Saturday, January 21, 2006

Can we get the trifecta?

Kentucky beat USC. Georgetown beat Duke. Now, let's root for the UConn Huskies over Louisville!

Apparently, the citizens of New York want a special election in 2008. They back Hillary in 2006 and 2008.

The State of the Kentucky Democratic Party will be delivered on January 25, 2006. I will not be there but I didn't even know such thing existed. All Kentucky Democrats are invited.

Rupp's Runts aren't done yet. They will be working hard for cancer research.

Joe Lieberman will be on Face the Nation tomorrow.

Rupp's Runts had a Cinderella story of their own. Heck, they weren't even ranked in the preseason. In 1964-65, the Cats were 15-10.
The Runts did it with panache, the tales of fast breaks run without the ball ever touching the floor are still told today.

For those Kentucky fans with gray in their hair and lines of experience upon their foreheads, the back story of this season is as fresh as yesterday's headlines.

How the seniors, passing whiz Larry Conley and defensive ace Kron sacrificed their own offense and fed the ball to the team's juniors, helping Dampier and Riley become All-Americans.

How a little-known sophomore, burly 6-5 Jaracz, stepped in at center and battled bigger foes to a standstill.

"I always thought the thing that made that team special was the great sacrifice of the seniors to get the ball to the shooters," says Joe B. Hall, a UK assistant in 1966. "Conley and Kron subordinated their games for the good of the team. That doesn't always happen."

After those years flirting with mediocrity, Rupp loved the little team that had taken him back to the spotlight.

"Adolph loved winning," Kron said. "And I think he was so proud of putting together a team that played so well together."

Mostly, Rupp wanted another national title, wanted to be the first coach to reach five NCAA crowns.

Which, as basketball fans and movie patrons know all too well, was not to be.
Reams have been written about the social significance of Texas Western and its all-black starting five besting the signature college basketball program that represented what was then, in a sports context, still a segregated Old South.

But strictly from the UK perspective, there is an enduring twist.

Said Conley: "Ours was a very compelling Cinderella story. A small team that no one thought anything of before the season that reaches the national title game.

"But we get there and all of a sudden there's a total role reversal. And we're the heavy, thrust into the role that Kentucky teams always play."

What were the odds that a UK team that was beloved by its fans because it was such an unforeseen success would wind up in the ultimate game opposite a school whose rags-to-riches story was even more compelling and profound?

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