Before You Think The Badgers Have A Chance In Hell...

Been away from the computer most of the week -- WrestleMania in my old haunts will do that to you.

Anyway, while I was at the indie wrestling card the night before, a number of us were hunched over someone's phone, watching Kentucky's comeback win over Notre Dame to advance to Saturday's coronation over Wisconsin.

I'm a Wisconsin native.  I saw Bo Ryan coach when his opposing coach was named Ken Anderson (the legendary coach at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where I went to school).  He's a BASKETBALL coach, not a guy running an NBA training camp.

And that's the problem.

It goes double when the referees want to help this along.

Here are some statistics my friend gleaned from that Kentucky-Notre Dame game that might give you an indication that the NCAA, understanding it's about to die, is about to take the last vestiges of "college basketball" and hand them over completely to coaches like John Calipari and the "Succeed and Proceed" crowd:

My friend reminded me of something I should've recalled from my high school days:  The concept that, since you can't score without the basketball, the number of possessions you can get over your opponent will give you a better chance to win.

So consider the following statistics:

Turnovers:  Notre Dame 7 -- Kentucky 11.
Offensive Rebounds:  Notre Dame 13 -- Kentucky 10

So, Notre Dame is 4 ahead of Kentucky in turnovers and 3 ahead in offensive rebounds.

That's seven more possessions that Notre Dame had to score.

So now we get to the Brian Tuohy statistic:

Free Throws:  Notre Dame 10-13, Kentucky 14-20.

Kentucky won by two and had seven more free throw attempts in a game in which Notre Dame had seven more possessions.

One more statistic:  Even though Notre Dame led the entire (relevant to this) time until a foul call with six seconds to go, Kentucky had only one foul in the final 4:28, and it was with 3:45 to go.

No fouls at all after the last TV timeout, and many who saw the game think Kentucky was allowed to maul Notre Dame to ensure a result...

... a result, now, most intelligent people should see as a coronation.