Hey! Down here. You’re just in time, I didn’t think you were going to make it.

The lights flash out, the spotlights circle 23,000 of your best friends.  The strobes fire up, and The Who’s “Teenage Wasteland” begins to blare.

On the big screen we see Delk 3’s, we see Kenny sky-walking, Tayshaun bombing the Tar Heels, the Comeback Cats exercise the Blue Devils, the “Goose”, Rex, Kyle touch his socks, and countless other moments that make us proud to tell everyone our favorite colors baby: Blue and white!

The hair on your neck stands up, you jump up and down, Rupp starts to rock, your heart races, and just when you can’t stand it any longer; it finally happens.

“And now, your University of Kentucky Wildcats!!!”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Miss Lippy…let’s go back and find out how we got here.

This past offseason was one of the most eventful in the storied history of Kentucky basketball.

The most recent edition of UK basketball finished 22-14, and earned a berth in the NIT.  They were bounced from the not-so-big dance by Notre Dame, and Digger Phelps probably almost died from joy.

This also meant that the coach of said Cats would be under some heat.  Billy Gillispie was arguably the most polarizing person in Lexington. Love him, hate him, either way, everyone had an opinion, even ESPN’s Jeanine Edwards.

Billy G repeatedly started postgame pressers by saying he wouldn’t throw any of his players under the bus; which he followed by throwing his players under the bus.

All the rumors of his off-court antics and the stories of how he treated his players led to his demise.

Mr. Gillispie (I almost wrote Coach Gillispie there, but remembered a press conference were the media simply called him Billy) was eventually fired by Kentucky and the circus added another ring.

Who would ride over the nearest hill and save the poor Wildcats?

Well, that depended on who you asked. Jay Wright of Villanova, Mark Few of Gonzaga, John Calipari of Memphis, Tom Izzo of Michigan St.,  Bruce Pearl of Tennessee, Billy Donovan of Florida, even Rick Pitino?

The same Pitino who left the Cats to coach the Cards was rumored to be walking through that door.

After the dust finally settled, UK convinced Calipari to leave Memphis and take the reigns of a beaten-down program. He kissed babies, walked on water, and said all the right things when introduced by Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart.

John Cal hit the recruiting trail hard and brought some major reinforcements to Lexington.  Ranked as the No. 1 class by most media outlets, Calipari immediately raised the bar in the SEC. J.C. did lose out on one key player, Jodie Meeks, the fifth leading scorer in the country last year, when he declared for the NBA.

Well, that pretty much brings you up to speed.  Where was I???  Oh, right.

(You have to pretend I’m using my announcer voice here.)

“And now, your University of Kentucky Wildcats!!!

At guard, a 6′7″ sophomore from Maysville, Ky., No. 1, Darius Miller,

At guard, the 6′7″ sophomore from Greenbelt, Md., No. 3, Darnell Dodson,

At guard, standing 6′6″, a freshman from Madisonville, Ky., No. 4 Jon Hood,

Another guard, standing 6′7″, a senior from Anchorage, Alaska, No. 5, Ramon Harris,

At guard, coming in at 6′4″, a freshman from Raleigh, N.C., No. 11, John Wall,

At forward, a towering 6′11″, a freshman from Mobile, Ala., No. 15, DeMarcus Cousins,

At forward, standing 6′9″, the senior from Lafayette, La., No. 21, Perry Stevenson,

Again at guard, a 6′1″ freshman from Birmingham, Ala., No. 24, Eric Bledsoe,

At forward, 6′10″ freshman from Oklahoma City, Okla., No. 33, Daniel Orton,

The last guard, 6′6″ sophomore from Chicago, Ill., No. 34, DeAndre Liggins,

At forward, 6′10″ junior from St. Charles, Mo., No. 55, Josh Harrellson.

At forward, last but certainly not least, 6′9″ junior from Huntington, W.Va., No. 54, Patrick Patterson.

—And your head coach, John Calipari!!!!!!!!”

Now all the players gather in a circle and rock side-to-side.  They bring it in and break the huddle. It’s game-time.

Your starting five are: Patterson, Miller, Wall, Cousins and I’m going to guess, and it is a guess, Dodson. I might take some heat for the Dodson pick, but I like his jump-shooting ability to help them early in the season. I’m sure the lineup will be fluid for the first month or so.

