We all love the slipper, constantly searching for which team or program it will fit next. In fact, we obsess over the slipper, so much that we sometimes forget about the superhero sitting in the corner, ready to inflict pain and suffering on those who stand in their way, who stand in the way of justice.
It seems that we, as the media, love to juxtapose the Cinderellas of the world with the Supermans, just to see who comes out on top. This is the college basketball world that we have created for ourselves, that we have painstakingly built through narrative after narrative.
After all, programs like Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and others are supposed to end the year with confetti landing on their undersized-one-size-fits-all title caps, wearing nets around their necks and congratulating the opposition on a valiant, yet unsuccessful, campaign against them. These programs invest the most money. They recruit the best high school prospects and they, often enough, have the “best” coaches. There are reasons why they are the Blue-Bloods of the sport.
Yet so many root against them.
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Casual and avid fans alike pine for March upsets, damned be their office pool submission, so that the maximum amount of chaos can be inflicted. Normally, I’m one who opposes this ideal. Call me crazy, but I rather like my title games to be better than UConn vs. Butler, or some other result driven by absurd upsets that drew spectacular coverage and ratings. I want the four best teams as opposed to the four hottest teams–though the two ideas can certainly align–to meet in the Final Four.
Then why do I feel like Kentucky going undefeated is terrible for college basketball?
I find it important to note that John Calipari has been wonderful to me when we’ve met, and I genuinely believe he’s a quality coach in addition to a lights out recruiter. At the same time, I worry about what the effects of having such a team run the table would actually mean for the game that we all love and cherish.
Kentucky is the nation’s most complete, all-around defense. At the rim they alter more shorts than the 8.1 blocks they average per game, a number that leads the country. They’re the nation’s second best team in points allowed per game. This is a team that plays together, despite its nearly unimaginable amount of moving parts. This is a team.
Yet, that team is still comprised of sophomores and freshmen, generally speaking. Calipari made a big fuss about his intent to use a platoon-system this season, although he’s already started to bail on the idea. Point being, UK is not a finished product. This is a team that, decades ago, would either grow together as a unit and build towards a dynasty, or already be in the NBA.
That is my worry with the idea of this team going undefeated. If they do, they’re likely to drop one in the tournament against the inevitably hot and sexy mid-major. That is, after all, how things tend to go. But no matter this season’s results, there will be a narrative around Lexington that will become toxic.
Truthfully, freshmen in 2015 are as good or better than the crop of the available seniors in college basketball. They’re more athletic and scream of upside. Seniors stink like an old costume send to the dry cleaning three weeks later. These kids can flat out play.
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So let’s say they win out, ending the season with a title. Then, the arms race for high school recruits continues to escalate as programs around the country open their checkbook to keep up with the Jones’ or whoever else lives next door. Most of Kentucky’s cast declares for the NBA Draft, and then we get to watch Calipari move from one table to the next, systematically, to grab a national television spot as the cameras point towards his latest project.
Young men leaving college to pursue their dreams of an NBA future is not some villainous act, or one that should be met with any kind of negative air. We all must take chances, some big and some small, to reach our goals and dreams. For some, that involves leaving college after only a year.
With each win this season, the pressure on Kentucky will mount and this group of young men will continue to be loaded with questions about their place in history and so on, and so on. That’s why I want them to lose.
I want this team to avoid the pressure’s of aiming to be undefeated to grow as a cohesive unit at their own pace and continue to blend their talents together to form a dominant force, the likes of which we’ve seen quite rarely as of late in college basketball.
This group is young and exceptionally talented, but with that comes the scrutiny of an audience that loves to watch their superheroes fall and mock them while they’re down. Kentucky deserves better than that. We all deserve better than that.
