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.

Tidbits, '09 Part 2

On Friday, Drive and Dish published the maiden 2009 edition of our ever-popular Tidbits series. As it happens, our Friday Tidbits edition was so well received that the Drive and Dish editors have ordered a special impromptu Tuesday edition of Tidbits.

So with out any further ado, we present the second edition of Tidbits for 2009:

1. -- Hoopraker provides pre-game analysis of tonight's marquee Big Ten games: Michigan at Penn State and Ohio State at No. 25 Illinois.


2. -- Fresh off of Sudnay's Northwestern upset of then No. 18 (now No. 21) Minnesota, Lake the Posts discusses the lack of student support for the Northwestern basketball program, ponders what it will take for the Wildcats to fill the traditionally empty seats of NU's Welsh-Ryan Arena and calls for the firing of Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody.

(Photo: Lake the Posts)

Drive and Dish has long held the position that Northwestern basketball has the potential to rise from its decades-long stay in college basketball's wilderness and become a respectable, competitive program -- much like Northwestern football has done. Welsh-Ryan Arena is an old school, band box-style gym that could provide the Wildcats with an intimidating home court advantage, were it ever to fill up with boisterous Northwestern students/fans. But as long as alumni and fans of Northwestern's opponents continue to outnumber Wildcats supporters in Welsh-Ryan's stands, Northwestern basketball will likely continue to flounder.

If Northwestern could ever establish a consistent home court advantage, the 'Cats would almost certainly pull a few more of their close games out. Bill Carmody's system allows Northwestern to slow their opponents down and keep games close. A hostile Welsh-Ryan arena could spell the difference between Northwestern losing even more nail-biters, or finally starting to win a few (as they did against Minnesota) -- which would allow them to build some momentum. And that could be the difference between finishing with a winning record, or finishing with yet another losing record.

More:

On a personal note, when yours truly, Trashtalk Superstar, was forced to leave the grind of life as a Division III college basketball walkon in order to return home to Chicagoland for surgery in February 1996, I made my first visit to Welsh-Ryan Arena to watch then-first year head coach Tom Izzo lead his Michigan State team into battle against Northwestern. I had been in downtown Chicago that afternoon/evening and made a last minute decision to attempt to check out the MSU Northwestern game (despite the fact that I was by myself ). Due to the hasty nature of my decision, I didn't walk through the Welsh-Ryan turnstiles until a little past the halfway point of the first half. To my surprise, the kind folks at Welsh-Ryan Arena granted me admission free of charge, and I hurried into the gym where I took a courtside seat amidst a sea of Michigan State alumni and fans. After that night, I would go on to make several last minute decisions to shoot up to Evanston in order to check out Northwestern games. And since I almost usually arrived late, I almost never paid to get into the games.

Over the years, the promise of being able to breeze into cheap (possibly free) first rate seats to watch Northwestern take on the Big Ten's best teams afforded me many opportunities to convince family and friends to make the trek to E-Town to take in NU basketball games (often at the last minute).

So Northwestern students' apathy for their basketball team has worked out well for yours truly, as it's allowed me to waltz into several NU games on little more than a whim (and often for free). And the perpetually half-full stands at Welsh-Ryan have allowed me to enjoy the spoils of reliably available prime seating.

But I'd love to see Northwestern become a winning basketball program that plays in front of a consistently full (or close to full) Welsh-Ryan Arena. Sure, I wouldn't be able to stroll into Welsh-Ryan Arena at the last minute any longer, but it would be a vast improvement for Northwestern basketball.


3. -- Butler tops The CollegeInsider.com's Mid Major Top 25. St. Mary's, Gonzaga, Davidson and Illinois State round out the top 5.


4. -- Allen Vaughan of the Springfield, MO, News-Leader catches Kansas head coach Bill Self skirting an NCAA rule:

"That's what was so curious when Kansas coach Bill Self came rolling
through. I was puzzled because it's an evaluation period in the NCAA's eyes, meaning coaches and recruits can have no contact, except for an exchange of greetings.

Of course, (John) Wall is the top uncommitted recruit. Self had to know I was a reporter and even said hello to me.

I just thought he'd stand there, maybe even wave to Wall to let him know he was there. Instead, when the Holy Rams poured out of the locker room, Self was excited:

Self: "Johnny, great win man. You really played well."