Front-court: Patterson anchors this group. He returns for his junior season hoping to actually get to play in an NCAA tournament game.  Cousins, Orton, Stevenson and Harrellson add good depth.  Patterson, Orton, and Cousins should be interchangeable parts.  I still like Stevenson’s length around the basket.

Easily the best front-court in the conference.

Back-Court:  Meeks is out, but many talented others will step in. Wall, Bledsoe, Hood and Dodson were all big catches this offseason.  This gave immediate help to a back-court that was desperate. Liggins, Miller and Harris all are capable players too.  Easily the best back-court in the conference.

Liggins will shine more in the “dribble-drive offense” than he did under the Gillispie “get it to Patterson no matter what offense.”  Miller is coming off of a good showing in the Under-19 World Championships, where his US squad brought home the crown.  Ramon Harris is an above average defender and is capable on offense too.

Prediction time: The Cats will go 13-3 in conference.  I don’t want to make some dumb claim that they will go undefeated, but they really could. We don’t have the schedule yet, but games against Louisville and U.N.C. are marquis. Anytime you play the champs it’s a big deal, and Louisville is well, Louisville.

Not to mention it’s Pitino v. Calipari.

The Cats will be back in a big way. Kentucky enters March no lower than a No. 2 seed.  I like their chances of playing into April and maybe even placing ladders on the court in Indy.

Close your eyes one more time.

The clock’s at zero, the streamers have fallen, everyone is going nuts.  Indianapolis has gone blue.  The scissors come out and the tears start to flow.  Just when you think it can’t get any better, the band strikes up “My Old Kentucky Home.”  That’s when you remember why you’re a Kentucky boy, or girl.

Seven was heaven, and as a certain cereal tiger might say, “Eight sure feels Grrrreat.”

Hey, there you are, I didn’t think I would find you in this mess.  You got here just in time.

“For my old Kentucky home, far away.”

It’s the optimism hour everyone! Let’s look at some good things that may come out of UK’s horrid play the last few weeks.

1) Jodie’s stock has dropped. Period. He is in no way a first-rounder. Bad for him, good for the Cats. It would be a horrible decision if he took the jump. If the decline continues he may not be drafted even if he wanted to. Let’s review his weaknesses: bad bad bad a/to ratio, gambles too much on D, dribbles into traffic, limited ball handling ability, limited vision on the fast break, and unwillingness to use full extent of athletic ability in the lane. I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing the Cats’ best scorer; really, I think he’s one of the all-time greatest scorers in UK history. The good news for Jodie: these are all things that can be improved. He has all the ability and talent; he just needs to work on the I.Q. part of the game. And he can do that in the upcoming off-season and next year with an improved supporting cast.

2) Maybe this underachieving team can find its way and sneak up on some people starting Thursday. I don’t believe, with the path set ahead for the team (Ole Miss, LSU, and likely USC), that Kentucky HAS to win the tourney like everyone is so enamored with saying. A win over Ole Miss rectifies one previous loss, a win over LSU does the same along with announcing that the Cats can do something against a talented team, and a win over USC would say that Kentucky has overcome its biggest nemesis and is ready to take on some more. Very unlikely to occur…but this IS the optimism piece.

3) I never like to think that a transfer is a beneficial thing, but there’s just so much evidence to things happening behind the scenes… it just has to be a good thing to get some of the weeds out of the garden. Right? Let’s not go naming guys, but we all kind of have our secret wish list. And with increasing reports of Gillispie on the trail for a point guard addition, a transfer could be doubly beneficial.

4) The increasingly ridiculous audacity of the UK basketball “chosen” fan base has had to take quite a serving of humble pie. That can only be a good thing.

5) We may get to end a really long NIT appearance drought. I’m no statboy, but I believe the last appearance was with Sir Rupp. Please correct me.

6) UK FOOTBALL IS COMING SOON! And more and more people are looking forward to it. At least the Blue/White game April 25th should be well-attended. I’ll be there.

Harsh words, I know. But hear me out: the Cats are in the middle of a valley right now, and like all valleys in God’s green world, it’s surrounded by slopes and peaks. Translation: any effort of movement can only be made upwards. Whether we look to return to our roots (run backwards), trudge ahead and find new methods of success (run forwards), or keep doing what we’re doing and hope it finally catches on (run sideways), we can only elevate.

