March Madness Never Disappoints

I say it every year and I'm never wrong... it just never disappoints. You hear it from me every year because it’s true every year: nothing ever lives up the hype, except March Madness, which always lives up to the hype. That’s why Day 1 of the Madness is almost always one of the best days of the year. And yesterday was no exception.

Incredible day for basketball fans everywhere. Well almost everywhere. Unless, of course, you’re a member of  the BBN. Unless of course you’re in Lex Vegas right now. If you’re listening in Lexington right now, you’re probably also trying to log into a message board to rage. Except that you can’t because the BBN are crashing the BBN message boards, and they better get them back up because the next step for the BBN is hitting the streets with pitchforks and torches.

If you're trying to get into a Kentucky message board right and you can't... let me help you out... they're blaming Cal. They're done with Cal. And I'm not really sure he's ever gonna be able to win the BBN back. Oh by the way, as a good friend hit me with the second that game ended, that was a wild jungle karma result.

Because both coaches, Greg Kampe and john Calipari came on this week, and both crushed their interviews.  And then Kampe and Oakland crushed the Big Blue Nation’s big blue dreams, because while they were young, Kentucky was talented as well.   And Cal said during the interview this team was built for March. Choc and I were talking before the tourney started and I said, man, I love Kentucky’s talent, but it they don’t make it out of the first weekened again, BBN will go absolutely nuclear.  Thing is, I meant if they didn’t get out of the first weekend, not if they didn’t get out of the first round.  Yet we are.  Here the bleep we are.  And the BBN is losing their collective bleep.

Big Blue Nation, this time, I can’t tell you you’re wrong. If you heard my conversation with Cal this week, you know how I feel about the man. You know how far back we go.  You know I defend him at pretty much turn. You know his players absolutely love him.  And he sends boatloads of them to the NBA. And they make a bleep ton of cash. All still true.  But there’s no getting around this. There’s no defending this. And taking nothing away from Oakland which sure as hell earned and deserves it.  But I said if. They didn’t make it out of the first weekend it would be castrophic for Cal and it is. One tournament in four years is not going to get it done at U-K regardless of what you’ve one prior.  Hell, because of what you’ve done prior.  They lost to a team that had never won a game in the NCAA tournament. This after losing to a 15 seed a couple of years ago. This was a team with so much talent and expectations were so high and yet, they don’t win a single postseason game: they went out in the first round of the sec tournament and then the first of the NCAA tournament. I so badly want to defend my dude, but I can’t.  I’m not calling for his head.  I’m not calling for him to be fired.  But what I usually do in this situation, is tell you Kentucky fans to calm the hell down and remind you what this dude has accomplished and what it was like before he got there. But I’m not this time. I can’t. Not after another stunning first round exit.

That loss is an abject disaster for Kentucky fan and Kentucky coach and the entire Big Blue Nation, I'm not gonna tell you otherwise today.

It's an abject disaster for you, but it was classic Madness for the rest of us. Because that game was incredible. And as much as I feel for my guy Cal right now, I was so amped to see Greg Kampe get the biggest win of his epic career in Oakland.

Oakland fan… where you at right now???? How you livin??? And no, I don’t mean FRISCO FAN. This isn’t a shout out to the BAY. Because we’re not talking about that Oakland… we’re not talking FRISCO FAN, we’re talking MICHIGAN MAN. We're talking about the Oakland Golden Grizzlies out of Rochester, Michigan.

If you heard Kampe on the show earlier this week, then you know all about these guys. And you know he’s been the head coach in Oakland for 40 years. Which is crazy enough, but even crazier that this is now the first time in those 4 decades that he will advance past the round of 64 at the NCAA Tournament.

It’s what the Madness is all about. Just don’t call these dudes Cinderellas, because my man Jack Gohlke isn’t having it. And my man Jack Gohlke is the breakout star out the tournament so far.

This dude is something else. He’s a 24 year old grad student in his sixth year of college hoops. Sixth year of college hoops but his first year at Oakland, and not just his first year at Oakland, his first year in Division I. But by far the wildest thing about this dude is… he only takes threes. He's just a laser out there. He's a volume hoister.

Dude has attempted 355 field goals this season and 347 of those have been threes. That’s 98% of his shots. And last night he took 20 shots, 100% of them were threes and 50% of them went in. And all of this happened off the bench.

If that weren’t all epic enough, he then took the opportunity in his postgame interview to grab the mic and look into the camera and let America know that Oakland is no Cinderella. Here he was with Greg Kampe and Evan Washburn on CBS.

They win might be the textbook definition of a Cinderella, but they don’t think like a Cinderella and they don’t play like a Cinderella and they just beat the hell out of a Blue Blood… so if they say they’re no Cinderella, then who the hell am I to argue with it Especially after Gohlke elaborated on that take at the podium and gave this incredible explanation

Crazy impressive answer. And there’s no doubt what he just said is true because last night we saw their A game, and last night they were the best team on the floor. Even though the other team on the floor was the Kentucky Wildcats. And that's the part the BNN can't accept and I get it. It's unacceptable. As pumped as I am for kampe, I hurt for Cal, because I know the heat that’s coming. And while I never thought I’d ever say this about him, it’s fair to ask, is he going to survive it? He did an unbelievable job of rebuilding that monster, but he’s also has to feed it; and unfortunately, that’s no longer happening with regularity. Just pulling the best young talent in the nation, and routinely sending them to the association isn’t enough if you’re not winning tournament games along the way. I hope Cal survives this, because I love the dude, but he’s got a problem now. A big problem.