Kentucky Ink

When I was younger, I participated in all kinds of sports.  I played football or some version of it from the time I was 5.  I played baseball for 7 years, wrestled for 5 years, did field events with track teams off and on for 6 years, and played volleyball for 2 decades.  The teams I was a part of did everything from winning only one game of an entire season, and that by forfeit, to going undefeated, winning smaller tourneys, and even winning a state title. 

One of the things I learned was this.  People only hate you when you do things well.  Another thing I learned is that the ones that hate you are the ones that could learn the most from you.

What I don't have to tell you is that winning is fun and losing is as bad as it looks on TV and sometimes worse.

What a lot of people just don't get, however, is that on many levels sports have to be fun before players will reach their highest potential.  When it stops being fun for the athletes, they lose focus, they get in trouble, their desire fades.  Sometimes they just quit playing altogether. 

I had coaches that were great to play for and kept the game fun.  They were quick to encourage and give credit where due, consistent with their judgments, and slow to get angry.  They didn't give up on people and didn't play favorites.  They were genuine, took an interest in you as a person, and challenged us to get better.  To a man these coaches won games year after year.

Outside of their families, their players, and their fans, of course, they were not well liked.  Other coaches hated them, accused them of cheating, and slandered them in public all while being somewhat cordial to their face. 

Not caring what other coaches said or felt about them, though, was another trait the good coaches had in common.  This was usually interpreted as arrogance by those that already didn't like (getting beat by) them.

Sure, there are people that earn their lack of love through out-right malice towards others.  But the disdain directed at those types comes and goes, while the hatred towards those that are legitimately achieving at someone's perceived cost to others never fades.  Even in the midst of self-generated scandals and turmoil, the focus of the hater's contempt will be those that outdo them, rather than directed where it should be.

What really turns the burner on high for these haters is seeing the successful people and those they lead having fun.  That's where UK's coach finds himself on a regular basis.

UK Coach John Calipari is trying to make this the best possible outcome for his players.  He wants them to have fun, get better, be in the spotlight, and win.  He cares about them as people and athletes. 

Because of that, he is going to be the guy that people point fingers at when they under-perform, get caught breaking the rules, get pushed out of the business, or are asked about any of these actions.  

A little tip:  Where that finger points may very well tell you where you want to be, if you are a player, assistant coach, or fan of the game.      

I have had great football, baseball and wrestling coaches and terrible ones, good friends/partners and bad, and great managers/bosses and those that are absolutely horrible.  Do I have to explain how much better life was with the good ones?

Write it down:   If you do things well, some people will despise you.  

I'm telling you this is a guide and a rule rather than an exception in almost every facet of living.   Learn from the mistakes of others.    I should have learned more from the coaches back then that would have made the rest of my life better, but I didn't realize how much it applied to everything else in life.   

You won't hear the coaches complain at all.  They and their teams have got more important things to focus on.  (Big break for the selection committee there.)  In just one day, however, this year's committee made a mockery of everything up to this point.   Such a beautiful season with such a disappointing analysis of it and reward for it.

If you had told Kansas in November that being the overall number one seed would earn them the toughest road to the finals of any other one or maybe even two seed in the tourney, they would have laughed at you.  They might have pulled your underwear up over your head, tarred, and feathered you.  No way.

If you had told the Kentucky Wildcats in December that equaling Kansas' 2 loss record and winning the SEC regular season and tourney would earn them the second toughest road to Indy, they would probably have said they didn't care, but they definitely wouldn't have believed you anyway. 

Had you asked anyone if they would be left out of the tourney in favor of a team they beat and finished ahead of in the standings in their own conference, beat 2 teams twice that a 1 seed couldn't, and finished 23-8 on the season, they'd think say you were meth-informed. 

Let's say you accepted that for fact.  You then might expect that a better top 50 resume, one established outside of the conference schedule would get you a bid.  (There's really not a lot left when the other factors are eliminated.)  So you go on the road and beat Clemson and Wisconsin (the Badgers' only home loss of the season), beat Vandy and Michigan State, and then beat Wisconsin again on your way to the conference tourney championship game where you lose in 2OT to #2 seed Ohio State.  Surely you're in with that kind of resume? 

The Virginia Tech Hokies are no doubt stunned to find out that they aren't better than Wake Forest in spite of all signs pointing to the contrary.  Their scenario unfolded two paragraphs above, while Wake Forest with a 19-10 record and short ACC tourney run was given a berth.  The Deacons lost to the team that "sunk" the Hokies during the regular season according to the analysts, Miami. 

The Fighting Illini found out that those Wake Forest rules didn't apply anywhere but the east coast, however, as a fierce schedule, a very deep run in the Big Ten tourney, and a 19-14 record left them high and dry.