Now let’s see how far I can take this metaphor. The unfortunate part of the cheery outlook I’ve just painted is that perched atop these peaks which surround Billy’s valley are 100,000+ “fans” hurling hate-rocks at the struggling mountain climbers they would normally be tossing ropes for. [Metaphor off]. Maybe more than any other fanbase-to-team connection, UK basketball depends on its followers. Not YOU….US. The entire fanbase. This doesn’t mean that Bobby Blueguts determines the fate of the program with his mighty words and actions; it means that Bobby and every other UK fan in the world are the Congress to UK’s administration and Billy’s presidency. We depend on each other. The fanbase as a whole is more responsible for the future of the program than it really understands.

Read the rest of this entry »

Can Tom Leach avoid asking any question that will get his head ripped off? After the post-UGA “you’re not gonna get me to turn on my guys, Tom” explosion following a legitimate question, I vote no. Unless the interview fails to take place at all, and it’s starting to look that way. I wish Leach would let him have it sometimes if only to put everything in perspective. Whatever your job title we all deserve to be treated as human beings. After this ridiculous meltdown centered around Billy’s relationship with his players and stubborness to adjust to certain things, ala Tubby Smith, he has quite a bit of answering that could be done. At least the next call-in show should be interesting.

What about you? It’s time for Billy to get some SPECIFIC questions asked followed by SPECIFIC answers. Who’s got the guts to ask? Don’t be afraid to get blasted, Billy likes that our fanbase cares so much and has such a passion for the game, ya know? Why is a coach not ecpected to present a detailed report of the year’s progress, like a political leader or business executive? Do we, the paying party, not have a right to know what’s really going on? I understand there are behind-the-scenes events that probably need to stay private, but can’t we just be told that? Why must we be left to guess and spread rumors?

I’ve got many thoughts about what has occurred and what needs to perhaps occur, but… who doesn’t. So, I’ll spare everyone. But I will leave one pearl of wisdom: the Golden Rule doesn’t apply to you any less when you are the leader; it becomes crucial to continue the respect of your following. I, along with countless other Kentucky fans, would love to follow Gillispie back to winning ways, but he has to learn better ways of earning respect. Losing on the court is acceptable; losing off of it can not happen.

I rarely venture outside of our site here and aseaofblue.com as far as opinion-sources go for UK sports, mostly because of my particular taste in blending style and professionalism, but I make about a bi-weekly roundup of the ones I’m aware of just to check the goings-on. Today I caught a whiff of this:

Kentuckysportsradio.com cat fight

And while this is probably old news to most of you, I was appalled, no, amused, no, let’s go with confused when I stumbled upon the content of that link. I had to take a step back and look at the grand scheme of it all. Hopefully that’s what you’re doing right now. So, hopefully, you’ve got a feel for where I’m going with this.

How hilarious is it that the author of the little thing says that his (Maggard’s) ”cronies” would probably be there to defend themselves and - presto! Look who shows up to turn a man to a prophet. It’s pitiful, nearly painful to watch. But then I think, it’s not just him. Why was such a “bracket,” or whatever, needed to begin with? What end-purpose does it serve? Sounds to me like the “authors” have a bit of insecurity themselves. But beyond that there are hundreds (or millions depending on whom you poll) of joe’s there just piling up the page with attention-poop they’ve been storing up for days, weeks, and months. It’s like, you know how when you’ve gotta deuce it up real bad but you’re in a spot where it just wouldn’t be proper and you hold it in to the point where it goes right back up inside? Then it recycles through the system it once emerged from and re-festers itself? And when it finally has a chance to break loose it smells exponentially worse than your normal stench? Yeah. Well by the end of the day, you’ve got a pretty stinky soup of attention poop. Message boards are a lot similar, it’s just that it’s more a group of unorganized militia poopshooters as opposed to a segregated battlefield of, say, Generals, Majors, and Captain poopshooters to go along with the numerous infantry poopers and long-range crap-tossers. Every man wants to make a name for themselves in a world where masculinity runs supreme. The good thing about the sportstalk world is that no one is expected to be physically imposing, just intellectually.

