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I am just barely in the realm of sanity right now. I am too old to handle three games in a row of buzzer-beating heroics. It just doesn't seem natural, and I feel a bit fearful. If it happens again, it could well be the sign of the apocalypse. Who, ever, has hit 3 game-winning 3-point shots in a row! It's literally unnatural. In fact, it's the damnedest thing.
Devin Booker, incoming UK recruit, was way cooler than me. Check it:
And 1 really pic.twitter.com/L6uzlSEINm
— Devin Booker (@DevinBook) April 6, 2014
I am speechless, but I do want to say this. Congratulations to an outstanding Wisconsin Badgers squad. Honestly, and I mean this with the most respect possible, they honestly didn't deserve to lose this game. They played more than well enough to win. Unfortunately, statistics caught up with them. The didn't miss a free throw all night, and somehow, they Traevon Jackson missed one on a 3-point foul by Andrew Harrison. That one miss was the difference between overtime, and the end of a fantastic Wisconsin season. I have nothing but respect for our magnificent foes. We denied them Frank Kaminsky, and they almost won anyway.
Well, Wildcat fans, it's party time! Yes, we have done what I demanded in the pre-season, even after chiding myself for stupidity at the end of the season. Hold on, another tweet just came in:
Just a few of the folks waiting to get in UK's locker room ... pic.twitter.com/nOQtn553kt
— Ben Roberts (@NextCats) April 6, 2014
Okay, well, anyway, I've really learned a lot in this season, and honestly, we are not just playing on house money here, we are literally sitting in the high-rollers suite with a million dollars in the house bank and partying the night away with one more night left in Vegas. It's the catbird seat to the N'th degree, win or lose on Monday.
Now, for a bit of hyperbole. This is, in my humble opinion, the most exciting post-season run in all of Kentucky basketball memory. All of it. By far. And yes, I am talking about my memory, which only goes back to the early 1970's. But never, ever has there been a year with this much excitement. Ever.
You know another thing that's cool, and this may well be as bad as it is good — we don't have to play Florida again for the fourth time, and if we do manage to win, we get to rub it in the Gator's eye. Honestly, they have been insufferable this season, and a stupid, schadenfreude-laden part of me would love to squawk a little about that. Is that juvenile? Yeah, I know it is. Sorry.
I simply cannot get enough of this basketball team. They have just flatly denied all naysayers, taken their victories in the face of difficult, even unbelievable odds, and they have proven all our frustrations in the regular season unfounded and downright risible. Well, keep in mind, they're laughing at me, too!
All I can say is that ... ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, we are in the National Finals. We are there. Maybe we don't deserve to be there (well, I know for a fact Aaron Harrison does), but we are there anyway. An eight seed. A chance to write one more incredible chapter in the book of the most storied college basketball program in the United States.
I'm going to parrot John Calipari here, and those of you from other programs who will snort in derision, well, I understand, but give us this bit of hyperbole — we have most assuredly earned it this season.
We are college basketball.
Go, 'Cats!