04/18/24
April 03, 2012
Kentucky Makes It Eight: The Kentucky Wildcats capped off one of the most dominating NCAA tournament runs ever with a 67-59 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in the men's college basketball championship Monday. Kentucky dominated the first half and led by as much as 18 in the game, but Kansas closed it to 65-59. This is the eighth championship in Kentucky's history and the first for coach John Calipari.
posted by rcade to basketball at 12:06 AM - 10 comments
Congrats. You had to win the tiebreaker, too.
That was a weird game. Kentucky needed those second-half three pointers to spare itself a historic defeat. I was hoping the two storied programs would give us a championship for the ages, but that game won't be going on anyone's all-time list.
A lot of NBA teams are in striking distance of the third-worst record behind Charlotte and Washington. Anthony Davis should inspire some awful pro basketball this month across the country.
posted by rcade at 12:40 AM on April 03, 2012
cixelsyd called the final game score point differential in the previous thread. And not arbitrarily.
posted by beaverboard at 01:03 AM on April 03, 2012
cixelsyd called the final game score point differential in the previous thread.
I was a point off of Kentucky's score three weeks out. But, I do acknowledge that he called that game pretty well.
posted by dviking at 02:04 AM on April 03, 2012
As a KU fan, tonight was a reminder that losing in the final game is such a bummer regardless of whether you are the favorite or not. I know that KU barely got to the game, and that UK had better players, but no matter how many times I told myself not to have high hopes for tonight, I couldn't help but be bummed by the result. This was probably my second favorite KU team since I started watching them over 20 years ago; they just had such guts & pride in the tradition at KU, which made them so fun to watch. So, even though I knew not to hope for much I still wanted better for the juniors and seniors who refused to let the bar be lowered in Lawrence this year. The fact they worked so hard, and decided to focus so much on the less fun task of nasty defense so that they had a chance in the tourney only makes the loss to UK worse somehow. I may be just too bummed right now to think clearly, but I would rather have another VCU debacle than this, ugh.
Okay, now that I've done my lamenting, I have to give it to UK; they really were the best team this year, start to finish. Just dominate. While I doubt they could beat NBA teams (I never really buy those arguments regardless of the collegiate sport), they are probably bigger than some already, which is just crazy. Hats off to them.
posted by brainofdtrain at 02:49 AM on April 03, 2012
I hadn't fully realized how good a job dviking had done with his bracket - I had to go back and give it another look.
posted by beaverboard at 07:53 AM on April 03, 2012
dviking, that's quite the bracket. Would have won the pools I'm in.
called the final game score point differential
A few late Kansas turnovers helped cement that prediction, but I also underestimated Self's coaching advantage. Robinson and Taylor were again huge for Kansas while Kentucky had relatively average performances from everyone but Doron Lamb*.
* Anthony Davis was a force defensively but completely ineffective on offense. For those who have watched Davis they'll understand why I call his performance average ... he's a great player.
posted by cixelsyd at 10:18 AM on April 03, 2012
Congrats to UK, you were the best team all year. But I wonder how long before these wins get "vacated" just like they were at Memphis and UMass?
posted by jagsnumberone at 03:41 PM on April 03, 2012
Funny thing is, in one of the two pools that would have been worth something to win I had Kansas and Kentucky meeting in the finals, but had Kansas winning. Hedged my bets the wrong way!
posted by dviking at 06:56 PM on April 03, 2012
And apparently "won and done" is the right tag line for this team as according to the NYTimes front page I saw at the coffee shop says all five starters will file for the NBA draft.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:14 PM on April 04, 2012
And, I wonder why I didn't play this bracket in one of the pools that I paid money to enter.
I guess Spofi bragging rights are worth something.