Wall: "Thanks."

More about past questionable recruiting practices by Kansas assistant coach Kurtis Townsend via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer here (a liquored-up Drive and Dish writer/editor commented on the questionable writing on display in the linked Post-Intelligencer article here).


5. -- Boston University's John Holland played all 60 minutes of Monday's four overtime BU win over Stony Brook (the final score was Boston U 99, Stony Brook 97). Holland's teammate, Jake O'Brien played 56 minutes. Stony Brook's Bryan Dougher played 57 minutes.


6. -- Caulton Tudor of the Raleigh News & Observer discusses what it means for Wake Forest to be ranked No. 1, and states that it means a lot more to be ranked No. 1 in April than it does in January (obviously).


7. -- Finally, since every man, woman and child in America is apparently caught up in the rapture of Inauguration Day fever, Drive and Dish has decided to stand out from the crowd by turning our attention across the Atlantic, and to the workout habits of the President of France. Apparently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy works out his lower abdominal and pelvic muscles to help him prevent embarrassing pre-mature *********** when engaged in amorous activity with his wife, supermodel/singer Carla Bruni. The Mail-Online profiles Julie Imperiali, "the female personal trainer who helps (French) President Sarkozy improve his sex life with his supermodel wife."

Drive and Dish's editors eschew the kind of worship of, and lavishing of attention on, attractive females which seems to prevail at websites that appeal to heavily male audiences (including sports websites and blogs). Drive and Dish is a basketball blog, and as such, we focus on basketball, with the occasional foray into subject matter outside our usual reach. We realize that blogs can increase their traffic by posting pictures of hot girls -- Drive and Dish was even the accidental beneficiary of such traffic after we included a picture of the UCLA cheerleaders/dance team in a post that chronicled UCLA's march to the Final Four -- but we remain committed to our original vision of carving out an online niche by dishing straightforward, non-snarky/catty/sardonic, basketball-intense commentary with a slightly whimsical -- but not derisive, or haterade guzzling -- tone (actually, that part of the vision evolved over time, as we started out by blogging with a healthy amount of sarcasm, derision and ... well, trash talk [more here, here, here, and here], but eventually matured and grew wary of the snarkiness and playa-hating that infests many sports-oriented websites and blogs, as well as the shtick-before sports ethos of ESPN).

Additionally, Drive and Dish editors tend to be worldly, sophisticated, young men of learning and action. In that regard, we're not entirely unlike James Bond. Or Rhett Butler. Or Han Solo. What's more, we're young enough to be in our primes, yet old/experienced enough to have learned a few things along the way. Thus, we naturally avoid the common male pitfall of putting "hot" females (or any females, for that matter) on pedestals.

And most of us have had our share of hot girls over the years, which has helped us learn several essential truths about "the ladies" which have generally evaded and bedeviled males for eons. Not that we're unique in that regard, of course. But to appropriate a common saying, once you know how sausage is made, well ... you may (or may not) still have a taste for sausage, but sausage definitely loses some of its luster. As such, Drive and Dish recognizes that attractive females may be the centerpiece around which our sex-obsessed society seemingly revolves, but we remain mindful of an essential secret: there's really nothing all that special about "hot chicks." Sure, they know how to carry themselves, they know how to get attention and they know how to create a mystique. But deep inside, they're just like all other females (although they're probably more likely to have princess mentalities). What's more, they're just as full of insecurities, jealousies and neuroses as anyone else.

So Drive and Dish never treats "hot" females with awe, lustfulness or worship.

Besides, the incessant ogling of attractive females on the internet -- especially on sports-based websites and blogs -- is really geeky.

All that said, the Drive and Dish editors have taken the official position that President Sarkozy's trainer, Julie Imperiali, is infinitely hotter than his supermodel/singer/coke-whore looking wife, Carla Bruni.

One has to wonder about those training sessions.

Kansas' Rush, Arthur Declare for NBA Draft

A little over one week removed from winning the NCAA National Championship in Men's basketball, Kansas' Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur have entered the NBA draft. National Championship game hero, Mario Chalmers, has yet to declare his intentions.

Rush's and Arthur's decisions hardly came as a surprise to Kansas coach Bill Self:

"We knew going into the season ... this particular day was coming," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Brandon is at a point that it's time for him to move on and Shady [Arthur] owes it to himself to investigate. There's no surprises on what transpired today."

