Final Four Chronicles - The Departure (Day 5)

Today is the day that we all return to our respective homes, families, jobs and responsibilities.  So rather than take everyone through a diary, I want to just share with you some of my thoughts about the Final Four, Indianapolis, and other thoughts of the weekend.  This our my thoughts, and I am sure that some are the same as the rest of the entourage, while some might be different.

First off, Indianapolis is an amazing city to host a big event.  It is small and compact so that nearly everyone in town for the event is in the same 8 or 10 square block area.  Some may not like the congestion, but it makes it really easy to spot those like-minded individuals that are all in town for the same reason.  Plus, it has St. Elmo!

As far as the atmosphere surrounding the event, one thing stood out among all others.  The stupid multi-colored overalls.  Now, this must be predominately a Midwest thing as almost all of the overalls were red-white (Wisconsin) or green-white (Michigan State), and almost always worn with the buttons undone.  This trend needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW!

Also, we could not turn anywhere during the day without encountering Pedal Bars.  These are the 8/10/12 seater bikes with the people facing each other and pedaling to move the bike forward - in traffic - while drinking.  Although some in our group like them and think they are fun, others hated them and wanted to physically destroy the vehicles.  I am not quite at either extreme, but I do not understand them at all.  If you want to ride bikes with your friends, by all means do, but if you want to hang out and drink with your friends, you can do that almost anywhere - without having to bike.  Plus, the questions of open container and driving under the influence are in play.  How is this legal?

I also want to commend the "new" business models, as they helped us tremendously, were incredibly reliable and cheap.  We stayed in a home that we found on AirBnB - or somewhere similar - and the house was great, close, and allowed us to relax a lot more than we could have in a hotel.  All 6 of us stayed in the house together, rather than in just individual rooms, and it was by far cheaper overall than the 4 hotel rooms we would have needed.  Likewise, Uber was a blessing.  It was quick - just as quick as a cab - reliable, and much cheaper than a cab.  If you are not using Uber for your public transportation, you need to look into it.  It is fantastic, and the arguments against it fascinate me as they are so asinine and irrelevant.

One other corporate note, Pepster and Racecar missed their connecting flight home because of a delay in their first leg.  As the de-plane in Philadelphia, an agent for US Airways meets them in the concourse with new boarding passes for their new flight.  Even though we got home 2 hours later than normal, thank you US Airways for making the missed flight situation much easier.

As for basketball, Lucas Oil Stadium is tremendous.  It is large, but no bad sight-lines.  It must be awesome to watch a football game at that stadium.

As for the games, the first semi-final was a bore, and in the second, which was the best game of the weekend, Kentucky self-destructed rather than Wisconsin winning.  Even with the no call on the shot clock violation, which was obvious even in the upper section where we were located, Kentucky's play-calling - or lack thereof - down the stretch was the Wildcats' demise.  It is a shame too, because the Towns-Okafor matchup is what everyone in college basketball needed to see.  After watching the final, which was exciting, but sloppy, I am convinced that Kentucky beats Duke.  But, alas, that is why you have to win 6 games.

Being at an invent like this, especially in the games, you miss the the post-game stuff, so I didn't even know anything about Andrew Harrison's comment about Frank Kaminsky, which albeit crude, was more of a non-issue than anything else.  Bo Ryan's comments, however, were not a non-issue.

First he basically blamed the officials for Wisconsin losing the game.  Wisconsin, you were up 9 in the second half.  Okafor and Winslow had 4 fouls each, while Okafor missed most of the game due to foul trouble.  And, how come you didn't complain about the officiating the game before when you benefited from the obvious no call on the shot-clock violation?

Second, he goes off on the one-and-done players, saying he is close to his seniors because they stay in college their entire career.  Like Ryan would not have taken Jones and Okafor if they wanted to stay in the Midwest and go the Wisconsin.  And if that is the case, Sam Dekker better stay for his senior year, or else Ryan is a hypocrite.  Some have suggested that by "one-and-done" Bo Ryan meant the fifth year seniors that come to a team for only 1 year and then leave.  That cannot be true, but if it is, Duke and Kentucky do not have those players.  A good example of that type of player is Russell Wilson.

So on the big stage, Wisconsin makes it to the championship game, plays well enough to win, and their players are stuck with a hypocrite, sore-loser coach.  Immediately after Ryan's press conference Doug Gottlieb tweeted out that this is the coach that Big 10 journalists cover all year.  It's a good thing Ryan didn't make the Hall of Fame or else the fans would have booed him like they did Calipari - oh wait - that was the Wisconsin fans!