Can Anybody Stop the Kentucky Wildcat's Juggernaut in March Madness?

.

 

In the Bluegrass State known for thoroughbred

champions, UK has that championship "pedigree"

Thirty-seven teams have tried to stop the Kentucky Wildcats from making NCAA basketball history and none succeeded.  In fact, since UK won their conference, then won their conference tournament, they have been getting stronger and stronger.

In three rounds of the NCAA tourney as only the strong survive from round to round, the amazing Kentucky Cats have won by a combined 75 points, an unheard of average victory of 25 points per game.

Well, to set the record straight, Kentucky already has the longest unbeaten streak in tournament history.  Indiana was the last unbeaten national champion thirty-nine years ago, in 1976, and they were the team tied for the most wins in history with a 32-0 record.

UCLA had four unbeaten teams during the John Wooden era from 1964-1973 when they won ten national titles, but they were 30-0 each time.  Only two other teams in NCAA history finished unbeaten, North Carolina in 1957 (32-0) and San Francisco in 1956 (29-0) finished unbeaten.

Kentucky has never finished unbeaten, even during the eight years they won they national championship.  However, in their 113 years of NCAA basketball they have the best record of all college teams with 2,214 victories and 672 losses in 2,886 games.

In the jargon of the Bluegrass State known for thoroughbred champions, the UK Wildcats have the "pedigree" to pull off the impossible, finish off winning the national title with a 40-0 record.

Coach John Calipari should have been named NCAA coach of the year, even his chief rival Rick Pitino from Louisville agrees.  However, there is an anti-Kentucky bias because of his "one and done" policy of recruiting and starting freshmen, recognizing they would jump to the NBA at the earliest possible moment.

Ironically, in this his sixth year at UK, so many freshmen returned he incorporate a platoon system to give the top ten players equal playing time, an act requiring the athletes to forgo personal statistics for the good of the team.  In this day and age teaching college basketball stars to be humble, team oriented and unselfish is rare indeed.

A "players-first" coach with a penchant for helping people reach their dreams, John Calipari has guided five teams to the Final Four, led one to a national championship and helped 31 players make it to the NBA during his 22-year college coaching career.

Calipari reached the mountaintop in his third year in Lexington, guiding Kentucky to its eighth national championship and his first national title. He is one of only two coaches to lead three different schools to a Final Four (UMass-1996; Memphis-2008; Kentucky-2011, 2012, 2014).

The Wildcats rode the trademark hard-nosed Calipari defense to the 2012 title, finishing the season as the nation's top-ranked team in field-goal percentage defense and blocked shots.

Following a 3.4 grade-point average in the 2013 spring semester -- the highest in Coach Cal's tenure at UK -- the Wildcats' scholarship players posted a 3.11 GPA for the second consecutive semester in the 2014 fall semester. It marked the seventh time in the last eight semesters Coach Cal's team earned a 3.0 or better.

As someone who prides himself on helping young men reach their dreams, he has placed 31 players in the NBA during his college coaching career, including 19 over his first five seasons at Kentucky. The 19 picks over that five-season span is the most of any coach.

So here we are, UK may be playing for the national title for the third time in three years, if only they can win three more games.  I say history awaits the Kentucky Wildcats and that no one will stop the Kentucky juggernaut.

.

March Madness - If not Kentucky Wildcats, then Arizona Wildcats

.

The following is a fun story by Ricky O'Donnell, in which you are given a choice if you don't want Kentucky winning your pool. Since I played basketball at Arizona, I support the choice.  Go Cats, as in Arizona. 

Pick Arizona, not Kentucky, to win your NCAA bracket

By Ricky O'Donnell  @SBN_Ricky on Mar 16, 2015

Everyone is going to tab Kentucky to win the NCAA Tournament. That's no way to win a big office pool.

There's no wrong way to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. You could pick the more ferocious mascot or choose teams by which color you like better. You could flip a coin or ask your dog. You could go straight chalk or randomly pick a bunch of upsets. At this point, any of these methods is time-tested and Internet-approved.

Or you could be like everyone else and just choose Kentucky to win it all.

I did it, too. The Wildcats enter the tournament as the heaviest favorite in recent memory. Listen to the way people talk about John Calipari's team this year and you'd think the NCAA Tournament might be better served with a Royal Rumble-style format, with Kentucky entering the ring first and needing to crush all 67 of the other challengers to be crowned champions. Most people still probably wouldn't pick against them.