Memphis freshman point guard Derrick Rose declared for the draft earlier this week.

Pickens, Oklahoma State Search For "Big Name" Coach

Now that Kansas' Bill Self has declined their offer, Oklahoma State and multi billionaire booster T. Boone Pickens are back on the hunt for a "big name" coach to fill the Cowboys' vacant men's basketball head coaching position.

Pickens donated $ 290 million to his alma matter, $265 million of which went to the school's athletic department. And thanks to Pickens' management, the value his gift to athletic department has grown to over $300 million.

What's more, Pickens has stated that he'll do "whatever it takes" to make Oklahoma State into a sports juggernaut.

But Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel says that the vast power which Mr. Pickens wields at Oklahoma State may, ultimately, serve as a double edged sword for the university's athletic department:

"Pickens is the George Steinbrenner of college athletics, capable of overriding whatever remaining rationality there is in the hiring and firing game. While all schools increasingly make rash decisions – somewhat justifiable considering the salaries today’s coaches make – they almost always need boosters, the athletic director and perhaps the school president to sign off on it.

At OSU who is crossing Pickens? The school president who has watched Pickens’ original donation of $165 turn into $300 million in a fund managed by no less than Pickens? The athletic director, Mike Holder, who just happens to be an old quail hunting buddy of you know who? How about the other boosters who would have to get into a money burning contest with Pickens just as oil soars past $110 per barrel?

This is T. Boone Pickens University right now and everyone knows it, including every prospective coach."

Self to Stay at Kansas

Bill Self is staying at Kansas. The speculation about Self's interest in the vacant men's basketball head coaching position at Oklahoma State turned out to be much ado about nothing.

Oklahoma State attempted to lure the coach of the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks to become its new men's basketball coach. And thanks to the deep pockets of multi-billionaire Oklahoma State donor T. Boone Pickens, Oklahoma State was reportedly prepared to offer Self $4 million per season and a $6 million signing bonus.

But after meeting with Oklahoma State Athletic Director Mike Holder, Self returned to Lawrence, KS, and hammered out a new contract with KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins. Self then informed Holder of his decision to remain at Kansas.

Self told the Associated Press:

"There was never serious interest on our part in leaving the University of Kansas."

Terms of Self's new Kansas contract were not announced. And according to Self, they have yet to be officially agreed upon.

The Kansas City Star reports that Self and Kansas have only agreed to "ball park figures."

But it appears clear that Self will be well compensated at KU:

"(Kansas) Chancellor Robert Hemenway declared Self would be the Jayhawks’ coach “for a long time to come.”

“Bill is going to be compensated to the highest level,” KU athletic director Lew Perkins said."

Oklahoma State to Pursue Bill Self

By Trashtalk Superstar

Representatives from Oklahoma State University have stated that the university intends to pursue Kansas' Bill Self to fill its men's basketball head coaching vacancy. Self, an Oklahoma State alumnus and a former OSU starting point guard, coached Kansas to the National Championship Monday night.

Self has stated that he plans to meet with Kansas officials to talk about a contract extension:

"What I’d like to have is like everybody’d like to have,” Self said. “I’d like to have some security. I don’t know what even Kansas would remotely be talking (about). We haven’t even talked about that. When I say security, I mean years, so hopefully that’ll happen.”

Last year, Kansas awarded Self a five-year contract extension. He makes $1.3 million in base salary and an additional $350,000 each year if he meets incentives.

But Oklahoma State has deep pockets, courtesy of billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who donated $165 million--which has now grown to $300 million--to the Cowboy’s athletic department. As the Denver Post notes:

"Oklahoma State is prepared to offer Self a salary of $4 million a year, plus a $6 million signing bonus. That would not only nearly triple the $1.375 million he makes at Kansas but would fly past the $3.5 million paid the current highest-paid coach, Florida's Billy Donovan."

But despite Oklahoma State's vast financial reserves--and T. Boone Pickens' largess--it would be surprising to see Bill Self leave Kansas.

