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UK vs. UofL: Basketball Armageddon ETA: eclaires!!!
WASHINGTON ?- All of you non-Kentuckians out there have no idea what brand of deep-fried hell is about to break loose in the Bluegrass state this week and in the New Orleans Superdome Saturday.
Why? Because the University of Louisville Cardinals are playing the University of Kentucky Wildcats for the first time ever in a Final Four match-up of the NCAA Men?s Basketball Tournament.
Having lived in Kentucky, and having learned to love college basketball there, I can tell you that this game, in the minds of Kentuckians, is equivalent in magnitude to: Greeks v. Persians, Grant v. Lee, Voldemort v. Harry, Jesus v. Moses, Reagan v. Evil Empire.
It?s Armageddon, catered by KFC.
To understand why, you need to know the state, the history, schools and the personalities.
Before I go further, let me explain my own history and biases. This is a necessary declaration for anyone who would write about this fraught topic.
OK, so I was not born in Kentucky. I lived in Louisville, working for The Courier-Journal newspaper. I rooted for UK in some Final Fours. But I was also attending the University of Louisville Law School at night, and they became my team. Since I am not a Kentucky native, I am not required to love one team and hate the other. And I don?t. I?m a U of L fan but admire Kentucky. Sort of.
If that sounded like a religious declaration -- or like Rick Santorum at a campaign stop -- it was: college basketball in Kentucky is right behind the Southern Baptist Church in fervency.
I would submit that college ball there is more important to and has a stronger tradition than in any other state, including North Carolina?s Tobacco Road or the flatlands of Ohio, Indiana or Kansas.
This year, for example, Ohio and North Carolina each sent four teams to the tournament. But so did Kentucky, which has less than half the population of Carolina and about a third the population of Ohio.
Also, and unlike those two states, in Kentucky there is no professional basketball team, indeed no major league sports franchise of any kind. Nor is the football tradition strong. College basketball is king by default.
For a long time, UK occupied that throne with little or no dispute. Even today, UK basketball is one of the few cultural institutions that bind the complex cultural and geographical patchwork of the Commonwealth together. Members of the UK roster -- their portraits etched in wall calendars and brochures -- are familiar figures to kids from Pikeville to Paducah, and the UK coach occupies a place of honor, intrigue and controversy that often overshadows the role -- if not the legal power -- of the governor.
But things began to change a generation ago, in the early 1970s, when a former John Wooden prot?g? and player named Denny Crum took over a respectable but by no means fabled Louisville program.
Crum changed everything.
Since 1971, the two schools have exhibited something close to parity -- not in the minds of most Kentuckians outside of Louisville, but in the minds of fair-minded basketball fans and in the stat sheets.
Academically, the two schools aren?t going to make the NCAA Final Four anytime soon. Both are, shall we say, improving. UK is ranked 124th by U.S. News in its survey of national universities. U of L is 164th. The UK law school is ranked 62nd best; the U of L Brandeis School of Law, my alma mater, clocks in at 89th.
But no one questions our basketball IQ.
From 1971 until now, Louisville has won two National Championships and been in eight Final Fours. Kentucky has won three National Championships and been in nine Final Fours.
UK fans hate these numbers, and hate the U of L with a schizophrenic mix of dismissive casualness and furious loathing. U of L fans, by far a minority in the state outside of Louisville (and even in Louisville UK allegiance is strong), are generally glad just to be on the same stage and now on a par nationally.
Louisville and Kentucky played each other in the NCAA?s in 1959 -- a game U of L won. UK had shied away from playing Louisville before that game and after 1959 refused to schedule them for 24 years.
They only met because they were forced to, in the NCAA regional in Knoxville in 1983.
The so-called ?Dream Game? became a nightmare for UK when Louisville won in overtime. The governor of the state at the time, John Y. Brown, attended the event wearing a two-sided cap (one side with Kentucky blue, the other with Cardinal red) and a hideous ultra-suede sports coat with school colors split down the middle. (For a video see here.)
By the mid '80s the schools had agreed to play each other each year early in the season. This annual pageant of d?tente is about as heartfelt as a peace agreement between Israelis and Arabs.
There is also now a certain amount of facilities parity. Louisville plays in a new downtown arena that is not quite as big as Rupp Arena in the college town of Lexington. But the unfortunately named Yum! Center is a spiffy, state-of-the-art, Ohio Riverfront facility that is packed to the rafters for every game. (In 2011 UK and U of L ranked first and third in average attendance, respectively.)
