Clarion Content

If what you see is what you get, it is no surprise then that the uber-talented Kentucky Wildcats ended their NCAA tournament run short of title last night in Syracuse, NY. They played the role of John Calipari coached team to perfection. The only difference between this Wildcat squad and Calipari's most talented teams of the past is that five or six years from now instead of vacating a Final Four, ala U. Mass and Memphis, Kentucky basketball will only be vacating an Elite Eight season.

Kentucky folded just the way Coach Cal's cream of the crop teams always have. This is what happens when your starting five couldn't break 40 on the Wonderlic Test if you added all of their scores together. Coach Cal, you reap what you sow. Just like Memphis and U Mass, on the biggest of stages they couldn't hit their free throws. Just like other Calipari coached (we use the term loosely) teams, when faced with a creative defensive scheme they had no plan and no clue. West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins, no saint himself, leader of more than one 0.00 GPA team, had his players in a 1-3-1 zone after every made basket. Kentucky's guards frustrated by their inability to penetrate, unable to run an offense, just kept jacking up threes. No matter that they weren't going in, Coach Cal had no other plan, so fire away. 0 for your first 20 threes, keep shooting...

On the flip side, on their defensive end, a lack of fundamentals and brains finished the Wildcats. "What's that, the other team is running an offense? With cuts? And screens? Unfair! How we supposed to stop that?" And they couldn't. West Virginia reserve Joe Mazzulla scored 17 points and his team finished off Kentucky in the second half getting numerous easy lay-ups off of curls and backdoor cuts.

And so West Virginia returns to the Final Four for the first time since the logo, Jerry West, led them there, and Kentucky with their highly paid cast of stop-bys, better known as one and dones, starts over. Who knows if Wall, Cousins, et. al. attend another class before heading to the NBA. The boosters will have to breakout the ATM cards to recruit a new set of one and dones for old Coach Calipari.

Hey Kentucky, "Good night, now!!!"

Labels: college basketball, sports