When Self left Illinois to take over the Jayhawks in 2003, he proclaimed Kansas to be his "dream job." And while Self may be an Oklahoma State alum, a former Oklahoma State standout point guard, a former Oklahoma State assistant coach and a native Oklahoman, it would be difficult to imagine a scenario in which he would leave a program as storied as Kansas--especially now that he's won a National Championship in Lawrence--for the prospect of undertaking a rebuilding campaign at a conference rival institution.

Most likely, Self will use Oklahoma State's offer as a bargaining chip to renegotiate his contract with Kansas. Self's annual salary of $1.3 million still trails football coach Mark Mangino's $1.5 million.

But in a year in which there have been few high profile off season coaching changes, Oklahoma State's pursuit of Bill Self gives college basketball writers and talking heads something to talk about for a couple of days, now that the NCAA Tournament is over.

Kansas Wins National Championship

By Trashtalk Superstar

Last night, Kansas beat Memphis 75-68 in overtime to win the 2008 NCAA National Championship. The Jayhawks overcame a 9 point deficeit in the final 2:12 minutes of regulation to tie the game--thanks to a Mario Chalmers three pointer with 2.1 seconds left on the clock--and force the overtime period. But in overtime, Kansas jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back.

As the Kansas City Star notes, Kansas senior Russell Robinson opined:

"You couldn't have written it any better."

In a year in which all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four (for first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament), many observers were surprised by how uncompetitive Saturday's Semifinal games ultimately proved to be. Despite many prognosticators' high expectations for a memorable Final Four, Memphis and Kansas had--for all intents and purposes--run their respective opponents (UCLA and North Carolina) off the floor. And on a larger scale, most observers were similarly disappointed by the lack of competitiveness of this year's Elite 8 and Sweet 16.

If 2006 was the year of the Cinderella, 2008 was the year of the blowout win by the higher seeded team.

But last night's Championship Game provided enough excitement and drama to make up for an otherwise disappointing Final Four.

Yet despite the game's dramatic finish, things didn't go according to plan for Memphis and Kansas:

"This was not the smooth-running, fast-paced, high-scoring game everyone was expecting to see. As happens more often as not, things didn't quite work out the way they had been envisioned. The 2008 NCAA Tournament Championship Game was such a thing...

The Memphis Tigers were denied passage to the lane most of the night. Kansas owned the paint on the opposite end of the court, playing their regular game. Even so, the game remained tight throughout, aided by some sloppy ball handling by both teams. Kansas was not hitting three-pointers and Memphis was. And Derrick Rose, Memphis' second leading scorer, went cold for 24 and a half minutes (16 and a half in the first half).

Memphis was definitely out of sync. Memphis' Joey Dorsey was not blocking out Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson like he did all those other big guys on those other teams. Kansas was simply denying Memphis their game."

(Hat tip: Associated Content).

More:

"And then Memphis' two best shooting guards, Derrick Rose, who had come alive with 12 minutes to go in the game and score a dozen points, and Chris Douglas-Roberts missed 4-5 from the line, giving Kansas a chance to tie the game with just a few seconds to go. And they did. With two seconds to go, Mario Chalmers hit an off-balanced three-pointer to tie the game. Memphis could not hit a subsequent half-court shot and the game went into Overtime.

Kansas immediately stole the ball -- after Memphis won the tip -- and scored. The momentum was all in Kansas' favor. Memphis "controlled chaos" style of basketball had lost its control. Kansas went on to win, 75-68."

Bill Self Gets a Final Four of His Own

By Trashtalk Superstar

In yesterday's Arlington Heights, IL, Daily Herald, Lindsay Willhite wrote about the bumpy road that Kansas coach Bill Self has traveled to get to his first Final Four.

Prior to becoming the head basketball coach at Kansas in 2003, Bill Self was the head basketball coach at Illinois. But before he left Illinois, Self recruited all of the players who ended up playing key roles in Illinois' march to the 2005 Final Four. Yet the Illini's success was bittersweet for Self: he had to watch his former Illini players revel in the glory of the '05 Final Four, as his Kansas squad had been eliminated by Bucknell in the Tournament's first round.

And the hits didn't stop in '05. Kansas also lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2006, this time to Bradley.

What's more, Self's highly regarded Kansas team fell short of the Final Four last year as well (despite having been widely considered a probable Final Four contestant).

So one would expect Bill Self to be having a grand old time, now that he's finally got a team in the Final Four. But Bill Self is, once again, having to deal with the past.

