UConn and Kentucky Shock Critics, Advance To Final Game

There is so much to write about regarding the irony of tonight's National Championship game with the University of Connecticut and the University of Kentucky.  UCONN and KU will square off to answer questions that millions asked going into this tournament, but few had UCONN and KU as the answers.

Given that truth, it also seems appropriate that we all shut up (or write less) and watch the game.  After all, only the friends and family of these teams had these teams winning it all, but even they didn't put it on their bracket. With such abject failure, who among us has room to forecast that which no forecaster had the vision to see.

In hindsight, there was that pre-season poll which placed Kentucky as the number one team in the nation.  The John Calipari recruiting class was seen as an historic group of freshman.  Had the journey been less rough, there might have been more comparison's to the infamous Fab Five of Michigan than ever materialized this season.

What has materialized is a similar scenario to the one that the Fab Five experienced.  Michigan and the Fab Five made it's way to the National Championship game and found themselves head to head against a more seasoned North Carolina team.

Can Napier seize the title and a top draft selection?

Shabazz Napier of UCONN is clearly the flip side to the freshmen of  Kentucky story line.  Napier is a senior who won a National Championship as a freshman, and stayed around to do it again.  In this day and age, staying in school is the formula for losing draft value as upper class players are generally seen as the left behind.  In essence, they become the REST of college basketball, not the BEST of college basketball.

If the older kids win they will say, "Stay In".  If the young boys get it done they will all be gone (since they have finished their one). What is right and what is best may be the same thing, but maybe not. Maybe the right thing is that every American be free to pursue their dreams even while the best thing is to get as many kids as we can ready for the real world.  Some actually say it is impossible to achieve both.

If the Northwestern University athletes and the labor lawsuit that went in their favor is a sign, young people these days are not only clear about what they want, they are willing and able to go get it.  Much like slave owners of the past, the modern owners of the NBA and NFL's unpaid semi-pro league (aka NCAA sports) have made a critical error in allowing the workers to educate themselves. In a twist of irony, the non-guaranteed education that is sort of promised to each kid is proving to be the most dangerous weapon against those who continue to exploit them.

We are all just as shocked by the outcome of the Northwestern ruling as we are with the outcome of this years National Championship run.  I, for one, am done with deciding what young people can or can not accomplish. Even in tonight's game.