Thoughts on this postseason

I’m watching these shows and catching the chats and watching the games, and I think I’ve come to a conclusion about ESPN and other’s deal for this tournament. There’s no story here they like.

It’s awesome to us that UK is playing well, and looks good (no jinx, cross fingers) to be in the FF or win out, but that’s just not a story they’re interested in.

I think that’s why that, every chance they get, media groups are looking for a reason to make a story out of nothing. I mean, Cornell versus Kentucky, and you’re pitching “Brains versus Brawn”? Cinderella stories are great, but c’mon. I’m no conspiracy guy, but I do understand bias, and if our uniforms had read Kansas, the lead to that game would be “Cornell next bump in the road as KU marches to Indianapolis”. But no, it’s brains versus brawn. It the smart veterans against the young talent. It’s every story and thought about why Cornell could knock of UK, when the entire idea was so stupid it hardly bore repeating. And, so I wonder, as I watch this tournament, what’s going on with these guys, and it hits me. This tournament has a story, but it isn’t the one they want to tell. They wanted a certification of Kansas’s greatness, and it’s gone. They’d love to have Coach K get vindicated for his underwhelming finishes the last few years.

Now they’re looking at these Cinderella’s, IMO, HOPING one of them does something unheard of so that can be the story. All of that when the obvious story is so easily clear that the only way for them not to run with it is by choice.

Am I making sense? I’m struggling to find the words for it, but you know there’s just a ..lack of enthusiasm from the big sports media market about the story at hand, ya know?

The way I see it, here is the real story. UK, after two years absence from the dance and a season ending in an early NIT defeat, fires it’s coach, goes out and makes a match with one of the most powerful coaching personalities in the game, who then brings in a recruiting class that may be one of the, if not the best ever assembled, and puts a team with three freshman starters on the floor, takes that team back to number one in the nation, never falls below three, wins the SEC regular season and conference tournament, locks up a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, and is on pace toward the Final Four and possibly the national championship.

I mean,.. does anyone think that sounds familiar? Because I remember only a few years ago when Ole Roy had damned near this SAME story at UNC and it was THE story of the entire dance. Does anyone else remember it that way? Big name coach, brings the program back to glory, and all that? Anyone seeing anywhere NEAR that kinda coverage or spin on this?

I mean, I k now we get some props, but that’s not what I’m getting at. There was never a reason, NONE, to try to make Kansas the story of this year. You get me? There was nothing remarkable about what Kansas had to offer. Outside of a good freshman playing for them, and twin brothers, they were just a veteran, talented, big twelve team. They didn’t have to climb mountains. They didn’t have to rebound from anything.

I’m going to predict something that I hope I am very wrong about. If UK wins it all (no jinx, crossed fingers) I expect ESPN to spend a much shorter than usual amount of time in the post tournament coverage debating how great this season was. My fullest expectation is that they will only give the legs required to be credible concerning the matter, given that it IS the biggest event in major sports now, but then drop it like a hot potato and look into the NFL draft, very quickly. We won’t see the great replays about it, and we won’t hear from experts who were thrilled to have seen it, and etc.