You're going to hear one bit of analysis repeated ad nauseam over the next few days: Kentucky has absolutely been dominant, but it's not unbeatable. Ole Miss barely made the field of 68, and the Rebels took Kentucky to overtime. Texas A&M missed the field and it pushed the Wildcats to two overtimes. Buffalo and Columbia are just two of the teams that led Kentucky at halftime. The Wildcats haven't been beaten, but that doesn't mean they're perfect.

You know this. I know this. Everyone knows this. Chances are, you're still picking Kentucky. It's the best pick if you're trying to choose the team that's going to win the NCAA Tournament. It might not be the best pick if you're trying to win your office bracket pool.

If everyone picks Kentucky and Kentucky wins the championship, that means the person with the bracket that's most accurate in the early rounds is going to take home the pool. The more people in your pool, the harder this becomes.

But what if you don't take Kentucky? By choosing a different champion, it's conceivable that the rest of your bracket could overcome a lot of inaccurate picks to still win the pool as long as you hit on an overall winner that no one else has.

When everyone zigs, you zag. It just makes sense. That's why it might be smart to pick Arizona to win the national championship this year.

Sean Miller's program was becoming West Coast Kentucky even before this season. Calipari is the only coach recruiting better than Miller is right now. Arizona isn't as talented as Kentucky, but you can make the argument this is the second most complete roster in the country. Miller also has them peaking at the right time.

When the year started, Arizona was only behind Kentucky in the polls. They haven't done much to discredit that preseason opinion. Yes, Arizona lost to two teams with triple-digit KenPom rankings next to their name in UNLV and Oregon State. The fanbase was even more upset over a loss to Arizona State in February. As the season has progressed, though, those bad losses are looking more like outliers.

Realtime Bracket Game

Arizona has run off 11 straight wins since losing to ASU. It tore through the Pac-12 Tournament, beating a quality Oregon team by 28 points in the title game. In terms of size, athleticism, NBA-level talent and an ability to play both ends of the floor, Arizona is about as well-rounded as a major conference contender gets.

Arizona finished with the No. 1 defense in the country last year as a team powered by No. 4 overall draft pick Aaron Gordon and conference player of the year Nick Johnson. Freshman Stanley Johnson and sophomore Rondae Hollis-Jefferson replaced Johnson and Gordon in the starting lineup this year, and the defense hasn't dropped off at all -- it actually got better. Arizona finished No. 3 in defensive efficiency this season behind Virginia and Kentucky, but it allowed two fewer points per 100 possessions than it last season.

Miller uses the same packline defensive scheme that Tony Bennett does at Virginia with devastating effectiveness. The difference is at the other end of the floor, where Arizona has proven this roster to better equipped to score in bunches than the team Miller had last season.

It starts with Johnson, a presumed top 10 draft pick in June and an 18-year-old most often described as a "man-child." He's a 240-pound perimeter player who isn't just strong for a college kid -- he's strong for an adult. It took Johnson some time to find his footing within Arizona's offense, but he's been great lately, ascending all the way up to No. 2 in KenPom's player of the year rankings.

Johnson leads the team in scoring at 14 points per game, but Arizona never really needs him in takeover mode. All five starters are capable of putting the ball in the basket, and reserves Gabe York and Elliott Pitts come off the bench to add shooting. When Arizona goes small with Johnson at the four and York sliding next to starting point guard T.J. McConnell, the added driving lanes and shooting makes the offense even harder to defend.

Arizona didn't get an easy draw. A potential Elite Eight rematch with Wisconsin might be the best game of the tournament after the Badgers won by one in overtime a year ago. Baylor has the athletes to matchup with Arizona in a potential Sweet 16 game, too. And if Miller's team gets all the way to the Final Four, Kentucky should be waiting.

This season has felt like "Kentucky vs. the field" from the start, and Kentucky has justified it by handily winning every big game they've been in. It's not really up for debate that Kentucky is easy pick to win the NCAA Tournament. It just isn't an easy pick to help you win your pool.

.

UK Countdown to Coronation - Can Kentucky Wildcats make History?

.

America's only Real Reality Show

With the announcement of the NCAA March Madness brackets today America will once again enter the era of peace brought about when college hoops overwhelm political procrastination and all the other nonsense that dominates the nightly news.

Finally, television will be filled with real reality TV, not the manufactured BS fed to us by idiotic television producers, writers, studios, and sponsors.  What you see is what really happened from the tears to the cheers, the Cinderella stories to the last second upsets.  You will see power and prayers compete for dominance as 67 teams set out to derail the mighty Kentucky Wildcats.

UK, America's most dominant and legendary basketball citadel will again make a run for the national championship and along the way will be shattering NCAA records every step.  In fact, this is one year when Kentucky, who many people love to hate, may just win over a few million fans to the legacy of Lexington hoops.