There are simply too many people trying to be a source, or a leader, or what it really boils down to: a somebody. Attention-whores. I’ll admit it: I’d love for everyone to know my name and where to find my “voice.” But I’d prefer it be because I’m just a good writer, have an agreeable opinion, or a likable disposition rather than because I’m skilled at baiting people, lucky-guessing with rumors, designing my image, or using my position to start a self-serving agenda. I don’t like to point fingers, but there is a lot of that going on in this little battle of … stuff. Look, I’m here to write ABOUT UK sports and anything related to that theme. I’m not USING UK and its ridiculously massive fan following and history as a catapult to fame and glory. I’m not going to USE the school I love and respect to serve myself. And I WILL NOT support anyone who does. I write out of passion for the game (football and basketball), the league (NCAA), and most of all the school that represents most that is enjoyable in this state. That is where it ends. If you (Marc Maggard, Matt Jones, whoever else that has emerged to fit the profile, and all who are riding their coattails) fail to see what you are doing differently, then I pity you with force.

Don’t forget that if you lie, cheat, and steal to gain support; that support will lie, cheat, and steal to take your place when the time is right. If you use people enough, you will get exposed. If you throw enough people to the curb, you’ll form a mob too infuriated to control. Please, stop taking yourselves SO seriously, jump off your high horses, and respect the university that’s allowed you a brief stint of popularity. Players themselves are told so very often that “it’s not about you” and “it’s the name on the front of the jersey that matters.” Players! And here I am talking about YOU! Who are you? I digress. Now that I am drained of applicable cliches on the matter, I’m losing my will to be further offended. I believe you guys have something, maybe a lot, of substance to contribute to this business of reporting and following sports teams. But you’re letting your head get in the way or your ability. And in the process you’re degrading the school that you are attempting to represent.

The prevailing trend is that legitimate news sources are dying out, and are being replaced by a new breed of bloggers, web site hosts, and message board and youtube superstars. As this trend continues to intensify, such things as accuracy, cohesion, and professionalism is going by the wayside. These things are great for spreading opinion and excitement (I’m obviously into it myself), but it’s usefulness in the world of journalism remains raw. ANYONE can do the things we are doing. It takes real ability to write a daily column, run a beat, or dish out a grounbreaking feature story. I don’t think I’m ready to throw away my sports page and turn off my radio just yet. 

Now, I am yet a youngin’, but I do remember a time when all that mattered was if the Cats won or lost. It was a time when Cawood Ledford’s was the only voice that proved important and the opposing team represented our only enemy. We were the pinnacle, envied and admired. We tried to be like no one, and had no need to fluff our image because we were just better and that was to be understood. We called it the Glory Road and we governed its passage.

Today, wins and losses just seem like another lump of stats to be prodded and picked over. The voice of Tom Leach is clouded by a dense fog of opinion and babble. Our enemies have grown far beyond the basketball court or the football field. We are struggling to stay atop the very mountain we’ve built and have lost that air of respect we once breathed. We try so hard to fit in and therefore we do. The glory days are gone folks; flushed furiously down a nasty, wretched attention-toilet.

Kenny, Seth, and whomever chooses to read my words: if I ever take a turn toward this type of senseless, sightless, inferiority driven me-machine, please rise up and crack me upside the dome with no reserve whatsoever. Because that is precisely what I would deserve from Brooks, Barnhart, Gillispie, and every member of the UKAA fraternity and alumni. It’s about time that we, the SUPPORTING cast, do our part: support. How about we all take a moment to remove ourselves and begin the process of rebuilding that pinnacle?

Now I’ll shut up and listen.

I think Tennessee’s biggest problem is the blazer.

Mike Porter has played well. His shot is off, but he’s leading the team and making things happen.

Darius Miller > Scotty Hopson. Scotty Hopson’s minutes > Darius Miller’s minutes.

It seems like in the time off, Patrick has had an opportunity to grow accustomed to his finger thing.

Who’s boxing out JP Prince? Anyways, outside of offensive rebounding I still struggle to see what Ramon has been contributing this season.

Perry has decided to show up now that Patrick is back. Where was he when Pat was out?

It looks like all that time on the pine this season has given AJ a chance to refine that jumper. It’s looking good coming off a career high last time out. Maybe he won’t be the transfer we know is coming.

