ATLANTA -- It began with 2:39 left in the game during the relative quiet of a timeout: First one Kentucky fan, than another and another chanting, "We want Louisville!"
They get their wish.
The most anticipated rivalry of the NCAA tournament is indeed a reality as in-state rivals Kentucky and Louisville will square off in the Final Four next week in New Orleans. This after Kentucky demolished Baylor 82 -70 in a South Region final that was nowhere near as close as the score indicates.
The rivalry is a basketball equivalent of Alabama vs. Auburn or Michigan vs. Ohio State, a hoops hatefest between two programs that have never met in the Final Four.
Even before Kentucky manhandled Baylor, Louisville’s Rick Pitino, once loved (during his tenure as Kentucky's coach from 1989-1997) and now reviled by Big Blue, had started the banter.
"There will be people at Kentucky that will have a nervous breakdown if they lose to us," Pitino said. "You've got to watch. They've got to put the fences up on bridges. There will be people consumed by Louisville."
John Calipari did his best to downplay the rivalry (and enjoy his second trip to the Final Four in two years) but he acknowledged that the fans will go nuts for this game.
"These people are crazy," he said. "We play them one time a year when we're not in the same league. Why do you guys get all worked up? And then they go crazy."
They get all worked up for the same reason fans live and breathe for Georgia to beat Georgia Tech, Texas to play Texas A&M, and Oklahoma to square off with Oklahoma State: There are bragging rights, friendships, marriages, and sibling rivalries involved.
For the Kentucky players, Louisville is just another opponent on the road to their ultimate goal.
"It is just another game," said South Region MVP Michael Kidd-Gilchrist after the Baylor win. "I am going to play my game, and they will play their game. I’m just focused on us and nobody else."
If they play their game, the Wildcats will be hard to beat no matter who they play. In theory, Baylor matched up with Kentucky as well as any team in the tournament. In reality, not so much. The Wildcats got off to a sluggish start, falling behind 10-5 in the first four minutes, but then they went on a 16-0 run that began with a jumper off a fast break by Kidd-Gilchrist. On the next possession, Kidd-Gilchrist found Marquis Teague who hit a 3-pointer. The Georgia Dome erupted and it was off to the races for the Wildcats.
Baylor had no answer for Kentucky’s fast break or their balanced attack. Four 'Cats finished in double digits led by Kidd-Gilchrist who had 19, Anthony Davis who finished the afternoon with 18 points and 11 rebounds, Doron Lamb (14 points) and Terrence Jones (12).
"In coaching, you get done playing a team and the first thing you think is, are they as good as I thought?" said Baylor coach Scott Drew. "This team is actually better than I thought. When we lost to Duke, Duke was a very good team, but this Kentucky team is better in my opinion."
They are also on the cusp of history. Two more wins and this Kentucky team could be considered one of the greatest of all time.
To get there, they have to go through Pitino, Louisville, and the chaos that will be the biggest basketball game in the history of the state.
"We're playing a basketball game," Calipari said. "Believe me, we will not change. The drama of the game will be on the staff, but I don't have many (native) Kentucky players on my team. They don't know all that stuff. I'll tell them, get off the message boards, don't worry about the Twitter and the Facebook. Don't buy into it."
Unless Calipari plans to keep his guys sequestered in a cave until next weekend, that will probably be impossible. You can’t ignore something this big, especially in a place like Kentucky, where basketball is more than a statewide obsession, it's a way of life.
