{"id":4257,"date":"2015-04-03T14:23:57","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T18:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2024-09-06T19:54:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T23:54:56","slug":"no-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2015\/04\/03\/no-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"No Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

My girls go to school approximately 11 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium. When I picked them up about an hour ago,[1]<\/a> that is the closest I\u2019ll get to downtown Indy this weekend.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already dealt with a downtown swarming with Kentucky fans once this year. No need to do it again when A) there are going to be approximately 8 million of them clogging the streets this time and B) their team is on the verge of history. They were insufferable back in November.[2]<\/a> I can\u2019t imagine what they\u2019ll be like this weekend.<\/p>\n

Nope, I\u2019ll stay up here in the northern suburbs practicing spring sports with the girls.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Kentucky, though. We\u2019re on the verge of a nightmare scenario national championship game for most of the college basketball world. Who do you root for if there is a Duke-Kentucky final and you are not a fan of either school? These are the bluest of the blue bloods over the past 25 years. They are, likely, the two most loathed programs in the game. How do you pick when it\u2019s Evil Empire 1 vs. Evil Empire 2?<\/p>\n

I suppose the right answer is that you hope that matchup does not happen. Maybe Michigan State can spin their Tom Izzo magic one more game and knock off Duke. And might Wisconsin have the perfect combination of size, experience, offense, and smarts to hang with the Wildcats for 38 minutes and then make the winning plays that Notre Dame could not make in last week\u2019s regional final?<\/p>\n

Sure, both are possible. Anything is possible in the NCAA tournament. This is an event that routinely does not end up with the best team winning the championship.<\/p>\n

But I won\u2019t be holding my breath for two upsets, let alone one Saturday.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s going to be the ultimate college basketball brand, Kentucky, where John Calipari sells his program as the finest stepping stone to the NBA, versus the most corporate program in the game, Duke, where when Coach K isn\u2019t expertly adjusting his offense to best suit the talent he has in a given year, he\u2019s thinking of how he can leverage that success into another round of speeches and books aimed at business leaders.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t bring myself to root for Duke as the final chance to prevent Kentucky from going undefeated. But neither can I want anything good to happen to UK and Calipari.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to root like hell for Wisconsin tomorrow, and then I\u2019ll spend most of Monday night watching baseball. But I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be checking in on what\u2019s going on downtown regularly.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
    \n
  1. \nEarly dismissal for Good Friday, then no school on Monday. The joys of Catholic schools!  ↩<\/a>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \nAs a reminder a Kentucky fan a couple rows behind us told the 9-year-old Duke fan directly behind us to pay attention, because this was the best team he would ever see. And this was in the first 10 minutes when KU was still in the game. TO A 9-YEAR-OLD!  ↩<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My girls go to school approximately 11 miles away from Lucas Oil Stadium. When I picked them up about an hour ago,[1] that is the closest I\u2019ll get to downtown Indy this weekend. I\u2019ve already dealt with a downtown swarming with Kentucky fans once this year. No need to do it again when A) there are going to be approximately 8 million of them clogging the streets this time and B) their team is on the verge of history. They were insufferable back in November.[2] I can\u2019t imagine what they\u2019ll be like this weekend. Nope, I\u2019ll stay up here in the northern suburbs practicing spring sports with the girls. It\u2019s not just Kentucky, though. We\u2019re on the verge of a nightmare scenario national championship game for most of the college basketball world. Who do you root for if there is a Duke-Kentucky final and you are not a fan of either school? These are the bluest of the blue bloods over the past 25 years. They are, likely, the two most loathed programs in the game. How do you pick when it\u2019s Evil Empire 1 vs. Evil Empire 2? I suppose the right answer is that you hope that matchup does not happen. Maybe Michigan State can spin their Tom Izzo magic one more game and knock off Duke. And might Wisconsin have the perfect combination of size, experience, offense, and smarts to hang with the Wildcats for 38 minutes and then make the winning plays that Notre Dame could not make in last week\u2019s regional final? Sure, both are possible. Anything is possible in the NCAA tournament. This is an event that routinely does not end up with the best team winning the championship. But I won\u2019t be holding my breath for two upsets, let alone one Saturday. So it\u2019s going to be the ultimate college basketball brand, Kentucky, where John Calipari sells his program as the finest stepping stone to the NBA, versus the most corporate program in the game, Duke, where when Coach K isn\u2019t expertly adjusting his offense to best suit the talent he has in a given year, he\u2019s thinking of how he can leverage that success into another round of speeches and books aimed at business leaders. I can\u2019t bring myself to root for Duke as the final chance to prevent Kentucky from going undefeated. But neither can I want anything good to happen to UK and Calipari. So I\u2019m going to root like hell for Wisconsin tomorrow, and then I\u2019ll spend most of Monday night watching baseball. But I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be checking in on what\u2019s going on downtown regularly. Early dismissal for Good Friday, then no school on Monday. The joys of Catholic schools!  ↩ As a reminder a Kentucky fan a couple rows behind us told the 9-year-old Duke fan directly behind us to pay attention, because this was the best team he would ever see. And this was in the first 10 minutes when KU was still in the game. TO A 9-YEAR-OLD!  ↩<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,52,74],"class_list":["post-4257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-indianapolis"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14055,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/14055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}