UK secret weapon, Ashley Judd

I am a devoted Wildcat fan, but the Arizona variety not Kentucky.  You see, I played basketball for the University of Arizona of the PAC 12 back when UCLA, our main opponent, was winning national championships every year.  It was not until much later we discovered boosters were paying some of the UCLA players a salary, illegal of course, during that incredible John Wooden run.

For those of you too young to appreciate history, Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood, won ten national championships in 12 years including seven in a row, feats that will never happen again.  Between 1964 and 1975, UCLA won the ten national basketball championships and won again in 1995 for a total of eleven.  Kentucky has won eight.  However, UK wins spanned from 1948 until 2012, and most likely number 11 will come in 2015, spanning 67 years.  Overall Kentucky has the most wins of all schools in history with 2,208.

There are three teams in the top five nicknamed the Wildcats, Kentucky, Arizona, and Villanova.  If Kentucky and Arizona keep winning, they will meet in the final four semi-finals.  All three of these Wildcats could be in the final four, something that has never happened before.  Of course the University of Arizona would have to beat number one seeded Wisconsin to get to the final four.

UK Coach Calipari

 The road to the championship begins Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, and ends the day after Easter, April 6, at Indianapolis.  The last team to have a perfect record and win the championship was Indiana in 1976 when they finished 32-0.  UK is already undefeated and 34-0 with six games to win to be champion.  If they do win, it will shatter the 32 game unbeaten- record for the year and UK would be 40-0.

Stay tuned for some of the top games in the early rounds.

Did I mention the only national championship won by Arizona was in 1997 and they beat, guess who, Kentucky.  Arizona prevented UK from winning three in a row.

Goooooo Cats or Kats.

.       

A Tale of Two Cities - March Madness comes to an end!

.

Arlington, Texas & Nashville bring down the lights on NCAA Tourneys

There is no way the rest of the world could ever understand the American love of basketball and the frenzy of March madness.  This year has seemed to stimulate a revival of interest in the passion in both the men's and women's national championships, an increase in game attendance and higher TV ratings.

So many fascinating plots swirl around the contenders it would take a couple of television network series to even begin to scratch the surface.

Tonight the Kentucky Wildcats take on the U Conn Huskies in the men's championship, two of the most familiar names in men's basketball meeting in the most unlikely of places, the national championship.  Just last year neither team was even invited to the NCAA tourney.

They play in the A T&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and there will be an astounding 80,000 frenetic fans at the game joining the millions on television as the season long drama  reaches it's climax.

Tomorrow night the Notre Dame Fighting Irish square off against, you guessed it, the U Conn Huskies for the women's championship.  What is it with the U Conn name popping up?  Not far from the northern Texas men's site the women are in Nashville, Tennessee at the Music City Center Bridgestone Arena where 20,000 people will be in attendance. 

Now these two teams who used to share the same conference are now in different conferences and like a Hollywood blockbuster, U Conn has won 39 games and lost none while Notre Dame has won 38 games and lost none.  Between the two they have won 77 games and lost ZERO this season.

The Men

Coaches:

Kentucky - John Calipari

U Conn - Kevin Ollie

In the last 18 years these two teams have won 6 national championships and have been to the final four so many times I forgot.  Kentucky has won more games than any other team in college basketball history.

Now for the plots, sub-plots and just plain bizarre facts.

Neither team was invited to the NCAA playoffs last year.

Kentucky won in 2012.

U Conn won in 2011.

Kentucky began the year ranked number 1 in the nation and ended the year not even ranked in the top 25 by the AP.

U Conn began the year unranked and finished ranked number 18.

Kentucky was seeded 8 meaning it was considered one of the top 32 teams in nation.

U Conn was seeded 7 meaning it was considered one of the top 28 teams in the nation.

The U Conn men won national championships in 1999, 2004 and 2011.

Kentucky won national championships in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998, 2012, a total of 8 and second only to UCLA (11).

[UCLA won ten titles the 11 years between 1964 and 1975, and again in 1995.]

U Conn has one of the most successful basketball programs (men and women) in the nation since 1995.

Kentucky has the most successful men's basketball program in history.

Most wins, 2138 in history.

Highest winning percentage in history.

Most NCAA tournament appearances (53) in history.

Most NCAA tournament wins (117) in history.

Second in national titles (8) to UCLA (11).

Kentucky also won NIT tournament in 1946 and 1976 making it the only school to win multiple NCAA and NIT championships.

