Dick Jerardi: Kentucky, Louisville fans teeming with passion

NEW ORLEANS - The Pimlico spring meet had just opened. There were races to be played. But I just could not tear myself away from a TV set near the racing office that was playing a regional final.

I had been waiting all season for Louisville to play Kentucky. I knew Louisville was better. Now, finally, the Cardinals would have a chance to prove it.

I did not know the history. Did not know that Kentucky would not play Louisville in the regular season. Had not played them in a regularly scheduled game since 1922.

It was so long ago that it was the Mideast Regional. It was, in fact, 1983, 2 years before I came to Philadelphia where I would find that college basketball really mattered. But it does not matter as much at Kentucky where college basketball is the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and Sixers.

Louisville had Camden's Milt Wagner, Lancaster Gordon, the McCray brothers and a sub named Billy Thompson, also from Camden. Kentucky had Melvin Turpin, Dirk Minniefield and Jim Master.

I don't remember much about the game other than Kentucky led most of the way, but Louisville's pressure got them back in it. In overtime, the Cardinals overwhelmed the Wildcats and won, 80-68.

What I learned later was that Louisville began recruiting African-American players in the 1960s. The Cardinals' Wes Unseld led his school into the modern era, even as the state university in Lexington still could not bring itself to deal in reality.

Which just hardened feelings among the racists in the populace. And hardened feelings in the rivalry that wasn't.

After that 1983 NCAA game, with the state legislature shrieking that it better happen, the schools agreed to play the next season. They did and have played every season since then.

But they have never again played in the NCAA Tournament. Until Saturday. In the Superdome. In a town overrun by Kentucky fans and fans from the commonwealth's largest city.

Inside Louisville, it is estimated that it's 60-40 Cardinals. Outside Louisville, it is estimated that is 100 percent Wildcats. And, no, the fans still don't like each other. That will never change.

Neither will the passion. Louisville played 20 home games this season, averaging 21,503 at the plush KFC Yum Center on the banks of the Ohio River downtown. Kentucky played 18 home games, averaging 23,721 at aging Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. Trying to get tickets for any of their home games is almost impossible. So schools, barely an hour apart, averaged 44,224 for 38 games, an astonishing total of 1,680,512.

Kentucky (Anthony Davis), Kansas (Thomas Robinson) and Ohio State (Jared Sullinger) each have a first-team All-America. Louisville did not have a single player on any of the three All-Big East teams.

Louisville lost three rotation players for the season with knee injuries. Wayne Blackshear, a McDonald's All-America who averaged 32.6 points and 14.6 rebounds as a senior in Chicago, had shoulder surgery before the season. He did not play until Feb. 14 and has not been a factor since his return.

Kentucky has all those high school All-Americas who are playing and playing like lottery picks.

If this were just about basketball, Kentucky would be impossible not to love. These Wildcats, young as they are, play the game beautifully. They defend every inch of the halfcourt and really protect the lane with Davis. They are unselfish when no pass is too many. But . . .

Freshman point guard Marquis Teague, whose father Shawn played for Rick Pitino at Boston University, made an early commitment to Louisville. Later, he changed to Kentucky.

Davis was a virtual unknown before he blew up after his junior season of high school. He kept growing, but lost none of his skill. He went from having one offer from Cleveland State to being the hottest recruit in America.

He chose Kentucky. Dropped in the middle of a Chicago Sun-Times story about Davis' commitment in the summer of 2010, was a line that some people "are alleging that the commitment cost $200,000."

Davis' family denied it. Kentucky asked for a retraction and threatened a lawsuit. That story disappeared, but a similar story reappeared not long after. Threats were made.

So, why are all these great high school players going to Kentucky to play one season and then leaving? Is it as simple as John Calipari knowing what it takes to get players ready for the NBA and sending them off with his blessing? Or is it, as the Kentucky haters want to believe, more sinister?

If you are a UK fan, the coach is using the one-and-done rule to his advantage, playing within the rules and putting wonderful teams on the floor. If you are not a UK fan, you believe anything.

"There's some people that think I should convince these guys to stay in school when the numbers say they should leave," Calipari said last Sunday after his team advanced to the Final Four. "I just won't do it . . . I want to help these kids reach their dreams. I don't like the rule. I don't like one-and-done. I don't think it's good for college players, high school players, pro players. It's not a good rule."

The players on these teams don't know about the history of this rivalry. Almost none of them are from Kentucky. Still, the fans will care.

"There will be people at Kentucky that will have a nervous breakdown if they lose to us." Louisville coach Rick Pitino said after his team made the Final Four. "You've got to watch. They've got to put the fences up on bridges. There will be people consumed by Louisville."

All the outside heat will be on Kentucky. But the players, college students for a few months anymore, will really be insulated from all that. They are just playing another game. It will be in a big dome, but they played in a big dome last week.

The purists will remember Senior Day fondly. The realists will look at Saturday's first semifinal and say that is the college game, circa 2012.

The UK haters will remain angry with the "traitor" Pitino because he left for the Celtics and then returned to Louisville. They will hold up their "Benedict Arnold" signs and act like buffoons outside on Bourbon Street and inside the Superdome. They won't notice that the most innovative coach of the last quarter-century has done it again by changing styles in midstream to give these players a chance.

The Calipari haters will be smug in their belief that they know how he did it at Massachusetts and Memphis and now at Kentucky. They will point to his first two Final Four appearances, both since "vacated." They won't know that beyond all the player procurement questions, Calipari is a terrific X-and-O coach.

Minds have long since been made up here. It was true in 1983. It is true today.