The End of the SEC as We Know It

SEC Needlepoint Belt Pattern, via The Eye of the Needle.

Last night, as my beau and I took slightly drunken phone calls from friends in NOLA and muddled through Facebook timelines filled with check-ins at Mother's and Cafe du Monde, I was hit with an oddly sentimental thought: This is the last year for the true Southeastern Conference.  

Then, oddly enough, I wondered what would happen to those SEC belts that everybody makes for their beaus and grandfathers to wear to the Tournament.  Now, Jenksie and I have made more than our fair share of needlepoint belts over the years.  I'm sure we'll be up to the challenge of whipping up new ones that say "Mizzou" and "Aggies"for anyone who needs them for next year's trip to Nashville.  But, on a sentimental level, it seems that the upcoming changes to the Conference render the SEC a little less special.

SEC Needlepoint belt, via Smathers and Branson.

Now, there have certainly been changes to the SEC before.  Sometimes, it's hard to remember that South Carolina and Arkansas have only been in the conference for twenty-one years.  But, the beauty of the SEC has always been the fact that you could roadtrip to any of the member schools over a long weekend.  Whether it's crazy-assed UK basketball fans showing up at every basketball game ever or equally crazy LSU and Bama fans parking their Winnebagos in the Virginia Lot on Tuesday or Wednesday, it's a roadtrip conference.  It makes the geographic distance and chartered planes of the Big Ten seem so impersonal and antiseptic. It is the conference of the Southeastern United States.  And, I don't care what Southern Living says, Missouri and Texas are not Southern States.  (Neither is Maryland, Southern Living, but that's largely irrelevant to this argument.)

Via Wikipedia.

Call me old-fashioned, or a traditionalist, but I've had a hard time even getting used to the dissolution of the East and West Divisions for basketball.  (I'd argue that it does absolutely nothing to abolish them, as the East will always dominate hoops.)  I still just can't get used to the idea of such foreign words as "Mizzou" and "Aggies" in our tightly-knit little conference.  I know that serious financial considerations have reshaped the entire infrastructure of college sports, and that we have to regroup to stay viable.  I know that it's an easy five hour drive from Western Kentucky to Columbia, and that there have to be enough Wildcat faithful in East Texas to color College Station blue for a couple of days every year.  I even know that, after a few years, these additions to the conference will seem as natural and organic as Arkansas or Carolina.

But, for this remainder of this weekend, I love the SEC just as it is.

Your March 9 Madness Report

Everybody fills out their brackets in the teams' colors, right?

• It was a day of upsets and near-misses.  Cincinnati simply out-played Syracuse, Baylor needed to win to offset the humiliation of highlighter-yellow unis, and Kentucky coasted on talent.
• Joakim Noah's hair is, indeed, still ridiculous.
• I finally read the ESPN: the Magazine article on the Cats. (My beau apparently subscribes. Who knew?) Loved this quote from Cal: "This team has already been told: If you win, it's going to be about you, and if you lose, it'll be about me.  So go play."  Truer words have never been spoken.
• Tom Izzo defends Bruce Weber more forcefully than my Illini alumni friends do.  I've actually always respected Izzo, but he seems increasingly strident this year. 
• I cry every time somebody references the anniversary of Biggie's passing.  Moving on.
• Doris Burke's ninety-second post-game interview with Yancy Gates was far and away the best piece of sports reporting I saw all day.  (So good that I'll let her hairdo slide without comment.) I truly believed that this is a kid who recognizes that he made a huge, nearly life-altering mistake, and is fully repentant. 
• The Cards play the Bearcats in the Battle of Teams We Peripherally Follow Big East Finals tomorrow night.  I feel like I've already seen that matchup fifteen times this year.  I guess the same could be said of UK-Florida.

Don't forget to enter our giveaway! Go Cats!!

Your March 8 Madness Report

In an effort to convince ourselves that watching the SEC tournament in front of a flat screen TV with Girl Scout Cookies is equally as good as watching it live after a stop at Cafe du Monde, here's tonight's Madness report.

All that cigarette money wasted...