UK has a record 39 Sweet 16 appearances.

UK has a record 34 Elite 8 appearances.

UK has a record post season NCAA appearances (61).

UK has played in 16 Final Fours (3rd place).

UK has played in 11 Championships, 2nd to UCLA.

Kentucky is starting five freshmen, only the second team in history since the 1992 Michigan Fab Five, but they lost the finals.

Ten years ago, 2004, U Conn became the first school in history to win the men's and women's titles the same year.

U Conn had teams in both finals four different times, with both winning just once.

This year the 8 and 7 seeds are the highest total (15) in modern history.

Kevin Ollie of U Conn is in his 2nd year as head coach following legendary coach Jim Calhoun.

John Calipari is a legend himself having taken 3 different teams to the NCAA Final Four, and UK alone to three Final Fours.

Calipari has won 20 games 20 times and 30 games 8 times in his career.

The Women

Coaches:

U Conn - Gene Auriemmce

Notre Dame - Muffet McGraw

U Conn and Notre Dame were ranked number 1 and 2 all season.

U Conn 39-0 and Notre Dame 38-0 are first unbeaten teams to meet in national championship.

U Conn going for 9th national championship, most in history.

U Conn is the defending national champion.

U Conn and Notre Dame were in last years' Final Four.

U Conn had the longest winning streak in college basketball, 90 games.

U Conn has won 8 national championships and been in 15 Final Fours.

Gene Auriemmce is tied with Pat Summit of Tennessee for most women's championships, 8 and is just two behind John Wooden of UCLA (10) for most in men's and women's basketball.

This is the 5th time U Conn, under Gene Aurimmce, could finish unbeaten and he lost 1 once three years.

McGraw has led Notre Dame to 6 Final Four appearances.

Notre Dame has won 1 national championship in 2001.

Under McGraw Notre Dame has been in 7 of the past 12 Sweet 16s.

Also under McGraw Notre has been in 16 NCAA tournaments including 14 straight.

So you get the drift.  For the next day and a half politics and world affairs will take a back seat to March Madness as we come to the conclusion of a simply spectacular season in both men's and women's basketball.

The legends are coaching, the amazing pedigrees of the various programs are blue blood through and through, and no matter what happens history will be made, dreams will be fulfilled, and other dreams will be shattered.

Can the kiddie corp of Kentucky prevail over U Conn?  Which giant will be left standing in the woman's final?  Can Kentucky's Aaron Harrison nail an impossible 3 pointer and win his fourth straight tournament game in the last seconds?

Hang on folks and don't miss either one of the cliff hanger stories for you will be reading about them in the history books from now on.

 .

Kentucky Basketball - How Good Can it Get?

.

Rick Pitino & John Calipari

In 2012 the University of Kentucky won the men's national championship.

 

In 2013 Louisville won the men's national championship.

 

In 2013 the UK women reached their 3rd straight regional finals.

 

In 2013 the Louisville women reached the national finals finishing 2nd.

 

So here are the final preseason national polls for the upcoming season.

 

UK Men - #1

 

Louisville Men - #3

 

Louisville Women - #5

 

UK Women - #7

 

 

Are you kidding me, all four teams in the top seven in the nation?

 

With the top recruiting class in college history, the UK men look to make up their fall from grace last year when the defending national champion didn't even qualify for March Madness.

 

 

Now basketball at UK is sacred and has been since Adolph Rupp started a run of 8 national championship in 1948.  Only UCLA has more (11), and 10 of them came over a 12 year span, 1964-1975.  UCLA has won once since 1975 while UK has won 4 times since then.

 

 

Of course the irony is that both UK and Louisville programs have been built on the backs of east coast coaches.  Rick Pitino of Louisville, recognized as one of the deans of college coaching, was born in New York City.  John Calipari of UK was born in Moon Township Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

 

 

Pitino had the distinct, yet dubious honor of having built both Kentucky programs to national prominence and leading both teams to national championships, something no other coach in the history of college basketball has achieved.

 

Distinct because no one has won the NCAA crown with two different schools.  Dubious because in Kentucky you are for UK or Louisville.  The intra-state rivalry is among the most intense in our nation.

 

 

When Pitino left UK and then returned to Louisville about half the state considered him enlightened while the other half considered him a traitor of the stature of Judas.  Only a kid from the streets of New York could overcome such a swing from conquering hero to Shakespearean villain, and then fight his way back to the top of the basketball pinnacle.

 

And look at the homes they have built for their respective teams.  Massive stadiums, the modern day Roman Coliseums, welcome over 20,000 people to the games but it is more than that.

