Both will be in New Orleans for the Final Four this weekend, a sign that there is in fact a basketball god somewhere. And just for good measure, the little guys weren't invited this time. Sure, VCU, Butler, and George Mason were nice stories. But Cinderellas are like a good movie with a terrible ending, and the Final Four is no place for a terrible ending.
-With all due respect to Detroit and Indianapolis, New Orleans is not Detroit or Indianapolis.
-We have 4 BCS-conference schools and 2 Blue Bloods for just the second time since 1997. Louisville would be atop the next tier of all-time programs, just outside Blueblood status and Ohio State has been to the Final Four three times now since 1998.
-Rick Pitino and his white suits will be in the Hall of Fame really, really soon.
Bill Self and John Calipari will probably join him at some point, and Thad Matta has become a top 15 coach at Ohio State.
-Kentucky and Louisville is one of the best rivalries in the sport, possibly third after Duke-Carolina and Kansas-Missouri.
-Rick Pitino and John Calipari don't like each other, which is always fun. Last October, Calipari said Kentucky is "the only real program in the state," conveniently forgetting the school with then 8 Final Fours and 2 national championships. Pitino responded with this:
"Four things I've learned in my 59 years about people: I ignore the jealous, I ignore the malicious, I ignore the ignorant and I ignore the paranoid."
-As noted, Kansas and Kentucky are the two best fanbases in the country. Kansas fans took up about 85% of the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis last Sunday against North Carolina. Mizzou, Iowa State, and Kansas State were the only road games I remember this season where KU fans weren't the majority. Kentucky fans apparently consumed even more of the Georgia Dome last weekend as well, and both fanbases will be ever-present on Bourbon Street this week.
-There's Bill Self, who's looking to become just the 5th active coach with multiple national titles. This KU team, whose bench consists of a walk-on, a former walk-on, and a transfer from Loyola-Marymount had no business being this good this year. It speaks to a few things: 1) Self is that good. He's won a ridiculous 8 consecutive Big 12 Regular Season titles and has won 83% of his games at KU. Self has coached more seasons at KU than he has losses in Allen Fieldhouse. 2) The Law of Averages: When you're a top seed nearly every year (1 seed 4 of the last 6 years, lower than a 3 seed just once in Self's tenure) the Final Four appearances will start to add up. Self's pace is just 1 year behind Coach K with his 2nd Final Four and 1st National Title. K achieved those numbers in his 8th year at Duke, Self is in his 9th at KU. That's not to say Self is the next Krzyzewski, but the pace he's on is blistering.
-Ohio State's Thad Matta is in his 8th season in Columbus and while he's not normally mentioned with the elite coaches in the country, he could change that perception with a couple of wins in New Orleans. He coached the Buckeyes in the Title game in 2007, losing to Florida, and is slightly favored to knock off Kansas on Saturday, which I think he will.
Cinderella is fun on those drunken Thursday and Friday afternoons of the first round. But now she's where she should be, watching the final games at home like everyone else.