Then you come to Mississippi State.  Missing the NCAA tourney themselves, the Bulldogs went 23-11 this year, taking one of the 2 BEST teams in the nation to OT twice, the last being the finals of their conference tournament.  On the way to the SEC championship game they beat Florida, who had an identical conference record and a thin 21-12 overall, and 23rd ranked Vanderbilt.  Somehow a team that lost at home to South Alabama, lost 6 of their last 11, and 7 of their last 13, the Florida Gators, gets selected. 

If there is any lingering doubt that the committee royally fudged this bracket and made selections that are questionable at best, you had only to listen to Dan Guerrero when interviewed by ESPN.  When asked which seedings and selections were tough ones, he responded, "Every team was tough." 

What?  Every team?  Well, when you look at the screwing KU and UK took in the brackets, they obviously were confused.  The 2 top seeds should have the easiest routes to the Final Four, not the hardest.

Oh, and Cal?  As in California...  I like the Golden Bears ok, but what did they do to earn a spot in this tourney?  Besides having a Pac10 guy as the committee chairman, I mean.  ?   

Bobby Knight had his studio commentary right for maybe the first time this year.  This committee had no business judging anything related to basketball much less seeding or selecting a tournament field.  That much is certain.

It made a mockery of the process and diminished the results in doing so, but more importantly made a mockery of all the hard work that goes into the season for these athletes.

You don't play the entire season with a different set of rules for each conference, nor would you let the season begin without defining those rules.  Why should the selection process be any less important or so frustratingly mysterious?

It's just one more thing that needs to change and needs the input of every member institution to do so for the benefit of all.  They need to set criteria that aren't subject to the leanings and locations of the individuals that made up this committee.         

Nothing says fickle like the recent polls do.  Kansas and Kentucky have lost 2 games this season, both on the road.  Two of those losses came against the same opponent.  UT beat the top 2 teams at different ends of the schedule. 

Syracuse has lost 2 games at home.  One in the last 4 games against a Louisville team that is seriously underachieving this year.  So, what warrants the number one ranking, I mean, besides being an east coast team and therefore a media favorite?  Since Villanova has folded recently, I think east coast bias has got to be the only plausible reason.

Is this simply a what have you done for us lately mentality?  Of course it is, regardless of the underlying reason for the number 1 ranking.  As such, it is the most short-sighted perspective in some time.

Sure, Kentucky lost in a somewhat embarrassing and very lackluster fashion, but Kansas' loss was less so.  What is more embarrassing than losing two at home, though?  Syracuse, at best, has only lost sightly less recently.

Not enough to earn those votes in my opinion.

Really makes you wonder what planet people are from when they do the right things anymore.  Here's just a few things that I hope make it better-

Burn-   Bobby Knight may have left the Big Ten, but his obliviousness still lingers.   They're looking to expand their numbers by adding a team and it's rumored to be THE University of Texas.  I say rumor, though every outlet on the planet is putting it out there now, because I have a hard time believing any 1 of the 11 teams in the Big Ten would be that intoxicated or anyone at Texas would consider it, though Wisconsin seems the most likely to be so impaired. 

How does this relate to Knight?  Well, despite the past 10 years of press that mention how boring Big Ten football is, the PTB (powers that be) in that conference think they need more exposure.  It's like Bobby thinking that "Kentucky cheating" (his words) was what kept his chair flinging and people choking style from landing the best college talent.

If you want more exposure without the embarrassment the Horns will bring upon the league, go after Nebraska. 

Even better, play the game better.  Exposing the current form of Big Televen football to more people is only going to hurt tourism in the Midwest. 

Dodge-    Having Texas movee into that conference is only going to make more of the windburned talent head south...  Kentucky fans say "good luck and how can we help this get done."    

Burn-   I really love this time of year in Kentucky.  Keeneland is just around the corner.  Spring Football can't get here fast enough.  And almost everyone in the national media is counting out the Cats for one reason or another.

It is a year round thing, but it gets to be fun as March inches closer.  In 1996 everyone was hyping Camby and maybe Duncan, if I recall.  In 1998 it was whoever was playing the Cats next, Duke, Stanford, or Utah.  Points for anyone that can remember or find the reasons why the Cats "couldn't win it all" back then.  (Why is it that March never comes in like a lion here, it always seems to be hiding behind a tree and takes forever to come out?  Never like this in Illinois.)  

This year they started out the season too young to win right away and struggling to find a way to get a cohesiveness and chemistry or desperately trying to spread minutes around to all those talented people.  The national love fest was with UNC, UCon, and Texas back then.  

Nothing brings a team together and focuses them like bulletin board material.

Dodge-   I love ESPN's commercials.  Sonic's aren't bad either.  The next one I would like to see would be combination of the two.  Each of the ESPN analysts and commentators' clips where they dog the Cats right before a game or at the half, even on Sportscenter.  They play the blurb and then have the (insert punch sound)  frame freeze on the distorted faces of the very same guys as the highlights start to roll where UK proves them wrong. 