 

UK

Louisville

 

The same stadiums are filled for midnight openings of the practice season and pep rallies before games.  Season tickets are so coveted they can be a major part of divorce property settlements.

 

 

I have a lot of relatives in Kentucky and their loyalty is split between UK and Louisville.  There are nieces, nephews and in laws that attended both schools.  Kentuckians are a rather strange bunch but one thing binds them together, the sacred nature of basketball and the hunger to win.

 

 

This should be a most entertaining year in the land of thoroughbreds and Bluegrass.

 

Here is what the AP has to say about Kentucky basketball.

 

 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- There is a battle brewing for women's basketball supremacy in the Bluegrass State.

The Louisville and Kentucky women's teams are ranked in the top 10 and have national championship aspirations after making deep runs in last year's NCAA tournament.

The fifth-ranked Cardinals will start the season Saturday against Loyola-Chicago after their stunning march to the national championship game with an injury-depleted roster. Louisville is healthy, welcoming back three regulars to have one of its deepest rosters in several seasons.

Kentucky, ranked No. 7, opens Friday at Marist with its sights set on reaching the Final Four coming off the Wildcats' third regional final appearance in four years. The Wildcats lost No. 2 career scorer A'dia Mathies to the WNBA but have added two high school All-Americans to the rotation.

''It's just incredible, I think, for the Commonwealth of Kentucky,'' Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said Wednesday of both schools' success. ''It's just a real point of pride and basketball brings people together, it excites people, it motivates people. I think it's a terrific place to be and I'm humbled to be here during this exciting time.''

The Kentucky men's team is ranked No. 1 and defending national champion Louisville is No. 3.

The women's teams won't have to wait long to settle bragging rights. Louisville travels to Lexington on Dec. 1, aiming to avenge last year's 48-47 loss decided by freshman Janee Thompson's 3-pointer with 8.4 seconds remaining.

Before that in-state showdown, the Wildcats and Cardinals continue honing the chemistry that has both teams excited about their championship prospects.

Louisville's cohesion has been a work in progress in recent years as hip injuries sidelined senior guard Tia Gibbs for the past two seasons while 6-foot-1 senior forward Asia Taylor sat out last year. Junior forward Shawnta' Dyer tore the medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments in her left knee last December.

The Cardinals (29-9, 11-5 Big East Conference) endured some frustrating losses along the way but hit stride in the NCAA tournament, highlighted by a monumental 82-81 upset of No. 1 and defending champion Baylor in the regional semifinal. Louisville led for all but a few seconds in the final minute, winning on Monique Reid's two free throws with 2.6 seconds left.

Upsets of Tennessee and California followed before Connecticut trounced Louisville 93-60 in the championship at New Orleans.

Taylor can't wait to be part of what she hopes is a return trip down Interstate 65 to Nashville for this year's Final Four.

''I was happy for my teammates and the program,'' she said, ''but as a competitor you want to be out there and be in a big game like that. The fact that I knew I was coming back was my motivation to work hard.''

Though forward Sheronne Vails is out for the year following offseason knee surgery, Walz is eager to see if having his healthiest squad in some time can carry the Cardinals past favored UConn in the newly renamed American Athletic Conference and deeper in the NCAA tournament.

Besides senior guard and leading scorer Shoni Schimmel (14.2 points), Louisville returns junior forward Sara Hammond (10.8 points, 6.4 rebounds), wing Antonita Slaughter and junior guard Bria Smith (9.5 points).

''We'll probably have the biggest game of rock-paper-scissors that you've ever seen, and the last five will be our starters,'' Walz joked about the process of choosing a lineup. ''It's a great problem to have.''

Mitchell can say the same thing about his own well-stocked Kentucky roster.

The returns of senior forward and leading scorer DeNesha Stallworth (12.5 points, 6.0 rebounds) and Samarie Walker (8.7 points, 8.1 rebounds) provide a strong post presence for the Wildcats (30-6, 13-3 Southeastern Conference), who fell to UConn in the regional final for the second straight year.

''It took some months, and we still look back and wonder why didn't get over that hump,'' Stallworth said. ''We've gotten better in our offensive execution and are looking good. We don't want to be in that spot (of missing the Final Four) for the fifth straight year.''

Kentucky's backcourt is its deepest area with senior Kastine Evans, juniors Bria Goss and Jennifer O'Neill and sophomore Thompson able to play anywhere in the three-guard alignment. The additions of McDonald's All-Americans Linnae Harper and Makayla Epps could pay off right away for a Wildcats team determined to go a step further - and possibly meeting a familiar foe along the way.
.