Shawn Kemp's Offspring

Last night was a ridiculous night of basketball. It made no real sense,these were supposed to be hard fought rugged down to the wire,nobody leaves with a full set of teeth or the cherry intact type games. But,they weren't. They weren't even close. I had formed my allegiances early and stuck with them. I predicted UNC to win the title in the pre-season. And this wasn't a "let's get on Hansbrough's jockstrap prediction,I genuinely thought UNC had what it took to win it all. Not only that,I really thought that Kansas DIDN'T have what it took to win it all. Suffice it to say, I didn't enjoy last night. I had too many of my own biases and allegiances go the wrong way to eve begin to try and enjoy the night. I hate not enjoying basketball,since usually I am without any form of fandom I can just enjoy basketball for what it is. Last night,I turned into a fan of two teams and one player,neither of whom progressed any further. Was this my fault? Most likely not,but I do feel more than a little silly for giving in to fandom. And as with most things-I blame CBS. Coming into last night,I only required one event to unfold and that event was the winning of North Carolina or as I saw it-the losing of Kansas. But I made a mistake,I watched "Road to the Final Four",I know,I know. I sat through more feel good fluff pieces and player profiles than you could shake a celebutard at. I usually view these pieces as the folly of any newscast next to corporate bias and a little sprinkling of racism. I may be cynacle,but I usually have no interest about how an aging man in small town North Dakota found new hope by feeding ducks at a pond. But, for the most part,I enjoyed the player profiles,especially one on Kevin Love. He seemed down to earth normal and the type of guy you would root for. Now,obviously the objective was to shine a positive light on him as all of these things are,but of all the player profiles,his was the one that seemed to work the most. And there I was,sitting on the couch,supporting two teams like an idiot.

The games themselves I feel were hardly noteworthy with maybe the exception of the Memphis game. John Calipari is a smart man and a pretty good coach too. He had a plan with his team and he executed it to perfection. He managed to create an underdog mentality in a team with one total loss in the season and a team who were never ranked outside the top three. This was more impressive than any play he drew up during the game and more important than anything that went on during the game. When you've managed to convince a team full of stars and one superstar that the world was against them-you've done well. But not only did he convince his players of this,he convinced everyone. Everyone now thought that a team who constantly proved themselves during the season had something to prove. This thought was of course ridiculous, how a team packed with such talent and ability could feel disrespected is a testament to how well Calipari's plan worked. Memphis were never really underappreciated or disrespected. Questions were asked of the strength of their conference schedule calling it too weak,the same questions were asked of UNC's out of conference schedule. More than a few pundits tipped Memphis to go all the way from the start. If that's disrespect,the New York Knicks must be feeling very respected right now. Kudos must go to Calipari as well as his players,especially CDR who's looking more Iceman-ish every game he plays and that guy DWade is lusting after.

And now to the Kansas game. To be honest I don't really want to talk about this,but I will. Bill Self still isn't a good coach. This one win does not make him good. This is not an arguable point. I will say he was smart to use the whole "go out there and have fun,nobody's expecting you to win" method,I'd be more impressed had I not seen John Calipari use it through-out the tournament. Although his players are very good,especially the one named Rush. The way they blitzed Carolina at the beginning was more than impressive,it was obvious this team meant business. It continued pretty much all the way through the game apart from a few UNC runs which turned out to be meaningless. It was the ultimate anti-climax,a game that promised so much delivered so little and a Kansas victory,I was not happy.

Memphis over Kansas in the decider.