It has to end with the following sequence.  Jay Williams getting smacked over and over and over again, highlights in between, because he's been the most consistently wrong on the most occasions of the entire nation of broadcasters........ and then fade to a single date on a black screen Feb 13, 2010, Bobby Knight sitting silent in a mostly dark hotel room or on a bus with an angry look and the light of a TV on his face, then (Sonic sound and it repeats for each caption) a warped still of him with that DOH! look he gets before he goes ballistic makes him look like he's been punched (flips horizontally each time).  Captions read- NCAA violations by later Memphis player occurred prior to  enrollment at Memphis, NCAA Clearing House cleared the same, NCAA rulings cleared John Calipari of any wrongdoing, Coach Calipari did not leave two schools on probation to take other jobs..... Kentucky's John Wall is the best player in college basketball, DeMarcus Cousins could very well be 2nd best.

Dodge and Burn-   Got to at once be impressed and feel sorry for Coach Charlie Strong.  He handles being announced as Kentucky's coach, gets slighted again by being told the announcer was thinking of Joker, and then Joker gets more applause.  He didn't look pleased, but he was very gracious in spite of it all. 

Then you think about it some more and realize he's just going to have to get used to it at UL.  The little brother syndrome finds it way home again.  Not to worry, Coach Strong, you'll have a better job waiting after a couple years of easy schedules in the Big East, even if you don't beat UK during that time.       

With the same determination and focus, albeit with cue cards in hand, Tiger addressed the media about his private life.  Hopefully he did so for the last time, because, frankly, it's his own private business no matter how much everyone wants to make it public.

He has issues.  Wow.  That shouldn't be an eye-opener to anyone above the age of 5.  We all have em.  We all will going forward.

The only thing some people seem to have left to learn is this:   How you feel about Tiger Woods was decided before he gave his speech today.

Just like how you felt about him was decided before you ever heard of him. 

Nothing has changed outside of you that is responsible for how you feel right now about anything.  That result is completely your responsibility.  Your expectations are what influence your feelings the most, not the actions to which you respond.

If you expected Tiger Woods to be perfect, then you deserve to feel disappointed with yourself for feeling that way from the start.  You should know better. 

If you expected anything from his speech, if you expected to be swayed to pity him, if you expected to really believe he was remorseful, if you expected anything at all, then it is your problem, if you came away from it less than satisfied.

Tiger Woods has learned a tough lesson on just how much he is in control of anything of late.  I'm happy for him for that reason, though it sucks for him that he's had to learn it in this way, even though it makes perfect sense considering how his life has been so far.

I don't think any less of Tiger Woods.  God made him, too, after all, and it's not my place to judge him.

He just happened to be blessed with the tools to become a great golfer along with the same handicaps we all are born with.  He'll overcome the latter in time as well, if he puts forth the effort.   Best of fortunes to you and your family, Mr. Woods.

Everyone else needs to get just over themselves.     

It's about time the SEC silenced the MSU cowbell.

Dodge-  You have to give props to one of the two groups for the fact that bottles and drinks didn't actually hit anyone down at The Hump last night.  Either the Cats were great at dodging the missiles or the Bulldog fans were trying to miss 'em.  No self-respecting SEC fanbase could have aim that poor. 

Unfortunately, that's as good as it gets for State fans.  They just plain embarrassed themselves last night.  

Burn-   Who do you hold responsible for the lack of sportsmanship. class, or the general disregard for the safety of their own players?  Obviously the blame is mostly on the shoulders of the heavers of said bottles.  No two ways around that.  Those being so reckless should lose their seats and more.   There is more to this story, though.

Dodge-   Jarvis Varnado managed to dodge well-earned fouls for most of his career at Mississippi State and needs to get some kind of award for it, even if his charms wore off last night.  He is a great shot-blocker, but not as great as the refs would have you believe.

Burn-   That being said, who was the worst sport at the game last night?  The in your face choice would be the MSU fans, but if you watched the tape of Varnado after he fouled out, he was the clear favorite heading into overtime.  In addition to theatrics that should have garnered an instant technical, he whined, cried, pulled his shirt over his head, and otherwise barely noticed there was a game going on, all while the rest of the bench encouraged those still in the game.  Very disappointing to see the it's-all-about-me attitude.

Dodge-   In the lighten up category, UK fans that were up in arms over this being a close game need to get used to it.  There isn't a gimme left on the schedule.  EVERY team is going to slow it down and crank up the physical play.  Margins are going to shrink as a result.  This was going to be a fight long before MSU took a lead in the game.

Burn-   This one is for the SEC officiating office.  As I alluded to earlier, there is more to the story when it comes to Starkville and sportsmanship.  Some of the blame for it lies unquestionably at their feet.

The rule against noisemakers like the famed State cowbells has been in existence since before Mumme left Lexington, but the rule is NEVER enforced by the SEC.  It was only a matter of time before things got worse in Starkville.  They think they can get away with anything because they have gotten away with anything for over a decade. 

It's way past time the SEC started enforcing the cowbell rule and now they need to step in regarding this incident for the safety of everyone involved in the game.  If they don't, it will get worse in a hurry.