Chuck Klosterman on Kentucky Basketball

Chuck Klosterman has written an intriguing article on Grantland.com about John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcat basketball team, and what it will (or at least could) mean to NCAA basketball if UK wins the National Championship on Monday.

It’s a compelling article and touches on a lot of issues facing college basketball today—overall decline in the quality of play, recruiting, and the NCAA’s stupid One and Done rule. I agree with a lot of what Klosterman has to say, but I think he’s too easy on John Calipari. Coach Cal might genuinely be a nice guy, but his past teams have been too marred by scandal (and their accomplishments vacated) for me to believe that he is clean. 

He’s right about one thing though—Kentucky should absolutely win the title this year. They are scary good.

Odds And Ends

A few bits and pieces I wanted to mention without dedicating a post to each of them:

• Although ESPN isn’t announcing it yet, it looks like Memphis head basketball coach John Calipari will be heading to Kentucky. I don’t like Calipari at all, but he’s an incredible recruiter, and depending on how many of his Memphis recruits followed him to Kentucky, the Wildcats could become an overnight National Championship contender. After a down year, this is a step in the right direction for the SEC.
• I was glad to see that Chipper Jones signed a contract extension with the Braves that will last through 2012, which basically means that he’ll spend his entire career as a Brave. Injury problems are always an issue with Chipper, but as he showed last year, he’s still one of the best hitters in the game when healthy.
• We finished our taxes last night, and let’s just say that it didn’t go as well as last year. That “…Render unto Caesar…” verse isn’t looking too appealing at the moment.
  

Rock Chalk

Well, after a dismal start, I ended up doing fairly well in the pools I joined thanks in large part to the Kansas Jayhawks winning the National Championship over the Memphis Tigers 75-68 in overtime.

Of course, depending on how you look at it, maybe it’s Memphis who I should be thanking. The Tigers led by nine with just over two minutes to play, but missed four of their last five free throw attempts which ultimately gave Mario Chalmers the opportunity to tie up the game with a dramatic three pointer as time expired.

I feel particularly vindicated because I picked Kansas to win the National Championship back in January, and (along with a lot of other people) thought Memphis’ poor free throw shooting would eventually catch up with them and prevent them from winning it all.

Incidentally, I can’t stand Memphis head coach John Calipari, and it has annoyed me all season the way he has brushed off the Tigers’ free throw shooting woes as a non-issue. I wonder if he’s changed his mind now.

It was a fun college basketball season, and it was topped off by a great Championship Game.

Now comes my least favorite part of the college season—when a bunch of foolish underclassmen leave school early for the NBA and are never heard from again. Scotty Thurman, anyone?