Final Four

[Pobilly]

Anyone watching. This year there have been so many great games. I will watch. Pulling for Alabama and NC State but expect Uconn and Purdue to be playing on Monday. If that is the case then I will pull for Purdue. Last time Purdue was in Final Four they had a 7 footer, remember Joe Barry Carroll. UK beat Purdue early in the year 61 to 60. Everyone thought UK Purdue would both be in final four. Duke knocked us out.

[Lighthouse]

I'll be watching. Would love to see a Bama vs NC State final.

[TrueblueCATfan]

Yes I have been watching...love watching #11 seed NC State move on

[Jeff ROCKober]

Anybody but UConn. UConn has won 5 championships in the last 25 years! NC State winning would be an unbelievable run. NC State winning it would be compared to Villanova beating Georgetown. I think the team that has the best chance to best chance to beat UConn is Purdue.
As I watch the NC State Cinderella run continue, I can't help thinking that Kentucky missed out on a wonderful opportunity. DJ Burns- (Rerun on What's Happening) likely would have had a field day with UK's defense.

[TrueblueCATfan]

I love to see a NC State - Bama final

[KentuckyWild2020]

Ticks me off watching these games knowing we had the talent to compete and play with any of these teams in the final four. Having a coach using 20 different combinations a game and refusing to address the defensive issues doomed us in once again..

[TrueblueCATfan]

Bama Is done...stick to football

[Joneslab]

Ticks me off watching these games knowing we had the talent to compete and play with any of these teams in the final four. Having a coach using 20 different combinations a game and refusing to address the defensive issues doomed us in once again..

We definitely had the talent...but the enormous advantage Purdue and UCONN have with those two big men is massive. They would've wrecked all three of our inside guys without breaking a sweat.

The two centers dominated both those games last night.

[Joneslab]

And what's going to be really weird if Purdue wins tomorrow is that the two times in NCAA Tournament history where a 16 beat a 1, that 1 seed turned around the next season and won the national championship.

That's very strange, and oddly it says something about Kentucky. The revenge factor is a huge deal in this sport--a sport where stuff like grit and determination and hustle are hugely, unimaginably important. Having guys return with the taste of historically embarrassing losses is huge. Getting so few players to return like Kentucky does year after year makes those revenge runs virtually impossible. In fact everything that happens year to year is basically memory wiped as new players float into the program. Big deal.

[DA#23]

^ Including a culture of winning. When your team looks like they’re on too large of a stage…against a 14 seed, it’s pretty obvious that they haven’t tasted success in quite a while

[justford]

Watching seniors play makes me wonder what some of our former players would have looked like as seniors. Can’t imagine Wall, Cousins, Davis, Towns and etc as four year players.

[KCKUKFan]

And what's going to be really weird if Purdue wins tomorrow is that the two times in NCAA Tournament history where a 16 beat a 1, that 1 seed turned around the next season and won the national championship.

That's very strange, and oddly it says something about Kentucky. The revenge factor is a huge deal in this sport--a sport where stuff like grit and determination and hustle are hugely, unimaginably important. Having guys return with the taste of historically embarrassing losses is huge. Getting so few players to return like Kentucky does year after year makes those revenge runs virtually impossible. In fact everything that happens year to year is basically memory wiped as new players float into the program. Big deal.

You're lamentations on the state of our program gives me deep, dark depression, Will.

[Joneslab]

You're lamentations on the state of our program gives me deep, dark depression, Will.

It's a pretty depressing state of affairs, tbh.

I'm trying to think of a situation where a college coach, basketball or football, has started on a downward trend in his 60s...and then, inexplicably, just turned it around and won at the very end of his career. Has that ever happened? Usually if a situation starts to collapse and a coach begins to lose the thread, he doesn't just miraculously turn it around and have a career year at the age Cal is now.

[lilproUK98]

It's a pretty depressing state of affairs, tbh.

I'm trying to think of a situation where a college coach, basketball or football, has started on a downward trend in his 60s...and then, inexplicably, just turned it around and won at the very end of his career. Has that ever happened? Usually if a situation starts to collapse and a coach begins to lose the thread, he doesn't just miraculously turn it around and have a career year at the age Cal is now.

Mitch should be feeling the heat big time right now. But I'm not sure if he even has a clue. MJ keeps saying people at UK were shocked at the anger from the fanbase following the SEC and NCAA tournament early exits.

How in the world could they be shocked. This was the year Cal HAD TO make a run. He put a ton of talent together and did virtually nothing with it. This was the make or break year. Not next year. And I'm not sure next year is even viewed that way by Mitch. Cal is in his own World.

[Lighthouse]

^ Including a culture of winning. When your team looks like they’re on too large of a stage…against a 14 seed, it’s pretty obvious that they haven’t tasted success in quite a while

Because of bad coaching, they had no possibility of tasting success this year and it will probably be the same next year.