ESPN Men's Basketball

Naturally, Kentucky coach John Calipari heard the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics' complaints, immediately realized the error of his ways and got down to scheduling every big-time nonconference game on UK's schedule as a campus-bound home and home series.

Only kidding, kids. What happened Wednesday night -- when Calipari released a blog post on his website detailing his schedule plans for the next two seasons -- was pretty much the exact opposite of that.

Calipari says he wants to schedule not just games but "experiences," "events that grandfathers and grandsons will be talking about 25 years from now." Among the noteworthy items:

• In 2013-14, Kentucky will play Baylor in a men's-women's doubleheader in Cowboys Stadium, a game which he hopes breaks the collegiate hoops attendance record. Baylor will "return" that game this season at Rupp Arena, which is kind of funny, considering Cowboys Stadium is a neutral site and Rupp Arena is not. Cal wins on that front, as well as the whole "experience" bit, and even better gets to play a game at the site of the Final Four in 2013-14. Win-win-win.
• Speaking of which, that will be the second straight year UK will have a big nonconference game at the site of the Final Four; 2012-13's will come against Duke in the Champions Classic at the Georgia Dome.
• Why all the football arenas? His explanation: "It is important that we play in at least one if not two football stadiums every year to prepare our players for NCAA tournament venues. ... I’m convinced we would have won the title two seasons ago if we would have played in a dome during the regular season. Our guys weren’t prepared for it." Oh really? Jim Calhoun may beg to differ.
• And speaking of Duke, as Robbi noted over at the UNC blog, Calipari says he's "currently in conversations with Coach K of Duke for a multiyear, neutral-based series that will be played around the country in the best facilities ... [and] would take place on the same weekend every year and would be THE GAME to watch."
• UK is taking a one-year break with UNC in 2012, but looks likely to restart the series in 2013-14. Calipari wants to alternate the UNC and Louisville series, so that when one game is at home, the other is on the road, and vice versa.
• This isn't noteworthy so much as funny: The first comment on Calipari's blog post is from UK associate AD Dewayne Peevy, who writes, "We've been busy." We can't get Dewayne his own blog? A separate post, at least? Poor guy.

Anyway, you get the idea. The whole Kentucky-Indiana mess still grinds my gears, and I would argue most fans would prefer a few more nonconference events on campuses, with real, actual college environments -- real student sections, pep bands, banners hanging on the walls and rafters, the whole nine yards. That's what makes college basketball different, and often more exciting, than anything the NBA has to offer in the regular season. That's what makes college basketball what it is. The sterility of neutral-court sites -- like the corporatized plasticity of Jerry Jones's gigantic HD theater room -- undermines that romance. It just does.

But that's not Calipari's prerogative. As he makes very clear, he is interested in creating capital-E Events. Much of his schedule in the coming two seasons will do exactly that. You might not like it, but on all matters scheduling, the man is sticking to his (rather sizable) guns.

Kentucky coach John Calipari didn't want to continue UK's longstanding rivalry with Indiana as a home-and-home series. Indiana coach Tom Crean didn't want to play on a neutral floor. Turns out, fans of both teams, and fans of college basketball in general, aren't the only ones incensed with the turn of events.

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics -- a group of 59 faculty senate members from Football Bowl Subdivision schools, whose mission is to "provide a national faculty voice on intercollegiate sports issues" and which supports the traditional student-athlete model -- is none too pleased, either. This week, the COIA released a scathing statement on Calipari's justification of his new scheduling strategy, saying Kentucky's refusal to play on campus sites marks "the type of warning sign we would expect to see on the path toward a full professional model." An excerpt:

Consistent with COIA policy, the Coalition Steering Committee calls for strong opposition to such policy changes from the NCAA leadership, conference commissioners, and Division-I schools, and we urge NCAA member schools to refrain from signing contracts with Kentucky on such terms. [...]

Now Kentucky is taking its professional model to the next level. By demanding as a matter of policy that non-conference games be moved to neutral sites that emulate professional conditions it is breaking the connection between campus and school sports and insisting that contracted opponents do likewise. Programs designed with the balanced goals of the collegiate model cannot compete with this approach, and UK’s actions will place schools under enormous pressure to follow suit.

We call on all those who support the collegiate model of athletics to speak out against this further move to professionalize college sports, and -- most importantly -- to decline to participate in such a separation of competitions from campuses. Even a “non-traditional” sports program needs opponents to play.

It's a shot across the bow, but there are a few things in the statement worth disputing. For one, the idea of moving more nonconference games to neutral sites is not a new one. It has been happening in one form or another -- whether through exempt tournaments or events like the Crossroads Classic -- for decades. Nor is it specifically speaking about "emulating professional conditions." It's more about emulating end-of-season conference and NCAA tournament conditions. Calipari is hardly the first coach to take the idea so seriously. (See: Krzyzewski, Mike.) Plus, Indiana-Kentucky was played for more than a decade at neutral sites in Indianapolis and Louisville. This is not a new thing.

Indeed, this ship has long since sailed in football and men's basketball, where off-campus events are nearly as common as games on campus during the nonconference portion of the season. It is difficult to see the logical jump required here: How do off-campus events undermine the student-athlete model, exactly?

Michael G. Bowen, a South Florida professor and co-chair of the COIA Steering Committee, was quick to point out that Calipari's move is merely an example of a larger issue endemic to collegiate athletics.

"It's not Kentucky or Calipari specifically," Bowen said via phone Wednesday. "It's a larger problem of professionalization in college athletics. This is taking things in the wrong direction. It's sort of defeating the purpose of what a university is about, or what an education at a university should be about."

If you disagree with the current collegiate model in the first place -- and many people wonder why college athletes can't be paid at least something for the money they generate for their universities, conferences and TV partners -- then you would have to reject the COIA's premise. If you think professionalization of revenue sports is a good thing, or at least in Kentucky's case, an understandably pragmatic approach, then you will wonder exactly what all the fuss is about.