(Just to complicate things -- and assert its continued statewide dominion -- the University of Kentucky now is playing several games a year in Louisville?s OLD arena for 51 years, Freedom Hall.)
It's not just about history and regional rivalries.
The careers of Louisville coach Rick Pitino and UK coach John Calipari add fire to the family feud. The two were once friends; one played for and the other coached at the University of Massachusetts, and both coached in the NBA. They are both known as intense courtside tacticians, meticulous students of the game and master recruiters.
But it is more personal than that. Pitino won a National Championship as the UK coach in 1996, before decamping to the NBA. When Denny Crum decided to retire in 2001 after 30 years as coach, Pitino came back to the Bluegrass -- as Louisville?s coach.
Pitino made the Final Four in 2005, becoming the NCAA coach to take three different schools there (Providence being the third).
The thought of Pitino possibly leading U of L to victory over UK delights Louisvillians, and infuriates Kentucky fans, who admire Calipari, who, if anything, has more charm and success as a recruiter. There are SEVEN McDonald?s All-Americans on the UK team.
?Coach Cal? has only one problem, one UK fans don?t like to discuss. At his previous stops -- the University of Massachusetts and the University of Memphis -- his programs got in trouble. At both schools, NCAA tournament victories were taken away as a result.
Even if that ultimately happens at UK -- and there are plenty of Louisville fans (not including me) that think or hope it will -- there is still a game to be played in New Orleans on Saturday.
More on that tomorrow.
I am actually going to be participating in a bachelorette party while this game is being played, and I am pretty "gah!" about it, but that's what phones are for. Probably better to be out of town. Eclaires! Squee!
Re: UK vs. UofL: Basketball Armageddon ETA: eclaires!!!
both teams are overrated.
*runs*
I am HUGELY conflicted over this game.
I hate Kentucky. I hate their crazy-ass fans. I hate that they pan to Ashley Judd sitting in the student section at every.fracking.game (honey, you're how old? Get a real seat). Hate. I want them to lose so bad just on principle.
However, I also hate Slick Rick. Almost as much as I hate Bob tHuggins, which is saying something because my loathing for that man goes deep. I am obliged to hate Louisville as well.
But Louisville is the only Big East team left, now that Syracuse has finally fizzled and effed my bracket completely.
I have no idea who to cheer for. It's like if the Cowboys were playing the Raiders in the Super Bowl.
Maybe I'll boo at both.
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I hate them both so I'm going to hope that whoever wins loses in the championship. I guess I could root for the Cards since UK knocked out my team. It just feels wrong though.
not the crypt keeper!!
Word.
We thank you for your support. Sincerely, a die-hard Louisville fan
Look! A bird with teeth! This has always confused me.
I'm just fearing for the burnings that will occur Saturday. Fairly easily beating a "who cares to UK" team resulted in several couches.
In other news...wait. There is no other news. Seriously = most unproductive week ever in the state of KY.
True story. I fear for pretty much all couches in my state.
There are going to be serious riots in town (I live in Louisville now, UK alum). There were 4 people arrested on Saturday after ULs game, women running naked in the West End. I wish more than anything I could be sitting back at Pazzos for the game.
GO UK!!!
Why would you want to get horrible service from people who act like you owe them for allowing you to come into their restaurant? (We'll ignore the beer selection.)
Tin Roof maybe.
All this Kentucky infighting is a ton of fun, but you all beat each other senseless while we Buckeyes sneak in and make you all look like fools
Go Bucks!
It is going to be five kinds of hell in my office if the Cards win. There are about 45 of us, and 35 of those bleed red (in the UofL way, not in the completely normal red bleeding way).
OMG, can't believe I missed this.
FYI, I am not talking to 50% of my family this week. You know the ones. The ones who think that UofL is a good basketball team. My brother posted on my FB wall that he is not calling me this week, lol. We are at radio silence.
Of course, I've been frantically texting with my other brother about this b/c he is a huge UK fan.
I have so many fun memories of this rivalry. Like how UK had that billboard on the Indiana side welcoming people to Louisville and something about Cats fans? Awesome.
My family (extended included) used to always watch the UK/UofL games together. It was fun, most of the time. Lots of taunting though. I don't call UofL, UofL to them. UofL is ALWAYS "Little brother."
thankfully, all our family is in their right minds. except one BIL, and he's a Cubs fan, so that tells you a lot. but this office is gonna kill me. My office is the designated safe zone. the other manager is a UT fan, so he's all silly and orange and not ever in the tournament.
one of my staff just walked by talking about a unibrow and i hollered out "brow down!" besides that, i am advising my other BBN colleagues to take the high road.