It’s Title Time Tonight Utah, Kentucky Play For Ncaa Championship
For Utah, payback time has arrived against Kentucky in the national championship game. The Wildcats’ plan: ending the Utes’ season with a loss for the third straight year.
Utah and Kentucky have played each other in the NCAA tournament the last two seasons, with the Wildcats winning both times. The stakes have grown each year and tonight they will be as big as they get in college basketball.
The championship pits a Utah team that pulled off two of the tournament’s biggest upsets against a Kentucky team that used two thrilling comebacks to advance to the title game for the third straight year, this time under new coach Tubby Smith.
Two years ago, Kentucky crushed Utah 101-70 in the second round on the way to its sixth national championship. Last season, the Wildcats beat the Utes 72-59 in the regional semifinal and went on to lose in the title game to Arizona.
“The main thing I remember about those two games is that we lost. That’s about all you need to know,” Utah senior center Michael Doleac said of the recent postseason history with Kentucky. “Sophomore year, it was more like we were just watching Kentucky play instead of being in the game… . Last year, it was a lot different. We could play with those guys and we did play with them until they had that spurt at the end when we fouled.
“It’s always a bad memory getting knocked out of the tournament. This year, we are a different team and a lot better defensively and a great rebounding team.”
Even though this is Kentucky’s third straight championship game - the first team to do that since Duke from 1990-92 - the Wildcats (34-4) may have changed more than the Utes (30-3).
Gone to the NBA are Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer, Tony Delk and Derek Anderson. Even with the loss of All-American Keith Van Horn, the Utah roster with Doleac, Miller and sophomore forward Hanno Mottola may have more future NBA players than Kentucky. And the Wildcats, who beat Stanford 86-85 in overtime Saturday, have a new coach in Smith, a former assistant to Rick Pitino.
These teams have a lot in common on the defensive end but little in common in the trophy case. Only UCLA’s 11 titles are more than Kentucky’s six, while Utah’s only title came in 1944 in its only other trip to the championship game.
The coaches are as different as the school’s tournament success. Smith is quiet and rail-thin and got his name as a child for how much he liked to sit in the bath tub. Rick Majerus is outgoing and rotund and has been known to have the media eating out of his hand.
“He has had an outstanding career in developing players and building programs and I think those have been some of the areas I feel strong in from Tulsa and Georgia,” Smith said. “I don’t know him as well as I’d like to know him but I’ve always been a fan of Rick Majerus in the way he had coached. He is a much funnier guy than I am.”
When Majerus was told of Smith’s comments he proved he has a sense of humor.
“I don’t know Tubby that well but a good friend of mine does and he says he’s real funny,” Majerus said. “He makes so much money, if he gives me some, I’ll write a few lines for him.”