It begins

If your a college basketball fan, or just a sports fan in general, you gotta love this time of year. MLB getting ready to start up, NBA is getting closer to playoff time, and of course it's March Madness. March Madness slows productivity in the work place, and ups the amount of time spent in front of the television. It's like Christmas the whole month of March for a sports fan, and I for one can't wait to get it started.


I disappear from the blog for a few days and all hell breaks loose. Kentucky loses to a very good Vandy team in the SEC championship game, and Syracuse along with Jim Boeheim just can't seem to do anything right. It was announced earlier today that Cuse big man Fab Melo has been ruled ineligible for the NCAA tournament. This will surely have some affect on the Oranges' chance of making a Final Four run. I find it a bit odd that the officials at Syracuse just so happened to find this out after being awarded a #1 seed in the big dance. No way (sarcasm) they knew about it before the field for the tournament was set. Rumor has it that he is being ruled ineligible for the same reason he sat out a few games earlier in the year. If that's the case, they could be looking at some vacated games. Time will tell.


Now let's get to the Vandy loss. Kentucky played the worst three games I have seen from them in a while during the SEC tournament. Before the tournament started, I was in the camp of "Kentucky needs a loss" before heading into the NCAA tournament. After watching their below average performance in the SEC tournament, I may have been right. Sure it was hard watching Jeffery Taylor, John Jenkins, and Kevin Stallings acting like they just won the National Championship, but it may have been a blessing. In all three games Kentucky looked uninspired, and uninterested, that's something this team hadn't had a problem with all season long. John Calipari kept repeating his thoughts of "I don't mind swagger, I like it. I just don't want it to turn to arrogance. I don't want them to think that they can just show up and win." He must have seen something in their practice effort or their body language that led him to this assumption. Now that "the streak" is out of the way, and the team has been brought back down to earth, may Calipari has their attention for a deep run in the tourney.


Speaking of the tourney, after taking a while to look at Kentucky's region, it's not as bad as I first thought. Assuming we win the first round, we stand a potential second round matchup with UCONN. Some folks think we got "screwed" with the 8/9 seed match up, but if Kentucky really is the #1 overall seed in this thing, then a game against UCONN or Iowa ST. shouldn't matter. Not to mention it will be a virtual home game for the Cats. I'm not saying that Kentucky couldn't lose to either of those teams or even in the first round, because they could. But if your the best team in the country, sometimes you gotta prove it.


So Thursday night, could be the start of a tournament to remember. But one things for certain. No matter how the season ends, we were witness to one of the more fun and special seasons in a long time.


If your not watching the Western Kentucky comeback over Mississippi Valley State, then your missing a good one. Hopefully the winner will be worn out for their matchup against Kentucky on Thursday.