I was shocked that Louisville, ranked #4 in the country, would get a 4 seed. They just dominated the 1 seed, Washington, that seemingly got the seed by being the only Western team anywhere close to the elite teams. Washington is a good team (87 points a game), but Louisville was seriously disrespected. They won the game 93-79. They took over from point where it iwas 32-31 Washington, and the next time the Huskies could take a breath, it was 50-36 Louisville.

I used to be a UL fan, from 1979 until the early 90’s, when I went to an SEC tourney in 93 with my Dad and brothers, and Kentucky won and went to the final four, then won the championship in 96 and 98 (and runner up in 97). I was in Louisville at Seminary 1978-81, so this is when I got hooked on Louisville (Darrell Griffith was the big star, All-American. I often wonder what he would have benefitted from the 3 pointer (not in use yet), becuase he could really light it up from outside, but he was a definite POWER GUARD as well, often faking the outside jumper and then driving and slamming it home. The three may have dissuaded him from taking the driving route as much. Who knows? When we moved to Cincinnati in 1985, the Cincinnati Bearcats were just about to hire Bob Huggins, and start their return to prominence. When they went to the final four in 92, I was really into it. They lost to the Fab Five of Michigan when the fab were all freshmen in that final four. (The fab 5 were to lose two straight championship games that year and the next— the next year it was Kentucky they beat in the final four to get to the final, so I was no fab five fan. In 96, Cincinnati was back in the hunt, and lost to MIssisippi State, who had beaten Kentucky in the SEC tourney championship game for Kentucky’s second loss of the season. If they had beaten Miss.St. and then met Syracuse (who had just beaten Louisville), they could well have beaten Syracuse and met Kentucky in the final (or Mississippi State could have met Kentucky again in the NCAA final. Syracuse and Raschid Wallace won the games though, and then Kentucky won the final.

That trio of favorite teams of mine, Louisville , Cincinnati, and Kentucky, is an absolute rarity, since all three of those teams fan bases hate the other two teams like they hate no others (at least the hatred for Kentucky is pretty rabid among Cincinnati fans and Louisville fans — and Louisville’s coach , Pittino, of course, took Kentucky to an elite 8, a final four, and 2 championship games)

Anyway, it was fun seeing Cincinnati and Kentucky play for the first time since 90. This time, there was no problem pulling for UK. I’m died in the wool now after 12 years of hard rooting. But I still relish the matchups between UK and Louisville or Cincinnati.