Which is why, in the end, this is probably not the best argument against the end of the Indiana-Kentucky rivalry.

For my money, the best argument is still the simplest one: Ending a traditional regional blueblood rivalry that has been played continuously since 1969 because you're only willing to play at neutral sites is, for lack of a better phrase, weak. It robs the fans of a game they deserve, in an atmosphere they control. It sterilizes or even destroys the things that make college basketball great: tradition, passion, the roar of the home crowd.

I'm less concerned about a move toward professionalization than a move toward isolation: Where each elite school becomes an island unto itself, worried only about doing what's best for its RPI and bottom line on a yearly basis, its coaches are devoid of concern for the greater good of the sport that allows them to make millions of dollars and wield such power in the first place. Instead of playing anybody anywhere, or even playing teams fans would rightfully expect to play, coaches follow Calipari's lead, justifying it with an us against the world approach.

Calipari is far from the only one guilty of this. He's only the most extreme recent example.

"Professionalization" or no, the sport and its fans deserve better. To me, that's still the real gripe here.

Did Steve Kerr just spark serious progress on the NBA minimum age requirement? It certainly appears that way.

On Tuesday, Grantland published Kerr's essay on the reasons why a change to the NBA's current rule, which has spawned the current one-and-done environment everyone knows and hates, would be beneficial to the league and its players. As a 15-year former NBA veteran, Kerr blended experience and common sense into a borderline unimpeachable argument.

His point: All that really matters is whether the NBA and its players can agree on why an extra year in college would be good for the entire business. The arguments about fairness and freedom to pursue a career and why it isn't Eddy Curry's fault if a GM drafts him No. 4 overall don't apply, not when we're talking about business. Even better? A rule change in the NBA could have positive trickle-down effects on the entire basketball culture, from high school to AAU to the collegiate level. It could be good for everybody, not just the NBA's bottom line. That's my hope, anyway.

Which is why Andy Katz's Thursday afternoon report is so potentially exciting. Two days after Kerr published his essay -- and more than a month after NBA commissioner David Stern weighed in on the issue after the Final Four -- the National Basketball Players Association at least publicly addressed the issue. From Andy:

“The NBPA's position on the age limit has been consistent,’’ said NBAPA spokesperson Dan Wasserman after consulting with NBAPA director Billy Hunter on Thursday. “An overwhelming majority of the NBPA’s members support the ability of potential NBA players to freely pursue their livelihood by allowing high school graduate age players to apply for the draft. As a practical matter we recognize that any change to the current rule must sufficiently balance both the league’s and players’ interests.’’

[...]

The NBAPA wants the owners to give rookies a quicker path to free agency if they stay in school longer. The NBAPA wants the players to have more money up front as rookies if they have stayed in school longer.

“In our view, an increase in the age limitation benefits the teams and owners in a variety of ways,’’ Wasserman said. “These benefits include a reduction in compensation paid to some of the league's best players over the course of their careers. Although we are always willing to discuss any topic with the NBA, it will be difficult to make any progress in this area if the league seeks unilateral concessions from the players."

Last winter, many expected the one-and-done rule to be a hot topic during the collective bargaining discussions. At the very least, it was a chip -- something the NBPA could (theoretically) have used to extract a different demand from NBA owners.

As it turned out, last winter might have been the worst possible time to expect this sort of change. Both sides spent months fruitlessly bickering about the basic fundamentals of their agreement; the NBA owners were after far more than a one-year bump in the minimum NBA draft age requirement. The whole environment was poisoned. By the time the sides announced their agreement, discussion of the age limit was nowhere to be found.

As Wasserman's quotes show, the tone between the two sides is at least slightly less poisonous now. And believe it or not, there might even be cause for hope. At the very least, the NBPA is acknowledging the discussion. They are providing some sort of outline for an agreement. And their demands are reasonable: If the NBA wants its incoming players to spend not one, but two years out of high school not playing in the league -- whether in the lowly D-League, on a European club, or most often, on a college campus -- the league should be willing to give those players the benefit of fewer years on their free agency clocks. Based on the current rookie wage scale (which could be subject to some scrutiny in any age limit negotiations) that seems fair.

There are other concerns, like hardship and medical loans, which Kentucky coach John Calipari has evangelized repeatedly in recent months. But they, too, seem reasonable. Besides, as Calipari is quick to point out, we are really talking about 15 to 20 players per season. Most college basketball players are not going pro in basketball, let alone after one season. It's a minority group, and that makes the logistics much easier.

In any case, at least we're talking about this -- and not in vague and whiny terms, but in tangible and reasonable ones. Maybe it doesn't mean much, but I'm choosing to be hopeful. Part of it is selfish: I want college basketball to be better, and more good players on campuses for two years means better college basketball. But as a fan of the college game, and the NBA, and pickup basketball, and local high school games and you-name-it-as-long-as-it's-hoops-I'm-watching, I do think there are legitimate, unselfish reasons to get behind this idea.

The NBA will have to give the players something, and the players will have to respond in kind. What are the chances of that? I don't know. But maybe, just maybe, the right people have finally been persuaded.

Steve Kerr, take a bow. The rest of us will be crossing our fingers.

Late Tuesday night, right around the time my boy JaVale McGee was chucking his Denver Nuggets game ball into the stratosphere (McGee had just played the best game of his life in a playoff elimination contest, but he has no use for silly trinkets such as these), The New York Times ran this story by college sports reporter Pete Thamel on the NCAA's investigation of Nerlens Noel.

