OLD SCHOOL BLUES HIT MEMPHIS FOR SWEET 16
MEMPHIS The blues reign supreme here. I don’t mean B. B. King, the clubs on Beale Street or Sun Records. No, I’m talking blues as in college basketball blue bloods. The game between third- seeded UCLA and second- seeded Kentucky, to be specific.
Throw in top- seeded North Carolina, which plays Butler in the other Sweet 16 game, and the South Region is the Who’s Who of college basketball. Maybe even a better show than next week’s Final Four.
“The glamour names are there,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said Thursday. “I’ve been to regionals before, I think, where we’d have the one, two, three and four ( seeds). I’ve been in the Final Fours where we had three No. 1s, so I’ve seen that. But with the names that are here with North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA, the number of championships, the number of wins, that does make it a little unusual.”
By unusual, he means fantastic. For everyone involved.
“It makes it so much more fun of a matchup because of the history behind both programs and how successful they’ve both been,” UCLA forward T. J. Leaf said.
UCLA ( 11) and Kentucky ( eight) have
won the most NCAA titles, and North Carolina is tied for third at five. The Tar Heels have the market cornered on Final Fours, and only Kentucky, Kansas, Duke and Louisville have played as many NCAA tournament games as the 119 that UNC has won.
The three schools have given us some of the biggest names in the game, from Alex Groza and Adolph Rupp to Lew Alcindor and Michael Jordan to John Wooden and Dean Smith. They’ve also produced some of its most memorable moments, be it UCLA’s 88- game winning streak, North Carolina benefiting from Chris Webber’s timeout or, speaking of Fab Fives, Kentucky’s original version.
But because they play in different conferences — and in UCLA’s and North Carolina’s cases, different coasts — their paths don’t often cross. Since the 1949- 50 season, North Carolina and Kentucky have faced each other the most, 35 times, though the last game was two years ago. UCLA and Kentucky have played 13 times, with two of the meetings coming in the last two seasons. UCLA and North Carolina have played 11 times.
“North Carolina, UCLA and Kentucky should be in the same field, the same tournament, the same stuff together,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.
That it’s happening in the NCAA tournament, with at least one game and possibly two that will feature the biggest of the big names, makes it that much better.
“If you’re talking about just watching a game as a fan, darned right I’d like to watch that game,” Williams said when asked about UCLA- Kentucky, the winner of which would play North Carolina if the Tar Heels get by fourthseeded Butler in the “undercard.”
“But I’d like to watch it a heck of a lot more if I’ve got a really big interest in who we’d be playing.”
Never has a case of the blues felt so good.