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“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
They’ll be talking about that one forever.
Kentucky. Notre Dame. You’ll watch a lot of sports if you dabble in that sort of thing, and every now and then, the greatness of the moment will meet the greatness of what you watch. For the most part, the greatness feels forced … blow out Super Bowls, college championships that are two people in a horror movie tripping over sticks fleeing a villain and one just more times than the other, we see it all the time.
But tonight — Kentucky and Notre Dame — damn, that was greatness.
In one of the best pure sporting events in a moment that really cannot be duplicated anytime soon, Kentucky outlasted Notre Dame on a night when two teams played so perfectly, it felt like it was a scene from every sports movie everywhere. The ones where every shot seems to go in, every pass is a touchdown, and every hit scores a runner.
Kentucky is 38-0, and for all the 5-star talent, Burger recruits, glitz and glamor of college basketball’s most fierce fan base … their greatest attribute may be resolve. Because it took all of that (and not missing a damned field goal for the last 12 minutes) to outlast Notre Dame by two.
You can watch a lot of college basketball over the course of a few years and not see the level of man ball in the paint showed by Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT). Ole KAT had the full arsenal working, with beautiful footwork, soft touch, and sharp elbows to clear space.
Notre Dame was brilliant, going almost 30 minutes without a frigging turnover. But you need to be perfect against Kentucky, because at least record-wise, Kentucky is perfect.
Late in the game, with all of the insufferable clock stoppages and timeouts in their full glory, cameras spanned to see Kentucky fans that looked like this was nearly the end of days. It’s eternally weird what sports can do to and for us.
Hell, it’s easier playing than sitting in the stands or on a couch rooting. At least in-game, you can compartmentalize and control, and if it doesn’t work out, blame yourself. Being a fan is like being on a plane versus driving a car … you’re there … but what happens is totally out of your control.
The never-told story of playing Kentucky though is what happens when you come close to defeating Kentucky. Notre Dame came close, and going into the final minute, tied, they damn well knew it.
Suddenly, their robust, all-hands-on-deck offense stalled. Guys weren’t moving. Guard Jerian Grant was left up to his own devices. People talk all the time about the pressure of being Kentucky. Rarely do folks talk about the pressure of having a chance to beat them — what do you do then, when all of history is bearing down on you watching, waiting to etch your moment in Foreverland?
The story of the game was pressure, and how you handle it within. The script was played out on how to defeat both teams. Force tempo on Kentucky before they could get back in the half court and make them uncomfortable; pound the rock inside on Notre Dame because they don’t have depth in size.
Both teams played it out to perfection.
In the end, one team handled pressure wrought upon them by nearly 40 years, the length of time since a team has navigated college basketball unscathed. The other didn’t, the pressure wrought upon them of having to defeat that team.
But whatever your side, brackets, rooting interests, or otherwise, do me a favor: enjoy what you just watched. Rarely does the event meet the billing price, but tonight, it did that and more.
The NCAA tournament never fails, but it’d be impossible to deliver like Kentucky – Notre Dame just did all of the time. Enjoy what you just watched, again, because it comes around not that often.
For Kentucky, what lies ahead and what lies behind are narratives for everyone else. What lies within will define what eventually lies in the end. And for one more day, it lies awake … but just by a hair.