According to the Times, the NCAA "sent two members of its enforcement staff to Massachusetts this week to inquire" about Noel, the No. 1 prospect in the ESPNU top 100 for the class of 2012, at his former high school, Everett High in Everett, Mass., where Noel spent his freshman and sophomore seasons. Thamel spoke with the Everett High principal, Louis Baldi, who said the conversation with NCAA investigators was centered on "concerns we had as adults" about the people surrounding Noel as he prepares to embark on his college career. From the story:

“I didn’t get any sense,” Baldi said when asked about the conversation’s tone. “It was a conversation, very collegial. That was really it. They didn’t ask me any investigative-type questions.”

The "concerns we had as adults" bit comes, as Thamel writes, from Noel's associations with two people. One is Chris Driscoll, a former Providence associate who is reportedly close with Noel. Driscoll was banned from campus at the Tilton School, the boarding school where Noel spent his junior and senior seasons. The other person of interest is Errol Randolph, a former substitute teacher at Everett High, "who is another of Noel’s advisers, according to the person briefed on the inquiry." From the story:

Until recently, Randolph had a link on his LinkedIn page directing people to the Web site of the sports agency run by the prominent basketball agent Andy Miller. The link to Miller’s ASM Sports Web site has since been removed.

Randolph said that he had no formal affiliation with Miller and had never received money from him, and that the Web site ended up on his LinkedIn page because he was browsing it. Randolph said he knew Miller from another relationship more than 10 years ago.

I haven't used LinkedIn since its early days, back when it seemed like a totally pointless thing. So I'm not positive here, but if LinkedIn is like pretty much every other social network except Facebook -- which is determined to share a link to everything you read and listen to all day, every day -- links on the site don't auto-magically show up without your intent to post them on your profile. So that explanation doesn't really hold.

But anyway, that's a brief aside. This is an interesting story, and one Kentucky fans will be watching closely as their highly touted prospect prepares for his freshman season at the school. But the words "Nerlens Noel" and "investigation" give this an air of suspense that doesn't really exist. I think Rob Dauster at NBC has it pretty much right: This isn't a big story yet. If the NCAA finds something improper in Noel's prep career, then yeah, that's a big deal. But the news that the organization is checking in on the top college basketball prospect in the country shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Of course the NCAA is looking at Noel. The NCAA looks at a lot of players, particularly high-profile basketball recruits, who almost universally know a person or two in their lives who could possibly harm their eligibility. It happens.

Chances are, Kentucky coach John Calipari and his athletics and compliance staff have done their own due diligence on Noel's situation, and wouldn't have taken him if they weren't sure they wouldn't run the risk of NCAA penalties. Until the NCAA finds something to counter that stance, this is a story to watch. But it's nothing out of the ordinary, not just yet.

The Indiana-Kentucky rivalry is dead. That's sad.

Fans of both programs don't agree on much, including the various reasons given as to why the series had to end, but in general this would seem to be one of the few things on which IU and UK fans could assemble a quorum. Indiana-Kentucky, an ongoing series since 1969, was just about to get really, really good -- a longstanding baked-in blueblood regional rivalry with the boost of massive 2012-13 on-court implications -- just before the two programs pulled the plug.

The essential disagreement boiled down to venue. Kentucky coach John Calipari wanted the games at neutral sites, like Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, while Indiana coach Tom Crean wanted the game -- including this year's would-be fixture at UK's own Rupp Arena -- to remain on both programs' campuses. There are plenty of reasons both coaches stuck to their guns: Crean wanted the student atmosphere in Assembly Hall, and didn't want to grant Calipari a huge recruiting audience in Indianapolis every other season, among others. Calipari, as is usually the case, is more than happy to explain his motivations. He did so to Andy Katz during the White House visit, telling Katz that Kentucky was looking to schedule more and more like Duke -- i.e., fewer true nonconference road games, more emphasis on neutral courts -- in the coming seasons.

Calipari expanded on that view in a blog post on his own web site Sunday. In "Forming a nontraditional schedule for a nontraditional program," Calipari tells fans "We are going by our own model now: the gold standard. Everyone has to accept that," before outlining his reasons for the shift. They are mostly what you'd expect. Calipari highlights the lack of true road games in the postseason, and thus the lack of need for them in the nonconference schedule, as well as the ability to sell more tickets to UK fans that "can't afford to get into Rupp" and the opportunity for the school to bring in more money for its athletics programs from neutral-court contracts.

He closes somewhat defensively, telling people to look at other programs' schedules (Duke, Indiana, North Carolina, Kansas, Louisville), again naming his own program "nontraditional," and assuring everyone that he isn't backing down from any challenges:

When I was at UMass, I saw what John Chaney and Temple were doing and adopted the motto “any team, any place, any time.” My last year at UMass, we played 10 home games and 27 games away from home, and I carried that over to Memphis.

What, have I changed over the years? Do I get nervous in big games? Come on, it has nothing to do with that. I’ll play teams on I-64. We’ll close it down. I’m good with that. But this program is not traditional. This program is in a position right now that we must protect as we march forward to try to grow it to another level.

All of which is fair enough, I suppose. Calipari has legitimate reasons why the Indiana game couldn't work out; he's dealing with an expanded SEC schedule to boot. He's doing the smart thing here: He's taking on Duke's model. But the Duke model, effective though it may be, doesn't exactly get anyone excited about the sport in November and December. And make no mistake: The Duke model is not "any team, any place, any time." It is in fact the direct antithesis of that motto. It relies on a position of power and influence -- one Kentucky has long wielded, but now more than ever -- and the ability to eschew major early-season road challenges wherever possible. With so many freshmen coming in every season, this style is arguably even more beneficial.

So, in the end, it's hard to blame Calipari -- just as it is hard to blame Crean for his bargaining position -- for making the shift. He has Kentucky's interests to protect. He has a new roster, and will probably have one each and every season, and he has to account for that. But none of that changes the fact that the quirks of scheduling have robbed America's college basketball fans of one of the biggest and best potential games the 2012-13 season could have offered.

