Not too much to say. Kentucky was the best team all year though I thought teams like Michigan State, Ohio State or Syracuse could have given them a run in the tournament, but they lost out. Syracuse with Fab Melo was pretty outstanding, but lost out to Ohio State without him. The Buckeyes looked great against the Cuse, but fell apart against Kansas. And Michigan State went cold against Louisville; pretty disappointing tournament for them.
But Kansas played hard all year long and ended up with a very good season. They played hard and played well in the second half last night turning up the defense and penetrating Ky’s defense for scores. But Kentucky did what they had to do down the stretch to get it done. Doron Lamb hit some big shots as did Marquis Teague. Those guys, to me, looked like they were playing for NBA contracts. Davis was his usual dominating self. 15 boards and six blocks, something like that. He’s from another stratosphere. Superior player. Should be an NBA All-Star multiple times and lead a team to championships if he has some help which he should in the NBA. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is a warrior. Terrence Jones is, too, at least he was last night. I expect Davis to be the first pick in the draft, and Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist to be lottery picks. Think Lamb will go first round. Miller could be in the first round, though he didn’t have a real good game last night. Tegue, to me, could use another year to perfect his point guard skills. But he may go too. They have two five-stars and a four star center coming in next year. They’ll be good. I don’t know if they’ll be as good as they were this year because they’ll lose a lot. Davis and Lamb coming back this year was huge for them. Along with Miller, they had experience and Davis is a once every 15 years talent. He’s as special as they come.
Calipari had a lot of pressure on him to win it this year. He’s done a heckuva’ job at Kentucky and deserves a lot of the credit. I’ve never seen a better recruiter outside Nick Saban. A lot of people say he just recruits championships, that he’s really not that great with X’s and O’s. He’s not the best X’s and O’s coach in the game in my opinion, but when you recruit players like that and you motivate them, it’s a pretty good winning formula. He’s elite.
With Alabama winning the football title and Kentucky winning the basketball title looks like the IBM teams are back on top. Alabama’s been for four years now and Kentucky for the last three. Great coaches make all the difference. They recruit great players and they coach them up.
But there are a lot of great teams out there in both sports returning, so next year will be riveting in college football and basketball. USC, Florida State, Texas,Michigan, teams like LSU, Arkansas, Georgia and maybe Florida in the SEC will challenge the Tide. Auburn will be better. Kentucky will have teams like Louisville, the ‘Cuse, Ohio State, Michigan State, UNC and Duke to contend with. So it should be highly entertaining in both sports. Trying to get down to ‘Bama’s football practice tomorrow so will have a full report on that on Thursday weather permitting tomorrow, and, of course, the tradition continues with the playing of the 76th Masters this week beginning Thursday. Should be highly exciting. Can Tiger Woods recapture the glory and get closer and closer to Jack’s 18 majors. Tiger now with 14. Or will Luke Donald, Hunter Mahan or the young phenom Rory McIlory claim greatness as they’ve shown in regular tour events and McIlory in the U.S. Open last year. Should be fun. Will have a full Masters preview tomorrow about 11. Football spring practices going on. Will give rundown of SEC teams after spring games later this month.
Big Blue nation livin’ large right now.