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DEL.ICIO.USToday’s Final Four memory
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Was this Kentucky? I mean, here were the Wildcats spending the aftermath of capturing a national championship as giddy souls? They did everything from dancing to screaming to rapping.
This was 1996, when the Wildcats followed Rick Pitino’s mandate throughout a dominating season to enjoy “the precious present.”
This wasn’t 1978, when the Wildcats were the most joyless team ever to win it all. In fact, that senior-laden, grim-faced bunch was expected to do nothing less by Kentucky’s suffocating fan base. It was called “the season without celebration,” and I followed the Wildcats closely near the end with a sense of dread.
Then, 18 years later, I was in East Rutherford, N.J., to see the striking contrast. A new generation of Wildcats were losing their minds after the ultimate victory over Syracuse. Derek Anderson was among nine Kentucky players who would dribble in the NBA, and he said, beaming from beneath his Final Four cap, “Coach Pitino always tells us to enjoy these moments, because they are the best times of our lives.”
Too bad it was the worst of times for those other Wildcats.
Or so it appeared.
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By rponder
March 27, 2007 4:00 PM | Link to this
This is not only a special time for college basketball across the country it’s a special time for College Parks own Octavious Spann formerly of Banneker High School in College Park Georgia. He is now a member the Georgetown Hoyas basketball team !!!! He is in his 2nd season with the DC squad. He is doing very well academically and socially the basketball speaks for itself. Go Tay!!!!!!!!!!!! Coach P