Kansas will face North Carolina in Saturday's opening game of the Final Four. And North Carolina just happens to be coached by Roy Williams -- the guy who Self replaced at Kansas after he (Williams) bolted for Chapel Hill.

Self tells Willhite:

"Fans will make a big deal out of (Kansas vs. Roy Williams)," Self said. "And I said this (Sunday), When people are upset that you leave -- and I've gone through this myself and of course he went through it at a very high level -- it's a backhanded compliment because they didn't want you to."

And Self went on address the "X factor" that helped convince him to leave Illinois for Kansas five years ago:

"I've said all along, the reason we left was not to switch teams," Self said. "If that had been the case, we would have definitely stayed with the kids we knew and kids we loved and a talented group. We had that team coming back plus Charlie Villanueva committed.

"I expected (Illinois' Final Four run) to happen … but it was tough watching them play because I know I could have been a part of that. But it was also rewarding knowing you brought those guys in and that they've thrived in a new system and performed very well.

"I just kept telling myself: Hey, we did it for the long run, and this is the long run."

It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

Over the weekend, sixteen basketball teams battled for the chance to be part of college basketball's Final Four. Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State and UCLA are packing for Atlanta. Butler, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Southern Illinois, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UNLV, USC and Vanderbilt had to pack up and go home.

This year's Sweet Sixteen was one of the most exciting in recent memory. There were enough close games and comeback wins to keep even casual sports fans glued to their televisions.

But for all the on court drama, the real action in college basketball goes on behind the scenes. NCAA Division I basketball is a ruthless business. The following articles touch on the recruitment of prospective student athletes. Read and enjoy (note that four programs which were Sweet Sixteen participants receive mention):

ESPN-Pat Forde

Seattle Post Intelligencer



Edit: (3:45am)

Man, I knew that the old media i.e., newspapers, magazines and the big three television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC)- were losing market share (just today Life magazine announced that it's folding shop: thanks, largely, to new media "punks" like us), but damn! The Seattle Post Intelligencer must really be being pinched. Apparently, they can no longer afford to employ copy editors. In the above linked article, the author mistakenly refers to Michigan's early 1990's basketball teams as the "Fab Four." The 1992 and '93 Michigan Wolverines were called the "Fab Five." Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King = five guys. "Fab Four?" The "Fab Four" were the seminal sixties pop/rock act, the Beatles. I probably couldn't name five Beatles songs, but I still know the difference between John, Paul, Ringo & George and Chris, Jalen, Juwan, Ray and Jimmy.

Not only is this guy culturally illiterate, he's (apparently) lazy. Here's a tip: If you don't KNOW something for sure, look the sh*# up, bro.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to hate on the writer. And the information contained in the article is top notch. That's why I dug it up from the Seattle PI's archives.

The thing that really got me was the author's apparent ignorance of the rules of basic (middle school/junior high school) grammar. Sentences should not end in prepositions. A competent writer would never end a sentence by referring to where something is "at."

And, although it may seem like nitpicking, there is no such word as "lastly." There's "last" and there's "finally." But the combination of those two words into "lastly" is a rookie error.

It would be one thing for these types of errors to appear in some schmuck's blog. But this guy is a journalist who writes for a major American newspaper. The guy is a PROFESSIONAL WRITER. I'm not a big fan of the widespread use by internet writers/posters/commenters of the abbreviated term WTF?! But in this instance, WTF!?! seems appropriate.

It's just amazing to see how far the bar has been lowered. This guy is writing for one of the nation's premier newspapers. And he appears to be a good reporter. But his sloppy writing causes me to wonder why someone didn't catch and correct his errors (not to mention how someone whose writing leaves so much to be desired could land a gig at the Post Intelligencer).

Abraham Lincoln didn't have much formal "schoolin,'" but he wrote the Gettysburg Address. Hemingway didn't go to college, but he was one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Hell, my grandmother didn't get to go to college, but she'd never make the kind of errors that this cat made.

I knew that the American schools were getting worse, but I guess I didn't appreciate just how bad they actually are.

Note: This "edit" was done at 3:45 am when I was, admittedly, not exactly on top of my game (and had just returned from socializing in a few Windy City speakeasies). But still, the Seattle Post Intelligencer is slacking.