No matter how rational the reasons behind it, it remains a shame. Man, that Rupp Arena crowd would have been rocking. At the end of the day, if it was important enough to both sides, this game would have been on the schedule. That it's not says as much about the state of college hoops -- and the often feckless scheduling tropes that dominate it -- as it does about Calipari or Crean.

On Saturday and Sunday, Anthony Bennett made news. The top unsigned player in the class of 2012 narrowed his list of schools from four to two. In somewhat expected fashion, Bennett cut out Florida and then Kentucky from his list , according to ESPN Recruiting analysts Dave Telep and Paul Biancardi, leaving just UNLV and Oregon vying for the No. 7-ranked prospect's considerable services.

In the abstract, that's a ... slightly surprising recruiting coup! UNLV and Oregon outlasting Florida and Kentucky? When does that happen?

In reality, it's not all that shocking. Bennett is looking for immediate impact playing time, and he would have joined a crowded Kentucky frontcourt, one that landed the top big man in the country -- No. 1 overall player Nerlens Noel -- just a few weeks ago.

Likewise, Xavier transfer Mark Lyons, who had been considering Kentucky but chose Arizona instead, takes a possible guard addition off the board, too.

Which means, allowing for the possible exception of another incoming transfer, or a hard push for another unsigned prospect (forward Amile Jefferson being the only real option), Kentucky is almost certainly done adding players for 2012. Given that, now probably as good a time as any to take a look at what the Wildcats are going to be in 2012, a season they will enter ranked again among the top five teams in the country -- even as coach John Calipari overhauls his lineup and incorporates an entirely new group of players.

That's nothing new, of course; no coach in the country has become more adept at reloading with top talent and competing at the highest levels of the sport each and every season. The reason? The trait we once overlooked about Calipari, and one that can no longer be ignored by even the most casual of college basketball fans: defense.

For all of Calipari's strengths as a coach -- recruiting, his flexibility on offense, his ability to stage manage young players through the public rigors of playing at a place like Kentucky -- his unique ability to turn teams full of young stars into committed, cohesive defensive squads is perhaps his best. One look at Ken Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency data tells the tale (numbers indicate national offensive and defensive efficiency rankings):


Since 2006, every single one of Calipari's teams (first at Memphis, then at Kentucky) has ranked among the nation's top 15 in adjusted defensive efficiency. All but two of those seven teams -- 2011's Brandon Knight-led Final Four team and the 2007 Memphis Tigers -- have ranked among the top 10. This, in essence, was the most remarkable thing about the 2012 national champion Kentucky Wildcats: As good as they were on defense, with Anthony Davis blocking everything in sight and Terrence Jones muscling on the interior and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist locking down the opposing team's best guard on the perimeter, Kentucky was even better at scoring the ball than stopping it. By the end, the talk about Kentucky's offense -- as led by "National Kentucky's Offense is Even Better than its Defense Month" creator John Gasaway -- finally caught up to reality. The blitz through the NCAA tournament (through quality Big 12 defenses like Iowa State and Baylor) was more than enough for the non-converts. The Wildcats defended like usual, sure. But boy, could they put up points in a hurry.

As that team collected its final accolades at the White House Friday, Calipari said he "may never coach another group like this." He was referring to that team's collective spirit -- which is what allowed it to excel with such balance on the offensive end -- and in more ways than one, he's right. The 2011-12 Wildcats were a uniquely selfless bunch, particularly for a group led by one-and-done stars, but they were also an innately brilliant offensive team. The chances that 2012-13 Kentucky replicates that performance are slim.

But by now, we know Calipari's teams, and what he does to get them to defend like mad almost as soon as they take the court, and it's safe to expect a similar defensive trajectory for his new-look squad. That starts with Noel, a massive interior presence who specializes in blocking shots. Many recruiting analysts believe Noel is already a better shot-blocker than was Davis, who set all kinds of team and conference records as a freshman. Noel is a different sort of player than Davis, a more traditional big man who's been big all his life (as opposed to Davis's freakish high school growth spurt), but it's safe to expect him to provide a similar role on defense: When Kentucky's guards and forwards are beat off the dribble, Noel will be there to cover it all up.

Knowing Calipari, that will be step one in building out another defensive force. It never hurts when your best recruit just so happens to excel precisely at keeping the ball out of the basket. Handy, that.

The bigger questions are on offense, where Calipari has proved amenable to changing his system based on the needs of his current group of players. Noel is far rawer offensively than was Davis, but Calipari has a pair of talented incoming wings in small forward Alex Poythress and shooting guard Archie Goodwin, the No. 3- and No. 4-ranked players at their positions, respectively. He will also have former NC State transfer Ryan Harrow inheriting point guard responsibilities, and the lone holdover from the 2012 rotation, sophomore forward Kyle Wiltjer, stretching the floor with his shooting.

It's not inconceivable to think Wiltjer may become Kentucky's leading scorer in 2012-13. Though Wiltjer played just 11 minutes a game as a freshman, he took the highest percentage of his team's shots (25 percent) while on the floor, and he excels at running pick-and-pop plays designed to get him open looks on the perimeter. As SI's Luke Winn wrote in his latest power rankings, a Harrow-Wiltjer pick and pop may become UK's bread and butter play, a win-win for Calipari and his players. If Harrow can spread the floor and utilize all three of UK's weapons on the wing, he'll benefit right along with Kentucky's offense. (Pro scouts love a good pick and roll point guard, after all.)

But the offense will be a work in progress for much of the fall, into the winter, and maybe even in SEC play. There will be no immediate, obvious dominance on that end of the floor, or at least we shouldn't expect it.

What we should expect from Kentucky in 2012-13, however, is more of the same. That doesn't mean a repeat of 2012's irreplaceable team. What it does mean is more of what Calipari has done for the past seven years: He'll take a lauded recruiting class and turn it into one of the 10 best defensive teams in the country, sooner in the season rather than later.

Once that's done, Kentucky can figure out how it wants to score the basketball. But the defense will be there -- early and often. With Calipari, it always is.

