Undergraduates should have goals. While other college students are off on spring break seeing how many beers they can chug before they pass out, the boys from Syracuse had another purpose.
“To shock the world,” said guard Jason Cipolla.
Nice try, Syracuse.
That’s a hard thing to do these days, shock the world, and more difficult still in short pants and sneakers, even when you are Dennis Rodman.
Nor is Kentucky the world, no matter how newly inflated its own opinion, and college basketball was no more than just this month’s sports carnival, an amateur attraction at that.
The stakes for Kentucky were more modest, to do the expected, to achieve, in the words of senior guard Tony Delk, “what we’ve been waiting a lifetime to do.” And Delk’s lifetime has already lasted 21 years.
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This Delk and Kentucky did with sporadic adequacy, withstanding the bothersome Syracusers, their own poor shooting and a leaky arena roof to win 76-67 Monday night. Hardly a classic, but indelible, nonetheless.
This is Kentucky’s sixth national title, second only to UCLA, plus the first for Rick Pitino and the second time in Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim’s tenure that Syracuse has lost the title game.
Pitino had called the semifinal game against Massachusetts Ali-Frazier. This one was more like Ali-Bonavena, to stay in the same generation as Pitino, or Tyson-Bruno, to be more contemporary, except Syracuse could take and throw a better punch than Bruno.
“You know champions should have nicknames,” Pitino said, “like the Fab Five or Rupp’s Runts, and I’ve been thinking of one for this team. I thought of the Professionals, because they’re such pros about their work habits.
“But I think they should be called the Untouchables. They’ve been so focused on defense, they haven’t let anyone touch them. And they didn’t let Syracuse touch them tonight.”
And that is why coaches should not be assigning nicknames.
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight? Kentucky shot the ball like it was a water balloon, making barely a third of its shots, missing consistently from within spitting distance of the basket. Kentucky took 27 threes, making 12.
“We built this program on threes,” Pitino said. “We won the national championship shooting threes.”
Syracuse was just too thin and too erratic, getting almost no help from anyone but its star, John Wallace, who showed a selfish streak that may come in handy as a lottery pick.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he is rookie of the year in the NBA,” Pitino said.
Wallace remained for his senior year at Syracuse on the chance that he could have a night like this, when everyone was watching. They saw him score 29 points but they also saw him play out of control and without care, fouling out on a stupid play when his team could still win. Wallace will be a good eighth man on some NBA bench.
“I thought we should have won,” Wallace said. “I thought myself I had a couple bad calls. We won the game. That’s my opinion.”
Sportsmanship is not a required course in college, or anywhere in sports these days.
“I’ve never tried to play up our underdog role,” Boeheim said. “These kids went into every game thinking they could win. They think they should have won tonight.
“I think they’re champions and as I’ve told them often, all that matters is what I think.”
Losers are entitled to think whatever they want to and winners get to rewrite history.
“Last year when we didn’t go to Seattle (for the Final Four),” Pitino said, “all my family was very upset. I said to them, `Don’t you think it would be better if we win in New Jersey where we’re all from? We’re going to win it there.’
“Did I believe it? Absolutely not. But I said it.”