Since when did Jodie need two breathers in the first half? Granted, the cats have been nursing a double-digit lead. But at 4 minutes or so to play, a line up is left of pure second teamers and UT is allowed to regain confidence against Kentucky’s sloppy play. Why? Billy’s substitution patterns remain unclear to anyone but himself.

Darius is a better defender and rebounder than Ramon. What it is BG?

I’ma go with this as my #1 Logic Bust as I attack the practice of ranking conferences, though I didn’t have the foresight to properly label it. Forgive? Thanks.

Logic Bust #2: The Replacements

 -Guy on the right… no logic

Prevailing Philosophy: player X will be graduating this year, however we shouldn’t skip a beat because player Y is coming in with comparable size and skill set and we shouldn’t skip a beat.

Specifics: Patterson is a first-round projection (NBADraftDepot.com currently lists him as the 14th pick) and therefore will probably go.  But for the Cats left behind, it’s more important that Jodie comes back because there is less to replace his type of talent. With the Pilgrim (that “the” there just fits, I think) suiting up and D. Orton joining the team next year, we’re good to go down low!

Education: Patterson’s gone. Set your panic alarms early while you still have time to get some good rest in. With what’s become a first-round lock (all major draft experts have Beans at mid-first round) for Pat, his days in Lex Vegas are numbered. First-day money is simply a lump sum that no mortal should waste a year of (go on and toss things, I’m quick like a cat). On the football side, Trevard Lindley had a similar hand dealt, has taken a huge risk in returning, and logically made the wrong decision based on the cost-benefit analysis (please lower the AK). Nobody would argue in that case that a returning Paul Warford and a hypothetical 5-star CB would be the answer and all roads still lead to BCS. Why? Because most football fans still hold tight to there sanity when not plastered, at least in this state. But when it comes to basketball, UK fans’ hearts and nuts are bigger than their brains and its not even close. There is no “replacing” the leadership and stability of a Patrick Patterson in the span of an off-season. It just isn’t going to, and doesn’t, occur.

Support: If Patrick Patterson himself reincarnated and was joining the team again next year from high school, that still wouldn’t be the same. How is Matthew Pilgrim, completely unproven with 3 shots on a youtube vid to boast and 300 people claiming they saw the light when he corralled 50 rebounds in a pickup game last summer, the answer? Granted, he’s grown 4 feet since high school where he really dominated everyone from positions 2-5 and even played injured half of both his junior and senior seasons. I’m sure Matt has some unseen talent, minus the gaze of 50 Hampton fans, but it’s unPROVEN talent. He could be the next Pat Ewing for all Jimmy Dykes knows, but we don’t know. Daniel Orton is a different story all together. He has proven himself, albeit on the high school level, against varying competition and in the mass public eye. What we have learned is that his hands glisten with the glassy shards of a gazillion Gods. However,he’s run a grand total of zero set plays in Billy G’s offensive schemes (the existence of which are not part of this discussion), and has never taken on the task of defending a PROVEN D-1 post man while trying to guard the help-side against a PROVEN D-1 slasher… all at the same time. Now, I would bet my sister’s house that Daniel will turn into one of the better big men to grace the college game in a good long while, but every freshman is a freshman. And Daniel Orton will be trying to emerge from one of the more trying years I’ve heard of. Give the kid a break and temper the enthusiasm a bit. He’s got much more to figure out right now than how to make Patterson’s freshman year look like white rice.

Final Blast: Those that make the cheery argument of the Orton-Pilgrim Heirs Obvious love to throw in a Perry Stevenson or a Josh Harrellson just for good measure. But if anything, those two have shown a step backwards rather than forwards throughout the season. They, too, have much to PROVE before they can try their hands in the frontcourt of the future. While Patrick Patterson is getting used to plush, NBA-logo lawn chairs next year, Kentucky will be missing him dearly. There’s much more to basketball than height and weight. Ask Chucky Hayes. And it’s those things that both Pat and Chuck possess which make them special players. It’s not a profile we’re trying to replace here, it’s a person. That person was absent when AJ Stewart grew weak at the knees trying to defend another AJ. That person just wasn’t there when Perry Stevenson couldn’t find the confidence to match Vandy’s foreign frontcourt. It is precisely that person who wouldn’t have sat the pine after three minutes of play for a lackluster early rebounding effort, a la Josh Harrellson.

And I suppose you’ll see, once again, what Kentucky has been missing in that person today against Tennessee.

