Fire Tubby?

As pretty much everyone expected, Kansas out-manned, out-gunned, and out-played the Cats. Packer and Nantz had it right at the end of the game when they said that Kansas never felt threatened. The season is over and now we get to see how everything surrounding this team pans out. Scott Rigot and Reggie Hanson should probably already have their house on the market, because I don’t see any way they will be around at the beginning of next season. As for Tubby, my feeling is that he will get one last season to turn things around. I say that because Mitch Barnhardt has felt the need to make two statements in the last couple of weeks and the second one was in my opinion purely to get those last two recruits to sign. But I won’t be surprised by anything that happens around this program.

Not only didn’t UK make it out of the first weekend of the tournament but neither did my brackets. No, I didn’t pick Kentucky to beat Kansas. The tourney pool I’m in has 20 people participating. Oh, by the way, it’s only for fun. Playing for cash would be uhhh, wrong. Gambling is illegal in this state you know.

Back to my point. In years past, you could always count on one or two entries to have Kentucky making that miracle run and winning it all. Well this year 16 people had UK beating ‘Nova and out of those 16 only one person had them beating Kansas.

I’m sad the season is over and that they lost, but at the same time I’m excited to see how everything turns out. There are a lot of questions still to be answered. Next year there won’t be a Bobby Perry, Sheray Thomas or Woo to blame the problems on. Can this underachieving Junior class step it up as Seniors? Will Tubby be the coach next year? Will Randolph sign with an NBA team? I look forward to seeing what TFGimel has to say about everything.

I would just like to thank everyone who stopped by the site this season and hope you keep checking in to hear what we think about the crazy, crazy, Kentucky Wildcat basketball world.

We can hope can’t we?

Whew. Edge of the seater yet again. I’m not sure what the safe margin is for this team but it is NOT 7 points with two minutes to go. Not only do the players have to earn the victory but it seems as though us fans have to as well. The streak is intact. No not that one, the streak for consecutive games that Billy Packer has annoyed me. Even the usually likable Jim Nantz was irritating at times. CBS, please get him away from Packer before you ruin The Masters for us all. Seriously.

It’s late so how about some bullet points to end the day on.

• Since UK won the hairy Perry situation will go from being more proof of the incompetence of Tubby and the staff to simply a footnote. Actually correct that, it will still be used.
• Joe shaved his beard, Randolph grew one. (Ok this site has now gone to far and may have just jumped the shark)
• Anyone else getting pissed at the officials near the end of the game? They were calling a foul nearly every time on the defense end under 8 minutes.
• I’m sure you saw the scroll fellow HD fans. Here is the entire answer as to why we couldn’t watch the game in HD in Lexington.

Nice win by THE Wildcats. Up next: Kansas

Dwight Perry got the start tonight. It was just a lineup card mistake but a trivia question in the future nonetheless.

From Tuesday’s Pardon The Interruption. Just in case you were wondering.

Kornheiser: Villanova

Wilbon: Kentucky

For what it’s worth, Mitch Barnhardt made a statement in support of Tubby:

“Tubby’s our basketball coach,” athletic director Mitch Barnhart told The Associated Press on Monday. “He’s done a great job of representing the platform of Kentucky basketball. We’ll always look to make adjustments to the things we’ve got to do to get better. Tubby and I will do that collectively.”

It’s probably not enough for some UK fans to get off the subject and focus on basketball, but it is for me. I’m very much looking forward to the Villanova game.

My thoughts on the West Bracket:

Nice of the Selection Committee to put Duke as a 6 seed, and made sure if Duke and UK ever met in this region, it would be in the Regional Championship. Does this mean Josh McRoberts will stomp Perry Stevenson’s chest? And then Coach K doesn’t suspend him?

If UK were to get past this weekend — I know, I know, stop gritting your teeth — the sweet-16 matchups are very favorable. Out of all the teams, probably Virginia Tech is the scariest, due to their athleticism and ability to survive in a rough ACC. They were somewhat inconsistent (not UK inconsistant) but had a nice run to the ACC Championship Game Semi-Finals.

Southern Illinois doesn’t look like it was challenged very much this year. They beat one team from the AP Top 25, and that was Butler, who beat a inconsistent ranked Tennessee team and a slumping ranked Gonzaga team this year. The Salukis lost to decent major-conference teams (Arkansas, Indiana) who both made the tourney. They had some fantastic love from the number-crunchers, who awarded them a #6 RPI ranking in the final results. But I can’t complain about good RPI and SOS numbers. Maybe I’m wrong, and I’ll admit that I didn’t follow the Salukis very closely.

But back to the first game. Villanova is 21-10, #18 in the final RPI. They were 4-5 against the AP Top 25 according to ESPN, but it appears they lost the last five games against ranked opponents. According to the AOL Fan House, ‘Nova lives and dies with its fantastic freshman guard and Big East Rookie of the Year Scotty Reynolds. Senior forward Curtis Sumpter leads the team in scoring. ‘Nova’s third-leading scorer, senior guard Mike Nardi, has been dealing with injuries. All three average over 29 minutes a game. I doubt there would be fatigue reasons for the first game of the tournament, but a weak bench could be exploited if any of the three see foul trouble.

So is this the ‘Nova 3 versus the Chastised Kentucky 3 of Morris, Crawford and Bradley? Oooh, sports journalists! There’s your clever angle!

Kentucky pulled an 8 seed this year as expected. They were placed in the West region and will face #9 Villanova. The impending (if they were to find a way to win) second round match up would be #1 Kansas. The game will be in Chicago on Friday. More later.

Discuss?

1st update: Seth Davis said Villanova would beat Kentucky during his bracket analysis. More as I hear it.

2nd update: At least ‘Nova isn’t ranked, so maybe we have a shot right?

3rd update: Louisville plays in Lexington on Thursday. Traffic will be fun.

4th update: Syracuse missed the tournament. firejim.com?

5th update: Bob Huggins and K State: Out (do they sell alcohol on Sunday’s in Manhattan?), Jim Calhoun and UConn: Out.

6th update: 104 teams won 20+ games this year.

Disclaimer: This post is assuming that the talking heads are correct and that Kentucky is a lock to make the tournament. A small side note to this, I have heard that LFUCG authorities have cordoned off an area around downtown Lexington, namely the Fifth Third and Central Bank buildings on the off chance that UK is left out by the selection committee so as to prevent people from jumping off of them.

My question to you kind reader is where will Kentucky land in the NCAA tournament? Let’s go over where some others think Kentucky will fall.

Joe Lunardi: of Bracketology fame stated on Fridays PTI that UK was looking at a possible “double digit” seed. Ouch.

590 WVLK postgame show: Not sure who the person was that actually said it, but they thought it would be and 8 or 9.

1300 WLXG postgame show: Someone there said 6 or 7.

The 6 or 7 is being wildly optimistic and unrealistic in my opinion. I also heard (possibly Lunardi) say half jokingly that it was setting up for a possible Kentucky - Duke first round match-up. Joke or not that’s putting UK at 10 and 11 and Duke at 6 or 7.

Just to throw my guess out there they will end up in the dreaded 8/9 game. What do you think? Even if you have never left a comment before, now is the time to do it. You can just leave your number, it won’t hurt a bit.