• Major points to Trent Johnson.  When asked how he'd prepare LSU for tomorrow's Kentucky game, he deadpanned "We're gonna send an email out to Shaquille and Glen, see if they can come back to play."  Beautifully played, Coach.
• An additional hat tip to Auburn, for adding some drama and intrigue to the Tournament proceedings.
• I've focused on watching SEC and Big East games today. Needless to say, I've had plenty of time to google this new Tim Riggins movie amidst the excitement.  So far, I've figured out that some crazy shit goes down and Tim Riggins looks real hot.  Let's all go see it tomorrow night.
• Christian Laettner still sucks after all these years.
• The University Ad of the year award goes to UGA.   Thanks, Bulldogs, from my REM-loving 1992 self.
• Malcolm White seems repentant about the time he tackled Anthony Davis.  I still expect a very physical game tomorrow.
• Finally, don't forget to enter our Louisville Stoneware giveaway!

On Cal and Changes

A few weeks ago, I was driving through rural Johnson County on an overcast Friday afternoon. As I sat at a stop light, I saw a kid who looked to be eleven or twelve getting off the school bus. In the dead of winter, he was walking slowly and dribbling a ball. It was a scene I've encountered hundreds of times: a young Kentuckian who loves basketball. The mountains, the humble homes, the simple love of the game -- it could have been a vignette set at any point in the last fifty years, or a lithograph hanging on a devoted fan's wall. It simply was the embodiment of the Commonwealth's love of basketball. Yet, as I looked back at the kid one last time before my light changed, I was overcome with the sense that, while Kentuckians' devotion to basketball hasn't changed in decades, the Wildcat Fan perspective has changed dramatically in recent years. In 2012, as fans of the Number One team in the country, we really aren't kids walking up a dirt road dribbling a basketball. 

The Coach Cal era has brought a totally new viewpoint to the Big Blue Nation. Anyone who follows college basketball in even the most casual fashion knows that John Calipari's coaching and recruiting styles have caused quite a stir. When Coach set out to revitalize the storied University of Kentucky basketball program, we knew we were in for some changes. As fans well-schooled in the x's and o's of the game, we anticipated the dribble-drive offense to be a dramatic departure from the tried-and-true zone we all knew and loved. We expected a flashy recruiting style, one which took recruits from "blue chip" to "blue and white" before transforming them into big-money NBA stars. 

And yet, even with those expectations, we couldn't have possibly been prepared for the transformation that the Kentucky basketball program would undergo. We'd seen amazing players in blue and white before, but who could have expected to see Anthony Davis break Shaquille O'Neal's season-blocks record when a month of conference play still remained? We have a history of success in the NBA, but who could have anticipated five first-round draft picks in 2010? The answer to both of these questions is, quite simply, "anyone who gets the Coach Cal game." 

Coach Calipari has changed the face of Kentucky basketball so dramatically in the past three years. Most of the time, I’m totally on board. If big changes mean big rewards, then I'm all about shaking things up.  But, when Coach tells us that the SEC Tournament barely matters, I do a bit of a double-take.  What about the decades of CatLanta and Blue Orleans bumper stickers, coach?  What about all the opportunities to lord our victories over Billy Donovan? I immediately ask.  It's our birthright, our destiny, our obligation to win the SEC.

Now, intellectually, I know that Coach is right. We're basically guaranteed a One Seed no matter the outcome in NOLA this weekend.  But, I'm willing to bet that, for most UK fans, winning the SEC Tournament still means a lot.  It's our turf.  It's traditionally our title to win.  We may have broadened our perspectives, but we haven't changed that much.

Your March 7 Madness Report

via Steve Moss

• Coach Cal says we shouldn't be wasting our cigarette money on a trip to NOLA.  I'm not quite sure what to do with that piece of info, so I'll just skim over it.
• The Big East Tournament dragged on forever continued into its Second Round today.  After a significant Louisville win over Seton Hall, Rick Pitino was gracious to reporters and promoted the ESPN party line by praising Joe Lunardi's Bracketology ability.  I hate it when Rick reminds me that I once respected him.
• Steve Moss of WKYT tweeted that Cal and the team will be wearing special t-shirts to honor storm victims during the SEC tournament.  I love everything about this -- the design, the meaning, the gesture.  I haven't heard if we'll be able to blow our cigarette money on one of these of our very own, but I'll keep you posted.
• Why do bad things always happen involving Boogie and a cell phone?
• Pat Forde continues to say things.  I continue to boycott Yahoo in response.
• If you aren't spending your cigarette money on tickets or t-shirts, please consider donating it to the Red Cross.  Eastern Kentucky sure needs your help. 

Tomorrow Morning....

Tomorrow morning, at an inhumane hour, I'm putting my beau on a plane bound for Tampa...

Here's hoping he and his buddies bring the Cats some much-needed luck!!