After All These Years

By Have Jumpshot Will Travel (a.k.a. Trashtalk Superstar)

For years, Chicago area college basketball fans have hoped for, clamored for and campaigned for an annual game between DePaul and Illinois. And for years DePaul and Illinois have refused to play each other.

DePaul was an elite national power in college basketball during the 1970's and 1980's. Illinois became a nationally prominent program in the early to mid 80's, and has (save for a stretch in the early to mid 90's) been one ever since. An annual match up between the only two major programs (Northwestern doesn't count) in the nation's fifth most populated state would, on the surface, seem like a natural.

So why do they refuse to play each other?

Politics.

And history.

In the 1970's DePaul emerged as a powerhouse on the national scene after years of irrelevance. Legendary DePaul coach Ray Meyer's Blue Demons had endured decades of mediocrity (and occasional futility) after center George Mikan graduated in the 1940's. Mikan went on to become the NBA's first superstar big man, but it took DePaul thirty years to return to relevance after Mikan departed.

DePaul's fortunes changed when Meyer began to attract top flight players from Chicago's storied Public League. Players like Terry Cummings, Skip Dillard, Teddy Grubbs and the legendary Mark Aguirre migrated north to DePaul's Lincoln Park (Chicago) campus from the South and West sides of the city. Meyer took DePaul to the Final Four in 1979 and had the Blue Demons ranked #1 for much of the 1980 regular season.

But while Chicago players turned DePaul into a national power, Illinois spent the 70's mired in mediocrity and unable to attract Chicago players to its downstate Champaign-Urbana campus.

However, Illinois turned the tables in the 1980's under the stewardship of coach Lou Henson (thanks, in large part, to assistant coach Jimmy Collins' deep Chicago connections/ties [shadiness?]). After having been frozen out by Chicago coaches and players for more than twenty years, Illinois quickly became the destination of choice for elite players from the Chicago Public League.

With Champaign as the new "place to be" for top flight Chi-Town talent, it wasn't long before Illinois started to make some noise in the NCAA Tournament. The 1984 Fighting Illini made it to the Elite Eight and came within one referee's whistle from beating Kentucky in Rupp Arena (Kentucky's home court) and making it to the Final Four. So controversial was the call that allowed Kentucky to escape Illinois and advance to the '84 Final Four, that the NCAA subsequently banned teams from playing on their home courts in the NCAA Tournament.

But the disappointment of the Elite Eight aside, 1984 marked Illinois' official arrival on the national scene. By the end of the decade, the Illini had a roster stocked with McDonald's All Americans and future NBA first round draft picks -- all of whom hailed from the state of Illinois (and the Chicago area in particular). And Illinois, which hadn't been to a Final Four since the 1950's, steamrolled its way to the Final Four in 1989.

However, Illinois' gain was DePaul's loss. After Ray Meyer's retirement in 1984, DePaul found it nearly impossible to recruit players from Chicago. DePaul managed to remain a national power through the end of the decade, but by the late 80's, Ray Meyer's replacement -- his son, coach Joey Meyer -- had no Chicago Public League players on scholarship. And it had become common knowledge in Chicago basketball circles that a boycott (unofficial) against DePaul was being enforced by powerful Public League coaches.

Illinois had been on a meteoric rise throughout the 1980's. And after having locked down the Chicago Public League and having reached the '89 Final Four, the Illini appeared to be destined for great things in the 1990's.

But the NCAA put Illinois on probation in the early 90's, and as a result, Lou Henson spent the twilight of his Illinois career with a program that finished in middle of the Big Ten pack year after year, and which made one early exit from the NCAA Tournament after another.

And after it became obvious that Illinois was likely to be left out of the 1996 NCAA Tournament, Illinois pressured Henson to retire. Thus, Lou Henson -- the man who had turned Illinois into a nationally prominent basketball program -- spent the final moments of his Illinois career patrolling the sidelines in a half full Assembly Hall, as his Illini faltered in an embarrassing home loss to Alabama in the first round of the '96 N.I.T.

As for DePaul, Joey Meyer's program never regained the level of prominence that they had enjoyed in the 70's and 80's. Meyer did, however, manage to keep the program respectable throughout the early and mid 90's. And although DePaul had ceased being fixture in the NCAA Tournament, they still made it to the dance every other year or so. And in the years in which they did not get invited to the NCAA Tournament, they almost always made it to the N.I.T.

