Well, wouldn't you know it - of those 7 local teams, 3 made it to Final Four. And! 2 are from here in Kentucky - so congratulations to the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville basketball teams!
And as soon as the UK/Baylor game ended on Sunday afternoon, the Facebook posts were about nothing but the impending game between the University and Kentucky and the University of Louisville - on Saturday at 6:00pm!
The first, most proud, and most unifying of these posts was:
But it wasn't long before all of these started (these are two of my favorites):
So, it appears as if most of my Facebook friends are a bit biased.
The annual regular season game between these two teams is aptly named "The Battle of the Bluegrass" and it dates back to their first meeting in 1913. It wasn't until the 1980's that they started playing one another each year, though. (I don't understand the divisions and conferences and stuff like that so I'm not going to pretend I do.) Of 43 games, UK has won 29 of them leaving only 14 for the poor Cards. Of all of these games, only 4 of them have been NCAA tournament games (and they each have 2 W's in that category). Saturday will be the very first time these two teams have ever met in the Final Four! I think this counts as Kentucky history, don't you?
So, although it might be silly for a girl that has gone to nearly every school BUT either of these, I'm ridiculously excited to watch it all go down. And, again, I'd sure like UK to win. I think it has something to do with their name...
Up here in Northern Kentucky, we cannot escape the March Madness excitement. After all, 7 or the Sweet 16 NCAA basketball teams are from right around here. (Ohio: OSU, OU, UC, and Xavier. Kentucky: UK and UL. Indiana: IU.) Eventually they’ll all eliminate one another but, for the time being, people all over the area are having conflicting feelings. And, unfortunately, I’m one of them – over one game in particular.
On Friday night at 9:45 in Atlanta, GA, the #4 seed Indiana University (27-8) takes on the #1 seed University of Kentucky (34-2).
Now, I’m not a basketball maniac, but I have many fond childhood memories of watching UK basketball in the 1990’s when they were led by Rick Pitino. Our teachers would even let us watch the UK tournament games during class time if we promised to be quiet and do our work at the same time. While they’ve made it to the tournament for all but one year since 1992, they haven’t won since 1998.
And Indiana University… Well, that’s my school. I am an officially enrolled graduate student at Indiana University, although I’m living in Kentucky. Growing up in KY, I always hated IU out of principle and laughed at jokes about how stupid those Hoosiers are. I couldn’t predict that a life in Rabbit Hash would one day lead me to pursue a PhD in Folklore and that the only place in the US to do that is IU.
Up until becoming a student there, I have no recollection of how well the basketball team performed. All I remember is that they had an angry coach named Bobby Knight who was eventually fired. And didn’t he throw chairs?
Yep!
I also remember that during my first year at IU, the basketball coach was fired because of recruitment violations. It was quite a shame since they were doing pretty well that year. They have struggled since so I lost interest while I was living up there (unless I happened to find myself standing next to one of the players on the campus busses, admiring both his height and his fancy noise cancelling headphones). Anyway, it appears that they’ve picked up the pace and are making their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2002.
IU basketball really piqued my interest, however, on December 10 when, thanks to my new smartphone, I was obsessively checking Facebook while out to dinner with Becky and her sister. On that night, I noticed a disturbance: my Kentucky friends were sad and my Indiana friends were happy, but all of them appeared to be rioting.
And here's why:
Incidentally, this was the same night that my Ohio friends were discussing the knock-down, drag-out Crosstown Shootout between two other Sweet 16 teams, UC and Xavier:
Anyway, while fans all over Kentucky were reacting like this:
I love this meme.
The Hoosiers were creating "rap" videos:
This game was UK's only loss all season (until that small matter of the SEC tournament game that they lost on March 11) and, because of that, Kentucky has been a pretty happy, blue-colored place to live.
So, here I am on my porch in Kentucky looking across the Ohio River at Indiana...
(with my dogs) in my camouflage UK hat and IU hoodie questioning my allegiance to both.
And after much pondering, it is now painfully aware to me that wherever I go and whatever school I attend or end up teaching for, I will always be a Kentucky girl - and with that comes the inevitable blue blood that happens to pulse through my veins every March.
So, sorry future alma mater and Go Big Blue! (Will this affect my grade...?)