Ranking conferences in the NCAA is about as accurate a practice as playing darts underwater. How someone can explain away all the fuss of the “Big” East while their national tourney record looks like the Devil’s Baby Doll beats the beast out of me. In actuality, it is the SEC that has the highest tournament winning percentage of the recent past, yet always seem to run the back of the pack when it comes to ranking the major conferences in college basketball.

We think we have it down to some lawful science based on RPI, pre-season expectations, and what divine appointment the elders apply to the messy slush. And if you are a subscriber to that junk, please read on. Explain to me how Louisville needs a late game bow-your-head to knock off a Kentucky team - who have lost to four of their last six SEC opponents - and then goes on to cruise through a heavy early season B.E. schedule. VMI beats Kentucky like a drum, Louisville slips by them, and therefore VMI would hand it to Louisville only slightly less than that of Kentucky?

Sounds like misapplied logic, right? Right. It’s the same thing that happens when you try to use conferences to decide how good a squad is, only on a much more grand and ridiculous scale. So let’s take a group of 12, have them play each other over and over and then compare them to another group of 12 that have never or rarely mixed play. Or how about we take two of the worst teams of one conference, have them play two of the better teams of another, and force a head-to-head record of 0-2 (or 2-0) and use that to say that conference is better than this one. How about this: let’s look at the top 8 teams in a conference of 16 and compare them to the top 8 of a conference of 10 and decide that the bottom two of those 8 are very different. We’ll then conclude that the conference of 16 is obviously better than the conference of 10.

This all sounds really stupid, difficult to follow, and trivial, right? Right. That’s what it is; that’s what is happening, and that’s what the talking heads talk their heads off about. A talking head may point to LSU as an example in order to discount the SEC as a whole. Looking at their OOC schedule, they dominated a load of pansies, suffered a double-digit loss to a mediocre Texas A&M, were destroyed by Utah, and lost to Xavier by 10 in a chance to legitimize anything they had done or would do. The Tigers have since gone on to destroy the SEC, going 10-1 as of today. That says a horrible team on the national scene is the best team in the SEC, therefore the SEC is horrible. Aren’t facts great?

The dark side of facts is that they can be used to “prove” just about anything when it comes to sports.

Now throw a glance Arkansas’ way. Arkansas took care of Oklahoma and Texas in the weeks leading up to conference play with a total OOC record of 12-1. Since then the Hogs have posted a league worst (tied with UGA) 1-11 conference record. So a real good team on the national scene comes into the SEC and gets destroyed in eighty different unheard of immoral ways. Therefore, the SEC must be pretty awesome!

These things don’t match up, right? RIGHT! It’s called parity folks (or the difference therein, do yourself a favor and look that misused word up), and it calls college basketball “home.” This fact of the matter renders rankings of all kinds just about useless. Conference play then renders these things all the more futile. Statistics will tell you that it takes a sample size of about 30 to successfully represent a population over 100. With a league of 343 or so teams, and the biggest conference only holding 16 of them, what does conference play inform us of? It tells us how to rank the teams within that conference. Very useful, but what does this then tell us about how to rank teams on the national scene? Absolutely nothing. There are too many teams and not enough games played to properly rank them.

Too many teams play division 2, or NAIA, or division B, or non-NCAA tournament subdivision teams (whatever it is) to allow anyone to determine who stands where. Standings are accurate; rankings are not. You can rank a conference; you can not rank the League of Extraordinarily Too Many Members. Seeding a conference tournament is relatively easy even if there weren’t rules for doing so. Seeding the NCAA tourney is impossible to even remotely be accurate at. In fact, there is no such thing as accurate here. There are too many teams that haven’t played each other, and if they have they are a completely different team than they were when they played half a year ago. Too many teams.

The Big East is not the best conference. The ACC may or may not be. The SEC isn’t the worst. I’m not saying anyone’s wrong; I’m saying they CAN NOT be right. I’m not saying the Big East is not the best conference, I’m saying they CAN NOT be. I’m not saying conference RPI has it wrong, I’m saying that THERE IS NO RIGHT. It’s not a broken system; it’s just that there is NO SYSTEM at all. The statistics everyone holds so near and dear say it’s ridiculously improbable. What is it then? Just the opinion of some talking head. 

