Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Kentucky Wins Championship


(Picture: New York Daily News).

As was widely expected, Kentucky won college basketball's National Championship on Monday night, overpowering Kansas 67-59. Kentucky now owns eight overall NCAA Championships in men's basketball. Interestingly, controversial head coach John Calipari got his first NCAA Championship by leading the "blue blood" Wildcats past Bill Self's "blue blood" Kansas Jayhawks (Kansas and Kentucky--along with North Carolina, Duke, Indiana and UCLA--are frequently referred to as college basketball "blue bloods" because, like the old East Coast WASP blue blood elites who dominated the American institutions of yesteryear, they're the privileged, elite ruling class of college basketball). In 2008, Calipari's Memphis Tigers narrowly lost in the NCAA Championship game to Kansas and Self.

Drive and Dish editors were at a wedding when the Final Four games were played on Saturday. As such, we missed Kentucky's win over Louisville, and only managed to catch the last ten minutes of Kansas' win over Ohio State. Our editors got off a plane and only returned to the Drive and Dish viewing room in time to catch the second half of Monday night's Championship game. So we don't have much to say about the game itself.

We do, however, think that college basketball is very watered down these days, and although we would have preferred to have been able to watch the Final Four, we weren't particularly thrilled about the prospect of watching Kansas and Kentucky in the Championship game. John Calipari has put together an impressive assortment of NBA-ready talent on each of his three Kentucky teams (Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky in 2009). But the main players on his teams only stick around college for one year before they bounce to the NBA. Thus, watching Kentucky has more or less become akin to watching the NBA Rising Stars Challenge.

Sorry, but it's just hard to get excited about that. We'd be hard-pressed to disagree with the following commentary from the Washington Post/Bloomberg News:

In a very real sense, the ending of this game and this season was a microcosm of what college basketball is in 2012. As soon as the final buzzer sounded, the Super Dome was filled with sound, not from celebrating fans, but from the Hollywood-like pyrotechnics the NCAA insists on bombarding people with in its attempts to glitz up an event that doesn't need to be glitzed up.

Nowadays, though, all the sound and noise fits because the national title game has the feel of an NBA all-star game, and most of the players who make it to the Final Four dream first of that game and the billboards and shoe deals that come with it rather than the game Kentucky won on Monday night.

Perhaps it is time for the NCAA to change it's cheesy post-championship theme song. Instead of "One Shining Moment," a new song: "One Moment and Done," words and music by Calipari, might be more fitting.

4 comments:

i can't get enuff said...

Parlay Larry is gay!

Popcorn Andy said...

i cant get enuff ,

Dude, Parlay Larry isn't gay. I'm not sure why you always come on here and write the same thing. Cant you think of anything else to say???

Here, check out what Larry said to somebody named coke spoon kelli a few days ago. Then try to tell me this guy sounds gay

coke spoon kelli said...

"im just hangin out here in the winn-dixie parkin lot off university blvd in jacksonville......chillaxin and walkin up to all the carz that drive up with dudes in em. i need $25 dollerz and a ride to the university.......u want a date???

April 5, 2012 1:45 AM

Parlay Larry said...

Coke spoon Kelli, um, I might be looking for a date, or, um, a massage, or something. How much for, um, a massage with, um, a happy ending???"

April 6, 2012 4:37 AM


Then look at what he said here...

"Parlay Larry said...

I'm back here in Vegas playing a trifecta right now. Just massively over tipped the cocktail waitress Bridgett. OK, I admit it. I'm tryin to get in her pants. LOL. Forget that stuff about picking up coke whores for "massages" with happy endings. I was just drunk and tired. Didin't know what I was writing. LOL. Didn't even see coke spoon kelli was in Jacksonville. I wasn't even anywhere near there, so obviously I wasn't trying to pick up any hookers in grocery store parking lots. Just a big misunderstanding. LOL."

April 6, 2012 9:15 PM


Dude doesn't sound gay to me. Sounds like a guy in Las Vegas looking to get a little somethin somethin (even if its from a hooker).

Brine Shrimp Chris said...

Popcorn Andy, I think your wrong, bro. I think Parlay Larry comes off as queer as a 3 dollar bill!!! I've got parachute pants that I haven't worn since 1984 that aren't buried as deep in the closet as Parlay Larry is!!! But we'll have that debate (and much more) weekday mornings from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM on the Popcorn Andy and Brine Shrimp Chris Morning Zoo, right here on Steubenville's rock, K-Rock 97.3!!!!!

Hey everybody, don't forget to check us out tomorrow morning when we'll be talking to Newt and Callista Gingrich, Puck from MTV's Real World San Francisco, former Ratt bass player Juan Croucier, Dr. Rockso the Rock and Roll Clown and the "yay freedom, yay American Dream chick." Plus, we'll be doing body shots in-studio with Destiny and Nikki, two hawt strippers from the Body Shop!!! Tune in to see if we can get em to make out with eachother .... LIVE and ON THE AIR ... on the Popcorn Andy and Brine Shrimp Morning Zoo!!!

Popcorn Andy said...

Popcorn Andy here from the Popcorn Andy and Brine Shrimp Chris Mornin Zoo on K-Rok 97.3. We're live and on the air. When we get back from the break, we're gonna be talking with Heather Woodberry, Miss Ashtabula County from 1993 and with George from Cigar Cigars in Cleveland.

And don't forget to check out our facebook page, where we've got highlights from yesterday's show available on podcast. Check out our interview with the former bass player from Ratt and with everybody's favorite, Dr. Rockso the Rock and Roll Clown (and screw that reality show has been a-hole Puck for flaking out and standing us up!!!).