But DePaul alumni and fans had become restless. They still viewed DePaul as a college basketball power. And they were demanding a return to the glory days. What's more, they increasingly attributed DePaul's fall from elite status to one source: Joey Meyer. To DePaul partisans, Meyer's failure to rope in the Chicago Public League stars -- combined with what they considered to be his questionable in-game coaching prowess -- had been the downfall of the program.

And after DePaul finished with a sub .500 record in 1997, the university pushed Joey Meyer out the door.

By 1998, DePaul and Illinois both had new coaches in Pat Kennedy and Lon Kruger, respectively. Kennedy's first recruiting class included Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons and Lance Williams: the three top players from the Chicago Public League in the class of 1998. And within the blink of an eye, Kennedy and DePaul had the Public League on virtual lock down.

Whispers of shady dealings and questionable recruiting practices at DePaul began to circulate. And those whispers got louder with each successive Pat Kennedy recruiting haul. In three short years, Pat Kennedy had completely turned the tables and become the de facto king of basketball recruiting in the city of Chicago.

Illinois' Kruger, by contrast, was boycotted by the Public League coaches from the minute he set foot in Champaign in 1996. And although Illinois made a quick return to prominence under Kruger -- including winning the Big Ten title in 1998 -- Chicago remained hostile to Illinois and to Kruger, in particular.

Unable to sign a single player out of Chicago, Lon Kruger began to look downstate for talent.

Fortunately for Kruger and the Illini, downstate Illinois was full of basketball talent in the mid and late 1990's.

Peoria Manual won an unprecedented four consecutive Illinois state championships from 1994 to 1997 (which is all the more impressive when one considers the caliber of talent that inhabited high school basketball in Illinois during those years -- including future NBA players Kevin Garnett, Melvin Ely, Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons, Tyrone Nesby, Antoine Walker, Corey Maggette, etc). Kruger signed a trio of Peoria Manual stars from the Rams' 1997 IHSA Class AA championship team: Sergio McClain, Marcus Griffin and McDonald's All American Frank Williams (McClain and Griffin graduated from Peoria Manual in 1997; Williams graduated in 1998). In 1999, Kruger signed another McDonald's All American from downstate Illinois -- future NBA forward Brian Cook of Lincoln, IL.

On the surface, Lon Kruger seemed to have the Illinois program in great shape. But Kruger found the hostility that he encountered, courtesy of Chicago's basketball power brokers, to be more than he could handle. And when the NBA came calling in 2000, Lon Kruger left Illinois to become the head coach of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.

Bill Self replaced Lon Kruger at Illinois before the 2000/'01 season. And with a roster comprised primarily of downstate players (courtesy of Lon Kruger), Self took Illinois to the Elite Eight in 2002.

Self left Illinois for Kansas in 2003, but Illinois finished 37-2, spent most of the season ranked #1 and went to the Final Four -- where they lost to North Carolina in the NCAA Championship game -- under new coach Bruce Weber in 2005.

And coming into this season, Illinois had the second most wins of any college basketball program this decade, second only to Duke. But even after all of Illinois' recent success, Bruce Weber absolutely has not been able to recruit in Chicago.

DePaul is no longer a national power. But they're slowly starting to attract relatively highly regarded recruits -- including players from Chicago.

Illinois and DePaul have long battled each other for the services of Chicago's best high school basketball players. At least with regard to recruiting, the two schools have been bitter rivals for nearly thirty years.

And that's why they absolutely refuse to take their bitter rivalry to the place where it most belongs: the basketball court.

But guess what?

After Illinois loses to Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament tonight, and after they find themselves having been left out of the NCAA Tournament this Sunday, the Illini will accept a bid to the NIT.

DePaul will also be in the NIT.

And most likely, Illinois and DePaul will -- at long last -- face each other on the basketball court ... in the NIT.

Edit (3/27/07):

My prediction turned out to be off base. Illinois did get invited to the NCAA Tournament. However, they blew a 14 point second half lead (with only 2:00 minutes left to play, no less!) and ended up losing to Virginia Tech in the Tournament's first round. DePaul lost to Kansas State in the first round of the NIT.