WASHINGTON D.C. -- The Kentucky contingent went through two practice runs on the dais to make sure they got it just right. No one, after all, wants to mess up the procession into the East Room and the presentation of a jersey, ring and ball to President Barack Obama.

There was a scattering of people in the room at first, mostly security personnel and White House staffers when Kentucky first entered. But as soon as the doors opened to allow invited guests in, Kentucky fans painted the East Room blue.

They weren’t all dressed in UK colors, but they sure were boisterous -- even starting a few C-A-T-S chants.

Teams arriving for the now-annual celebrations that started under the late President Reagan are always celebratory, but not usually as euphoric as Friday.

After witnessing three of the past four NCAA men’s basketball champs to come to the White House, I can tell you that no fan base has rivaled Kentucky's.

“I didn’t know it was going to be like that,’’ UK senior Darius Miller said. “It filled up fast. It was empty and then in five seconds it was full.’’

This is a program that can easily sell out a mundane practice. So no one should be surprised that the Big Blue Nation showed up.

But there was more to Friday then the annual meet-and-greet with the President. This was the last time the Kentucky players were together as one team.

Five of them declared early for the NBA draft, and that group -- as well as Miller -- will likely get a chance to be together at the Chicago pre-draft camp next month and again at the NBA draft in June. But all of them together? This was it.

And what better way to go out than a ribbing from the Commander-in-Chief.

President Obama had picked, like many of us, Kentucky in the final as he filled out his bracket for ESPN for the fourth straight year. He originally wanted to go with the Wildcats to win it all, but changed his mind and chose North Carolina in the end.

“I had them in the championship game," he said Friday. "But in the end, I thought, they got all these freshmen. These guys are too young. And keep in mind, at this time last year, three of the Wildcats’ five starters were still in high school. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist couldn’t even vote yet.

“But let’s face it, sometimes talent trumps experience. And sometimes, a bunch of young players, even if they’re used to being big fishes in their ponds, even if they’ve never played together before, they can buy into a system, they understand the concept of team, and they do something special right away. And that’s exactly what happened in Kentucky.”

As soon as they got to the White House, the Wildcats did what they had throughout the season.

They stayed together as a pack one last time, taking pictures with their iPhones, enjoying a fast-paced tour as quick as the run Kentucky put on Baylor in the Elite Eight.

National player of the year and projected No. 1 pick Anthony Davis as well as Doron Lamb, Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones, Miller and Kidd-Gilchrist were dressed in fine-tailored suits, not Kentucky uniforms. But they were a team just the same.

They loved cruising through the White House movie theater, posed in front of a bust of Abraham Lincoln, and just enjoyed each other’s company.

“I may never coach another group like this,’’ Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “I’ve never seen a group come together for each other since I’ve been coaching.’’

Lamb said that this team truly liked being with each other on and off the court. This group was selfless from the first game to the final against Kansas in New Orleans.

Miller couldn’t get over how wild his UK career has been. He was recruited by Billy Gillispie, grew and fostered under Calipari, won a title and met two presidents. Former President Bill Clinton was in Lexington recently.

“This is just another great memory to add to the collection,’’ Miller said.

Kentucky had a traveling party of 51 (would you expect anything smaller?). And while the Wildcats played in front of 70,000-plus at the Superdome, this rivaled the anxiety of that night.

The players said they were a bit more nervous walking out on the Dome court, but there were anxious moments in meeting Obama and being on this smaller, albeit historic stage.

Calipari, who spoke after the President, was as anxious as anyone.

“I was just so nervous,’’ Calipari said. “I didn’t breath until I stepped away from the podium. I’ve given speeches to 15,000 and I was more nervous doing this.’’

But now that the celebration of the title is over, the Wildcats will go their separate ways. The semester is finished. The early-entrants will select agents and get ready for the NBA draft. Miller and Eloy Vargas, the two seniors, will prepare for their post-college life, which will include professional basketball.

Freshman Kyle Wiltjer is the lone productive returenee. He said it will be odd to lose all of these players, but he’s up for the challenge and said he can’t wait to play with the new players.

Kentucky brought in another strong class, a new crop, this time led by another star in the middle named Nerlens Noel.

But for Friday, for one last time in front of a strong, loud and proud contingent from Big Blue Nation, the 2012 champs were together.

“We had such a special group of guys and had such a successful year,’’ Jones said. “For this to be the last thing is such a great way to finish.’’

This week, yours truly wondered whether the Indiana-Kentucky rivalry -- a matchup of two blueblood programs, two rabid adjacent fan bases, and what appear to be two of the nation's best three teams in 2012-13 -- could continue in the short term. The issue was logistical. Indiana wanted to renew a home-and-home series, with both teams playing on campus; Kentucky preferred to play in neutral sites, like Indianapolis and Louisville, instead.

But the game has been played every year since 1969. Surely these two programs and their friendly coaches, Tom Crean and John Calipari, would come up with something that could keep this game alive in 2012-13.

Today, we have that answer. It's a big fat whopping "nope."

Per a statement released by the IU athletic department, the Hoosiers "will not sign a new contract to play the University of Kentucky in men’s basketball next season in light of their insistence that the matchup be moved to off-campus sites."

“While we understand that such neutral-site games could be quite lucrative, we think the series should be continued as it is, home and home,” Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said. “Playing on campus enables our students to attend these marquee games, which we believe is a great component of the overall college experience. Playing in the historic venues that are Assembly Hall and Rupp Arena is also a tremendous experience for our student-athletes.”

“We have a strong belief that this series should be played on campus, and is something that should be beneficial for both teams," Crean said.

Rest assured, even minutes after the announcement, the rush to spin this has already begun. Kentucky fans will say Indiana is afraid to play the Wildcats outside Assembly Hall; Hoosiers fans will say Kentucky is afraid to come to Bloomington after suffering one of its two losses of the 2011-12 season there last December. Blame will be assigned; names will be called. I'd imagine the comments to this post will be fairly hilarious.

