulky Joel Embiid who also has actual talent talent. Marcus Lee has hops that only can be rivaled by Sam Thompson. Dakari Johnson will be an All-American forward next year. The media has acted like this has been a run on par with Butler, VCU, and George Mason. If any of those teams had the talent of this Kentucky team, they would've easily cut down the nets. On Monday night, that's exactly what I expect Kentucky to do. Of course, knowing this team, it probably won't be easy at all. They'll probably need another late game buzzer beater. The only chance UConn has is if they have blistering shooting from beyond the arc and they can survive the Randle, Johnson, Lee wrecking company in the paint. I don't see either of those things happening, though. Kentucky will have another gigantic rebounding advantage, and the succeed and proceed Wildcats will win national championship number nine.
Okay, now after laying out the basketball logic and showing that I'm sane enough to realize that John Calipari has recruited a great team and that I can respect their talent, I'm going to get to the main point of this blog post- Why I hate Kentucky. The reasons are numerous. First, I'll start with the shallow ones:
-The Brandon Knight shot against Ohio State which ruined one of the best Buckeye teams chances of winning a title.
-The annoying Go Big Blue chant.
-The idea that Kentucky fans believe they belong in the SEC... Your football team sucks. Your basketball team is really good. Kentucky is not in the southern or eastern parts of the country.
Now, for the more serious reasons. First, I am not a fan of John Calipari. To be quite honest, I'm not sure why anybody can support him. The day he got thrown out of the game at South Carolina was the happiest I've ever been in person at a sporting event. The man has had wins revoked at two different schools for two different types of NCAA violations. Ask Kentucky fans about this, and they brush the allegations aside. I love the "those were at other schools" and "a school like Kentucky would never let that happen" responses. To the former response, the third time's the charm like Aaron Harrison's shots have illustrated, right? As for the latter, I really don't have a response for people who are that naive about major college athletics. Then, and by far most irritable about the man, is the general pompous and self-righteous personality he displays in every single interview. I'd attach clips to this article, but I'm too lazy to do that. I've never seen an interview with Coach Cal that makes me say, "You know what. I'd love to play for that man. He really will make me a better person and basketball player." Give me Coach K. Give me Roy Williams. Give me Bill Self. Give me Shaka Smart. Give me Billy Donovan. Give me Kevin Ollie. Give me a dad coaching his son's fourth grade rec team. He himself has admitted things like "this isn't my team" and "I don't coach them" on multiple occasions in interviews. The smugness in answers like that is a sign the man has a serious ego problem. However, every member of the Big Blue Nation would sign up to donate a kidney to the messiah would he need one. He's a great recruiter, but is he actually a great coach? How many players have gotten significantly better in their time under Calipari? To me, it seems like that on most occasions he recruits NBA caliber talent and plays the slot machines until he gets a good combination. Yes, on some occasions, he'll make an impact, but when the man himself admits he's there just to babysit, why should people not believe him? This "tweak" people have been foaming at the mouth about for the last couple weeks? Nonexistent. He just calls timeouts a little quicker and is looser with his players. Only the most self-righteous person would publicly announce such a simple change and make it seem like he turned water into wine. Acknowledge you have good talent, keep your "secrets" to yourself, and don't act like you're presence on Earth is such a blessing. It's unbecoming.
Finally, Kentucky basketball is changing the culture of college basketball. Don't get me wrong, it's 100% leading to success, but like the Obama administration, it's proving that change isn't necessarily a good thing. The "one and dones", or as Messiah Calipari prefers, "succeed and proceeders", have led to fantastic tournament success. However, with each tournament win, I'm starting to wonder how many more one and dones were going to have and how many fewer great senior stories were going to have. Call me old fashioned, but I love watching players come into a program, learn under the senior class, be honored on senior day, and get their diplomas (Watching Ohio State walk-on Mark Titus' senior day where nearly every member of the Buckeye student section donned a Club Trillion shirt and brought Titus to tears is one of my most favorite college basketball memories. This is what college basketball is all about, Charlie Brown... Fast forward to 4:15). I don't love players who come into college for one year, play a semi-major role, get drafted in the mid-late first round, and fade into the oblivion I call the NBA. Shabazz Napier is a prime example of the second type of player. Napier learned under Kemba Walker, stayed around to lead Kevin Ollie's new program through a year of NCAA sanctions, promised his mom he would get his degree, and now he's being heralded after willing his team to the national title. James Young, meanwhile, is a prime example of the first. He has started I believe every game for Kentucky, done a lot of good in some and played poorly in others, and will dash right to the NBA and a paycheck after this season. This narrativewas established long before the season. If anything, Young's draft stock and reputation is now worse off than it was six months ago. The same could be said about countless other players. Think about it. A vast majority of the top picks in the NBA Draft this year are going to be a college freshman. Why are these players restricted from going right into the league? How does a program or fan base benefit from having massive turnover?