And what do I think? Too many teams. But, of course, who am I? Just a typing hand.

The views I’m about to express are not necessarily those of anybody else but me, but they ought to be, and as a matter of fact, they probably are. I was hoping to have some kind of report from the second Elite Camp since it began today, but nothing of substance has arrived yet, so a Shoot will have to do. This is actually something I’ve wanted to get off of my chest for about five years, and it pertains to college basketball, so I hope some of you find it relevant. I know this isn’t a cool thing to say, but I’ve never been cool, so I don’t care. I can’t stand the Gonzaga Bulldogs. I think they have the most criminally overrated program in recent college basketball history, and no other program is even close.

Dude, that game wasn’t even over yet. I know the media compared you to Larry Bird because you were a great white college player and were highly competitive, but at least Bird had the decency to wait until the game was over before he started crying. And now, a history lesson.

Back in 1999, Gonzaga was known as the little school in Spokane, WA where John Stockton went to college. Then, in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, Dan Monson led his Bulldogs to a magical Tournament run that captured the hearts of America. Everybody remembers Casey Calvary tipping in a miss in the regional semifinal against Florida and Gus Johnson’s call: “Gonzaga – the slipper still fits!” That was a lovable team. So were the next two teams, both of whom reached the round of 16 and knocked off high seeds on the way to doing that. The problem for me started in 2002, when Gonzaga fielded its best team to date.

Under Mark Few, the Zags have always loaded up with a difficult pre-conference schedule because Few is smart enough to realize that the West Coast Conference is never going to be good enough to adequately prepare his team for March. The 2002 Bulldogs lost to Illinois and Marquette, then only slipped up once for the rest of the year, garnering a 29-3 record. People thought that they would get a 2 or 3 seed in the upcoming Tournament, using their wins over Texas and St. John’s as evidence that they deserved it. The selection committee thought otherwise, however, and gave them a 6 seed. Gonzaga supporters (mainly in the media – we didn’t hear much from Spokane) cried foul that a 29-3 team was such a low seed. The consensus at the time was that Gonzaga was one of the strongest 6 seeds ever in the Dance, and that they stood a decent chance of beating Arizona in the next round as the lovable underdogs, just like in years past. Instead, 11 seed Wyoming rolled over Gonzaga in a 73-66 win that was not as close as the score indicated. Can somebody say “overrated?”

Gonzaga fell back down to Earth in 2003, losing to Indiana and Kentucky in the Maui Invitational and struggling somewhat in the SEC. After winning their first game in the Dance, Gonzaga faced mighty Arizona, the only other team at the time that could have been picked to win it all other than UK. I cheered for Gonzaga in regulation and both overtimes, but they came one point short in the end. The next year, they were back to their 2002 form, earning a 2 seed. They promptly lost in round two to Nevada – overrated. They were a 3 seed in 2005. After winning their first game, Texas Tech beat them in round two – overrated. Somehow, in between 2002 and 2004, somebody decided that Gonzaga, who plays in a mid-major conference, should be held to the same standard as teams from the major conferences. That is very difficult to do when Gonzaga doesn’t play the top competition in the country as frequently as Kentucky or Kansas or North Carolina. I think this has a lot to do with how much the media embraced their Cinderella run from 1999-2001. Other mid-majors like Creighton, Southern Illinois, Winthrop and George Mason have made nice runs in the last decade. They’ve consistently been in the mix, so where’s the love for those guys?

I think it’s time to look at Gonzaga for what they are – a decent team in Washington that would probably be a middle of the road team in the Pac-10. The Zags are the beneficiaries of a weak conference, and other mid-majors don’t enjoy that luxury when they play as well in their conference as Gonzaga does. Winthrop dominated their conference for years, and the highest seed the Eagles ever got was an 11 in 2007. Mark Few does a great job recruiting for such a small school, and I respect that he’ll play anybody anywhere at anytime. I just don’t think he’s a very good coach. Watch this clip.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt0VUSyVIr4&hl=en&fs=1]

How do you give up that lead? When your players panic in crunch time, I consider it a sign of a poor X’s and O’s coach, and I follow the SEC, so I know of which I speak.

I hate the overrated chant, but I’ll chant it every time my team plays Gonzaga, because that’s exactly what they are.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and Dicky Lyons would say that nobody doesn’t not like this column.