Who's really to blame? Both parties, really. This is an impasse, it takes two to tango, etc. But it doesn't really matter whom you wish to blame, because the result is twofold:

1. We lose one of the great nonconference rivalries in the sport, which features the two storied, flagship, blueblood programs from the nation's two most basketball-obsessed states, states which just so happen to share a border.

2. We lose what could very well be the biggest nonconference matchup of the 2012-13 season, a meeting of two teams sure to be ranked in the top three in every preseason poll, of two programs hunting a national title.

Indiana-Kentucky hasn't always been a marquee event in the past decade, but both programs are back at the top of the heap, and this is as marquee as they come right now. How could this end now? It's almost like we waited until IU-UK could get really, really good again -- until the stakes and quality of play reached potentially epic levels -- to call the whole thing off. College basketball fans are being robbed. It's a shame.

And so next season, for the first time in more than 40 years, Indiana and Kentucky will not meet on the court. Why? Scheduling quirks, logistical preferences, RPI calculations, artful (and inartful) dodges.

Coaches Crean and Calipari, sirs, this is as weak as it gets. Maybe you don't care, but we do. It's weak. Fix it, and soon. You're taking a great game away from the rest of us, and we want it back.

Update: And just when you thought this thing couldn't seem pettier, here's what Calipari and Crean said to our own Andy Katz Thursday afternoon. First, Calipari:

"We're not going to play," Kentucky coach John Calipari said Thursday. "We're not going to do a home-and-home. That's out. They don't want to play two games in the state of Indiana, which I'm fine with. There are a lot of people who want to play us."

"We were willing to play them both in the state of Indiana and they said no to that," Calipari said. "That means they don't want to play us."

Here's Crean:

Indiana coach Tom Crean said in a text message that the Hoosiers never wanted to move the game.

"We couldn't have gotten our students up there," said Crean. "Prices would have been too much to get them there. We will have around 8,500 students.

"The bottom line is that they didn't want to play home-and-home and we did. We looked at it hard but it belongs on campus."

There is probably some truth and some deceit in both of those spin moves. It is a hard task to get 8,500 students to Indianapolis, sure, but maybe 8,500 students don't need to go to Indianapolis for the game? Maybe the students that can make the 45-minute drive north can go, and other fans can have the rest of those tickets? Just a thought.

Still, Calipari's response is particularly grating. "That means they don't want to play us." Nah nah, boo boo, you guys are obviously scared, I'm taking my ball and going home. He's wrong, of course. The 2012-13 Indiana-Kentucky matchup, were it renewed as a home-and-home, would be played at Rupp Arena. Crean is OK with that. Why isn't Calipari?

It has a lot to do with recruiting, no doubt; Calipari wouldn't mind playing two games in Indianapolis because that's where the Indianapolis recruits are. If he can avoid returning to Assembly Hall in the process, all the better.

Anyway: Ugh. The whole thing is childish and boorish and petty and low, and I'm somehow even more disgusted than before. Be adults. Figure it out. Play the game. These fans deserve better than to be treated like this.

Update No. 2: Here's a statement from Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart:

“We are extremely disappointed in Indiana’s decision to end our annual men’s basketball series. We were under the impression that we were in continued negotiations with Indiana University on signing a two-year contract to play the annual game at neutral sites. After the NCAA Championships, both schools verbally agreed in principle to play for two years at neutral sites (December 8, 2012 and December 7 or 14, 2013) and agreed to revisit campus sites upon completion of the two-year deal. The public comments by Indiana prior to today over the last week led us to believe that our previous verbal agreement could be in jeopardy, but at no point did we ever have any mutual discussions with Indiana to end the series.

"We were contacted by Indiana today shortly before 2 p.m. ET and informed that due to our desire to move to neutral sites they were moving on for the 2012-13 season and would revisit continuing the series at a later date. Our desire to play the series at a neutral site was due mainly to the success of the series from 1992-2006. It allowed the fans of both schools to enjoy the experience of one of the greatest rivalries every year. Everyone that watched or attended those games said it was a great atmosphere for college basketball. We looked at this as an opportunity to recapture that atmosphere and unfortunately it ended today.”

We are coming off a Final Four where as much was made about the rift between Rick Pitino and John Calipari as the X's and O's battle between Louisville and Kentucky. What really happened between the two is likely forever lost in a he said-he said morass, but it's probably not too hard to figure out.

Boil it down to one word: competition.

It's not so easy to be friendly anymore. There's just too much at stake.

"We're in a world right now that, if you're talking to a guy you could be recruiting the same [player] he is," Davidson's Bob McKillop said. "Or you might run into him in the tournament next year, and I really believe that's closed down the fences a little bit."

Click here for more from Dana O'Neil.

Indiana has its rivalry with Purdue. Kentucky has its mutual disdain for Louisville. But the hatred between the IU and UK fan bases, particularly along the Indiana-Kentucky border, is very real, and a small slice of what makes college basketball great. As a college basketball fan, I'd very much like to see this clash played out at least once a season. I don't ask for much.

Actually, maybe I do. There is a real possibility the Kentucky-Indiana rivalry will peter out, thanks to logistical disagreements between Kentucky coach John Calipari and Indiana coach Tom Crean. Andy blogged about said disagreements Monday morning:

The Kentucky-Indiana series contract is over, and the two sides are discussing renewing. But the two schools are at a major impasse. Indiana coach Tom Crean said Friday that he wants to play the series as a home-and-home. Kentucky coach John Calpari said Friday that he wants it to be a neutral-site game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with tickets split down the middle. The series was last played at a neutral site in 2005 (prior to meeting in the Sweet 16 in Atlanta). “We can do it in Louisville, Lucas Oil, both teams benefit," Calipari said. Crean rebutted saying, "It's got to be a two-way street, and taking it off campus isn’t anything that people here are excited about or behind."

