[Fromthebleachers]

Lol,, good one. I'm to lazy to look all that up. But was mostly my point. Yeah was talking pre 50s on the NIT. Rupp could have cared less about any other tournament back then. And I hate UNC and KU claiming the Helmes banners are as good as the actual NCAA banner. +1 sir.

Mix1...

Depends on what you are calling the modern era. To put it simply...since 1970U of L has been to ten final fours with three national championships. Louisville is in the top ten in NCAA tournament appearances, wins, final fours, win percentage. The Cards are twelfth in all time wins. Which is pretty good considering they started playing basketball several years later. The forties is not a good gage of who declared themselves the best. The SEC schools wouldn't play in the NIT because they were segregated and travel certainly would have been a problem. (Rupp certainly did give a rat's ass) and he also was labeled a racist by many as he was portrayed in the movie about Texas Western. And he certainly didn't help that perception. UK didn't have it's first African-
American until '71 in Tom Payne. The tournaments had small fields. Both tournaments hosted very good programs. The NIT was still a great tournament in the fifties. It was losing some luster but the 56 NIT championship team U of L had was one of the tops in the country. The sixties was dominated by UCLA as most college basketball fans know. It certainly is a much bigger accomplishment to win a NC since the expansion to sixty four now sixty eight teams. My point is simple. U of L doesn't have to take a back seat to anybody. Their accomplishments speak for themselves. But they never have needed justification from UK fans...nor does it define their miserable lives. And one category that UK can't be to proud of....cheating scandals under Rupp and Sutton. UK is one of the few programs that received the death penalty. Then UK hires Calipari. And UK fans wonder why so many outside of the state don't respect the program and the accomplishments? You can break it down decade by decade but add the numbers up and U of L is a top ten program and has been for decades. I can't give you Western Kentucky's numbers but they are very good as well. This state has a great tradition in basketball at all levels and it doesn't all lie in the city of Lexington. What Duke has done in the last twenty five years is truly remarkable to me. Now that's something you can point a finger at in the past two decads.