championship_fly ball/up date.new orelands

College basketball’s best team in new orelands during the 2012 season is also its national champion. that’s actually saying something, because it doesn’t happen very often.
The Kentucky Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in the country for 20 of 29 weeks this season,
two of college basketball most storied programs, this title game was more of a coronation for Kentucky – for 38 minutes anyway. Holding a double-digit lead for most of the contest, Kentucky nearly fell victim to yet another Kansas comeback. The Jayhawks, down by as many as 18, rallied to within five
At that moment, there was little doubt Kentucky head coach John Calipari, who’d never won a national championship, started having flashbacks to the 2008 title game when his Memphis team blew a nine-point lead with less than three minutes to go against Kansas.
There would be no choke this time, however. Gilchrist blocked a Tyshawn Taylor shot that would have made it a one-possession game, then the Wildcats made four free throws in the closing minutes to hang on for a 67-59 victory.
How good is this Wildcats team? They won four of six games in this year’s tournament by at least 12 points and none was closer than eight. Monday night, they built that 18-point first-half lead without Anthony Davis, the AP player of the year, scoring a single point.
That should (but won’t) silence the critics who claim Kentucky wins on individual talent alone – that it somehow has an unfair advantage because of Calipari’s unapologetic recruitment of the so-called one-and-doners. Sure the Wildcats boast the most talent of any roster in the country – Davis and fellow freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist could potentially go 1-2 in this June’s NBA draft – but as they showed Monday night, they win as a team.
At one point, Kansas coach Bill Self squatted on the sidelines of the raised court inside the Superdome and shook his head. What else could he do? Break it down however you want, but sometimes the other team is just better.
Despite scoring just six points in the title game, Davis was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
It’s not hard to take a backseat, especially when playing with a great group of guys,” Davis said. “I knew I was struggling. So I told them, ‘I’m going to defend and rebound, you all make the points.’ That’s what they did tonight.”
Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague picked up the offensive slack with 22 and 14 points, respectively.
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