The game has been played in both varieties before: In the Bobby Knight glory days, the game was frequently played on either campus. Then, from 1991-2005, the schools met at neutral sites in Indianapolis and Louisville. In 2005, an alternating home-and-home-style system was revived, but Calipari is no fan of that system, and it's hard to blame him: Traveling to Indiana to play the Hoosiers is now a far more daunting task than it was during the early days of Crean's rebuild. There are only so many hugely challenging true road games coaches want to put on their team's plates, and the head man in Lexington, Ky. -- one of the savvier schedulers in the country, by the way, and one facing the potential of a newly expanded 18-game SEC conference schedule -- is no different.

In December, Calipari took this quandary to the Big Blue Nation, crowdsourcing his team's schedule and asking UK fans to vote on which of the three current non-conference games they'd miss the least. At the time, he explained the logic:

What I mean by that is this program is too important to over-schedule based on the roster turnover that I believe will continue to happen. You cannot put this program at risk, not with our turnover and roster. You CANNOT over-schedule and put yourself in that position. With that being said, here is where I want the help of the Big Blue Nation. If we had to -- and this doesn’t mean we have to at this point, because we still have 16 league games -- but if we had to drop one series and there were no other options, who would it be? Would it be North Carolina, Indiana or Louisville?

By the end of the voting, Kentucky fans had chosen to ditch Indiana; the Hoosiers garnered a full 69 percent of the vote. The democratic process had weighed its verdict. The people had spoken.

In other words, Calipari isn't going to face a backlash if he doesn't back down on his desire for neutral sites. Nor, for that matter, would Crean. The Hoosiers' schedule is ramped up in 2013, with a neutral-court game against Butler, possible preseason tournament fixtures versus Georgetown and UCLA, what will surely be a big-time matchup in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, plus a potential new series against Kansas. (Kentucky still has the Champions Classic (Duke) and the North Carolina and Louisville events, so it's not like the new-look Wildcats will be hurting for quality nonconference opponents, either.)

But to any fan of college basketball -- particularly big-time nonconference games with meaning beyond their implications on the court -- losing this specific rivalry would be a shame. There are storied and cultural histories involved here. With the possible exception of North Carolina, Indiana and Kentucky are the two most basketball-obsessed states in the union. Even better, they share a border -- a border that includes plenty of die-hard fans of either program. They are bluebloods with rich legacies, legacies that often intersect, and there's something vaguely symbolic -- something about the sport that digs deep at the heart of why it matters so much to so many people -- about what happens when they meet.

And then there's this: In 2012-13, Indiana and Kentucky will be among the best two or three teams in the country, at least according to our early preseason projections. Even if you throw out all the history and tradition and the soft stuff that goes with it, sorry, but come on, guys: That game is too good not to play.

Here's hoping Crean and Calipari can work something out. Neutral court, home-and-home, aircraft carrier (now there's an idea!), whatever. Indiana and Kentucky would be fine without this game, but the rest of us would be awfully bummed out.

When you've got a rivalry this deep, with two teams this good, missing out just seems like a waste.

1. The Kentucky-Indiana series contract is over and the two sides are discussing renewing. But the two schools are at a major impasse. Indiana coach Tom Crean said Friday that he wants to play the series as a home-and-home. Kentucky coach John Calpari said Friday that he wants it to be a neutral-site game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with tickets split down the middle. The series was last played at a neutral site in 2005 (prior to meeting in the Sweet 16 in Atlanta). “We can do it in Louisville, Lucas Oil, both teams benefit," Calipari said. Crean rebutted saying, "It's got to be a two-way street and taking it off campus isn’t anything that people here are excited about or behind."

2. If Illinois State moves past Duke associate head coach Chris Collins then one of the leading candidates for the coaching job will be Vanderbilt assistant coach Dan Muller. Gonzaga assistant Ray Gicacoletti will be in the mix as well as would Indiana assistant coach Steve McClain. Vandy coach Kevin Stallings is a former head coach at Illinois State. Muller had a high-level run as a player with the Redbirds and is going all out for this gig -- as well he should.

3. The litany of names being tossed around for Virginia Tech to replace Seth Greenberg continues. But a number of coaches -- NC State associate head coach Bobby Lutz, Loyola (Md.) Jimmy Patsos, Murray State’s Steve Prohm -- haven’t had an interview with Hokies athletic director Jim Weaver as of Sunday. Wofford’s Mike Young and former Virginia Tech assistant and current Clemson assistant James Johnson as well as Davidson’s Bob McKillop have also been bandied about as possible candidates.

When you win a national title, you get to do lots of fun stuff -- ribbon-cutting celebrations, baby-signing sessions, the works. One of the tried and true post-championship honors is the first pitch. Kentucky coach and reigning national champion John Calipari got his crack at such an honor last week, and the result was about what you'd expect from an athletic guy like Coach Cal.

What you probably wouldn't have expected: An outpouring of anger from Cincinnati Reds fans over the team's decision to honor Calipari and the Wildcats. From the Lexington Herald-Leader's John Clay:

Owner Robert Castellini thought he was doing a good marketing deed by honoring the Kentucky basketball national championship before Tuesday night's game. [...] And yet, Lance McAlister, host of WLW's Sportstalk, reports most of his Monday night show was occupied by callers complaining about the Reds honoring the Big Blue.

"Non-stop calls for 90 minutes," McAlister said Tuesday morning. "One caller said he'd refuse diamond seats if offered. It was stunning. And yet hilarious. I said it was the single dumbest debate I'd ever heard from Cincinnati fans."

In response, some UK fans have vowed not to frequent GABP, despite the fact that it is the Reds, not their fans, honoring Cal and the Cats.