As a Buckeye fan, I've seen Greg Oden and Mike Conley be prime examples of this. Granted, they helped Ohio State have a lot of success in their one season, but I have only one tournament run and limited memories because of them. Then, there are a lot of players like Kosta Koufos, BJ Mullens, and Daequan Cook who had no business leaving for the NBA. Those players had varying success (from a title game to a NIT run) for a single year, but I have absolutely zero memories from those teams. In fact, it's hard for me to even acknowledge that they were Buckeyes. Under Calipari, players like this have frequented Kentucky roster. Marquis Teague, anybody? I would take a team of Aaron Crafts and second round losses in the NCAA tournament any day. When I tweeted about what Aaron Craft meant to me, the tweet got over 200 retweets and 200 favorites. Find me a Kentucky player that has been such a fan favorite during Calipari's years at the school. Hint, it won't be done. I'll remember watching Craft play basketball for the rest of my life If you want a team full of players that are just going to win championships for their own personal benefits, start watching professional sports. Give me a team of players who leave their names in their university's record books. Give me a team of players who are validated as being winners on and off the court. Give me a team of players who will long be forgotten by their fans. That's what college athletics are supposed to be about. UConn fans won't forget Napier for years to come. Florida fans will remember this senior class in a similar light as the one who won two national championships (Okay, maybe a slight stretch). Kentucky fans will just replace this entire starting roster with a new freshman class next year. I could never bring myself to root for a team like that.
If college basketball is going to develop into a glorified D-League where players who win titles just are here for one year of "coaching and training", why not start paying them? These succeed and proceederes only care about the names on the back of the jersey. They want to see Wiggins, Randle, Gordon, etc. on the back of a Milwaukee Bucks of Philadelphia 76ers jersey and a huge number in their bank account. I know the term "student athlete" has been becoming an absolute joke the last several years, but think about this for a second: There's almost a 100% chance not a single starter on this Kentucky team earns their college diploma in the next four years. Randle, Young, and the Harrisons will likely leave after this season. Johnson might join them, but even if he doesn't, he'll be named a preseason All-American next year and be gone after his sophomore year. To me, this could be the biggest double standard in NCAA history. In a time where the NCAA is under major criticism, football players are threatening to unionize, and their administration look inept, perhaps it's time for an action that will make collegiate athletics collegiate athletics once more.
I want a return to the days where the name on the front of the jersey meant more. The only way I see that happening is abolishing the one and done rule. If these players think they have the talent and skill to go straight to the league (And in some occasions, I believe they do), let them. If they think they need to develop more, require them to stay in school for three years like football does. If that doesn't appeal to them, they can go overseas and play a year professionally. If a player like Julius Randle or Andrew Wiggins truly cared about making an impact on their program, they would turn down the paycheck, and commit to spending three years in school. Yes, in some instances financial obligations lead to an early declaration, but if that's the case, these players who need the money will be paid a lucrative sum for one year abroad and the financial problems would be resolved. Then, they can return to the United States to more money than they could ever imagine. Give me the players that truly care about Big Blue Nation or Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Not players that view these schools and their traditions as a pitstop.
If serious change doesn't occur, then I hope you enjoyed Doug McDermott scoring 3,000 points this season. Players of that caliber aren't going to stay in school for four years very often. I hope you enjoyed Gordon Hayward's shot just rimming out against Duke in the national championship. Cinderella runs for mid-major programs to that extreme are going to become even rarer and rarer (Yes, I realize Dayton was able to make a run to the Elite Eight. However, that was an extremely fortunate draw for the Flyers as they played two teams who were trending down and couldn't score and then were able to beat Stanford). Most importantly, I hope you're ready to pick which side of the aisle to be on because if (or I truly think it's going to be when) Kentucky cuts down the nets on Monday night, two of three national titles for the succeed and proceeders are going to set the precedent for how to recruit in the future. If your school isn't able to do this, don't expect many national championship banners in the future.
The succeed and the proceeders might bring success to the elite programs like Kentucky, but if that comes at the price of ruining the long established integrity of a sport I love... Let's just say I will be rooting for the UConn Huskies and be more emotional invested in this game than I've been for any college basketball game in a long time.
J. Nave
