03-15-2012, 12:26 PM
I posted this article due to it mentioning Cal and the Cats towards the end...
Here are the paragraphs:
Unless you are a Kentucky fan or related to Worldwide Wes, I just assume you want Kentucky to lose.
There are two reasons for this. One is the widespread belief that, while most humans are 98 percent water, John Calipari is 98 percent evil. Please understand: I am not saying Calipari is evil. I'm not criticizing him here at all. The point is not whether the belief is accurate, just that it is ubiquitous. And that means, right or wrong, most of the country wants Calipari to lose.
Most fans also hate how Kentucky is built. Calipari has made the one-and-done market his own, from Derrick Rose to Tyreke Evans to the John Wall/Demarcus Cousins/Eric Bledsoe/Daniel Orton quartet to Brandon Knight and the ghost of Enes Kanter to the current group, headlined by Davis.
Is this wrong? Again: I'm not saying that. If it's OK for Kyrie Irving to leave Duke after one injury-shortened year, it's fine for Davis. And as a hoops fan, you have to love how Davis and fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist play. This is not the point. A lot of fans feel like Kentucky is gaming the system, and, since this tournament is just an entertainment vehicle for them, they don't feel compelled to spend a lot of time thinking about it.
The Wildcats are a great team, but they are also a freshman-dominated team, with championship-or-bust pressure. The Wildcats are not just shooting for the national title. In the minds of some, they have to win a national title to justify the way they were built. If Kentucky loses, many UK fans will wonder if a team can take the one-and-done route to a championship. This isn't fair to the players, but we're not talking about fair. It is a lot of pressure for a young team.
If Kentucky wins this way, the story may drown out the achievement. If Kentucky loses, millions of fans will rejoice. The lesson, once again: Anybody can lose in this tournament, but the tournament itself never loses.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/wr...&hpt=hp_c2
Here are the paragraphs:
Unless you are a Kentucky fan or related to Worldwide Wes, I just assume you want Kentucky to lose.
There are two reasons for this. One is the widespread belief that, while most humans are 98 percent water, John Calipari is 98 percent evil. Please understand: I am not saying Calipari is evil. I'm not criticizing him here at all. The point is not whether the belief is accurate, just that it is ubiquitous. And that means, right or wrong, most of the country wants Calipari to lose.
Most fans also hate how Kentucky is built. Calipari has made the one-and-done market his own, from Derrick Rose to Tyreke Evans to the John Wall/Demarcus Cousins/Eric Bledsoe/Daniel Orton quartet to Brandon Knight and the ghost of Enes Kanter to the current group, headlined by Davis.
Is this wrong? Again: I'm not saying that. If it's OK for Kyrie Irving to leave Duke after one injury-shortened year, it's fine for Davis. And as a hoops fan, you have to love how Davis and fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist play. This is not the point. A lot of fans feel like Kentucky is gaming the system, and, since this tournament is just an entertainment vehicle for them, they don't feel compelled to spend a lot of time thinking about it.
The Wildcats are a great team, but they are also a freshman-dominated team, with championship-or-bust pressure. The Wildcats are not just shooting for the national title. In the minds of some, they have to win a national title to justify the way they were built. If Kentucky loses, many UK fans will wonder if a team can take the one-and-done route to a championship. This isn't fair to the players, but we're not talking about fair. It is a lot of pressure for a young team.
If Kentucky wins this way, the story may drown out the achievement. If Kentucky loses, millions of fans will rejoice. The lesson, once again: Anybody can lose in this tournament, but the tournament itself never loses.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/wr...&hpt=hp_c2