If anything, that just goes to show the wide range of fans that live in and around the Cincinnati area. If you're not from the area, you wouldn't think of Cincinnati as a Kentucky town, so to speak, but Lexington is just an hour and 40 minutes from Cincinnati, and Clay reports there are "10,800 UK alums in Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky." So it makes sense why the Cincinnati Reds owner would want to honor the national champion from just down the highway. It also makes sense -- given that the Reds serve as the de facto team of interest for many people from Southern Indiana, Louisville, as well as the surrounding Ohio area -- that there would be a wide range of callers less than pleased about the honor.

As John writes, no good deed goes unpunished. And apparently no Calipari public appearance comes without its fair share of polarization. Nothing new there.

1. Kentucky coach John Calipari said Tuesday afternoon that Rod Strickland, a director of basketball operations, would be staying with the Wildcats and not heading to work for Larry Brown at SMU. Calipari said his entire coaching staff will remain intact; assistants Kenny Payne and Orlando Antigua had interest in a few openings but never got too far in the process. Assistant John Robic has been a steady presence next to Calipari during his tenure. Meanwhile, Calipari said he’s hopeful that the Wildcats can add one more recruit after already securing a top-five class.

2. Tony Benford could have joined Larry Brown’s staff but made the wise choice. Benford has longed to be a head coach and getting a North Texas gig that will be one of the best in its current and possible future league makes sense. The SMU staff situation continues to be an odd process as the school/Brown search for a possible coach-in-waiting rather than dealing with the now and simply turning to recruiting and coaching. SMU was supposed to hire one coach, not one for now and one for the future.

3. Loyola (Md.) coach Jimmy Patsos would be a great choice for Virginia Tech after he made the NCAAs and coached in the ACC as an assistant. Patsos is a tremendous worker and brings unbelievable enthusiasm. But the Hokies will likely look for high-level coaches they can’t get (VCU’s Shaka Smart), flirt with others who may make too much money or have a buyout (Richmond’s Chris Mooney) before looking at coaches who fit for cost, timing and location of this job. I will be surprised if Virginia Tech were to lure a coach who has a solid, stable situation in a top-eight league.

1. Former Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg was convinced he had a much-improved team next season. Erick Green would likely be an all-ACC guard. Dorian Finney-Smith is a possible star in the league. Last season’s team had only three seniors. That’s why this reeks of a classic athletic-director move of firing a head coach to set up a winning roster so the new coach has success in year one before a rebuild begins. The timing, with two-plus weeks left in the spring signing period, and the spring semester ending soon, might make it harder for anyone to leave.

2. UCLA has a chance for a special season with the top-rated recruiting class led by Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Jordan Adams and now Tony Parker, too. This is a Calipari-Kentucky-like class, oozing with one-and-done NBA potential. But for the Bruins to have a unique season like Kentucky just had, they must get veteran leadership, too. UK always had at least two selfless contributors who were upperclassmen. That puts the burden on Josh Smith, David and Travis Wear, Larry Drew II and Tyler Lamb to show significant improvement in leadership as well as their production.

3. Schools looking at Mark Lyons should pause after reading Xavier coach Chris Mack’s statement. If Lyons was against the constructive criticism about what he needs to improve upon, then why toss a potential disruptive force into a locker room for only one season? Lyons has to share some of the blame for Xavier’s mid-season collapse before the Musketeers rebounded to reach the Sweet 16. But something is clearly wrong if he can’t finish his final year at Xavier.

It is not at all difficult to figure out why the Southern Methodist University men's basketball program wants to hire Larry Brown, and they most likely will, as reported Tuesday afternoon by ESPN.com's Jason King.

The Mustangs -- a program with one winning season since 2003-04, just 10 all-time NCAA tournament appearances (exactly one since Brown last coached in a college game in 1988), and no long-term tradition or cachet to speak of -- are in the process of moving from Conference USA to the Big East. This is a program that needs to get good quickly. It is a program that needs a splash hire, a boost to national perception, a conversation-starter. It is a program that needs to take a risk.

Larry Brown, it is safe to say, represents all of those things.

Brown is something like a legend in the game, the only coach ever to win both a national title and an NBA championship. His legacy in the game, his sheer reach, extends well beyond his own former programs: Both Kansas coach Bill Self and Kentucky coach John Calipari -- the two men in charge of your 2012 national runner-up and champion, respectively -- consider Brown a mentor. Good luck finding someone to tell you this man can't coach the game. Because he really, really can.

But along with that acumen and experience comes the rest of the overstuffed Brown baggage cart. He is just as legendary for his short attention span; his longest coaching tenure -- q.v. this timeline for the details -- was six years (with the 76ers), and more frequently he has left his job after two or three seasons, and often even sooner than that. He has coached 30 percent of the NBA's teams and is on the verge of taking his 13th head coaching job.

Even worse, especially for an athletics program with SMU's history, is Brown's run-ins with NCAA regulatory brass: At UCLA, a Final Four appearance was vacated, and when he left Kansas in 1988 the program was under NCAA probation.

That said, SMU appears to be working on some built-in Brown backup plans. The first is a potential coach-in-waiting deal with Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich, who was still deciding on the opportunity as of early Tuesday evening.

But according to reports, Brown's staff would also include former Illinois assistant/recruiting ace Jerrance Howard and current Kentucky assistant Rod Strickland. That's a good staff. It's also a staff that could take over on a moment's notice if Brown, now 71 years old, decides this whole "coaching basketball again" wasn't such a good idea after all.

So there are huge upsides, sure. In fact, you're looking at one right now. I'm writing about SMU basketball right this very minute. You're reading about SMU basketball. That is a massive improvement over the recent state of the program -- and by "recent" I mean "since 1993 or so" -- in and of itself.

But there are massive risks here, too. The Mustangs, it seems, have decided to take the entire package, the putative risks with the potential rewards. It could work out. It could blow up. That's the Larry Brown package, and all that comes with it.