Keidel: UCLA-Kentucky Is Everything That's Great About College Hoops

By Jason Keidel
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Considering three of the big boys of college basketball were jettisoned before the Sweet 16, there's a clash of true, historic titans that's flying well under the radar.

Two teams with a combined 19 NCAA titles. Two teams so fertile with dominance and brand recognition that even a layman can roll off 10 or so players and three or four coaches. Two teams that happen to be playing each other this week.

Yes, Kentucky and UCLA are squaring off on Friday, at 9:39 p.m. And we're hearing nary a word about it. Maybe we're still in shock over Villanova, still busy bashing Duke and Coach K over one loss in arguably the best coaching career in NCAA history. Maybe fans are too scared to slam Rick Pitino, worried he will cave in to the epic wanderlust that made Louisville his sixth coaching destination (seven if you care to include Hawaii).

But if you're longing for some colossal coaching names, John Calipari should fill the spiritual void you're feeling. Depending on your allegiances, Calipari is either everything that's right about college basketball, or that's wrong with it.

Some agonize over the new hardwood order in the NCAA, with the one-and-done diva tormenting the purists who see them as mercenaries -- as if Calipari and Pitino aren't? -- who use college as a chalkboard funnel for their first sneaker deal. They long for the Grant Hill and Tim Duncan days, when we could still include both nouns in the "student-athlete."

Duncan, the last bona fide Hall of Fame prodigy to spend four years in college, left Wake Forest two decades ago. It's time to adjust your eyes to the current reality, the only one that matters. And no one has seized upon the new distortions better than the wildly successful Kentucky coach. Calipari is a master recruiter, if not a master Xs and Os man. And he really doesn't care if you don't like him, his methods, or his standards.

What matters is that Kentucky likes him enough to cut him an $8 million check every season. Only the deity himself, the master Blue Devil, Mike Krzyzewski, makes more quid than Coach Cal. No doubt this group, which Calipari asserts is the youngest in the tournament, will give birth to a baller or two, much like Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist a few years ago.

And this is a rare moment for Calipari and his Wildcats. They don't enter March Madness as the chalk, the top overall seed or even a top regional seed. Yes, Calipari's program is so dominant that coming into the tourney as a No. 2 makes them a pseudo-sleeper.

And how about Coach Cal's counterpart?

Steve Alford may not have the cash or cachet as Calipari -- he "only" makes about $2.4 million to coach the Bruins -- but he was quite well known before he swapped his sweats for suits.

Alford, of course, was the teen, hardwood heartthrob of Indiana long before he became head coach of UCLA, winning a national title, the last of Bobby Knight's career, and the last for the school.

Adding to the sizzle of this matchup, and to the tournament in general, is the news that Indiana just canned coach Tom Crean, who was the darling of Bloomington -- and Big Ten Coach of the Year -- 12 months ago. But all that goodwill expired when Indiana got bounced from the first round of the tournament. The NIT, that is.

Now Alford is leading UCLA closer to a Final Four, which feels like its ancestral home. No one can replace John Wooden, so no one is trying. But Alford has a player who perfectly fits Wooden's hardwood blueprint, a new Wizard of Westwood, Lonzo Ball.

Perhaps the closest thing we've seen to Jason Kidd since Kidd himself, Ball has uncanny court vision, a sublime sense of spacing, and otherworldly passing skills. Yes, it means you must tolerate his father, LaVar Ball, who seems to think he not only created his son, but also the game of basketball, and recently challenged Charles Barkley to a game of one-on-one.

If you can tolerate the elder Ball's bloviating, then you get to keep his kids. The problem is Lonzo is the only certified stud in the family. And since the true prodigy in the group is surely about to dribble his way to the NBA, Alford may want to follow Ball out of the gym.

Which brings us back to Indiana, which has whiffed on a few coaches since Y2K. The natives are anxious, restless, and ready to drop the guillotine on the school's athletic department. And no doubt there will be incredible pressure to hire Alford, and the resources to do it. Certainly more than the somewhat paltry pay he receives from UCLA. (The Bruins bank on sunshine, ocean, fishing, surfing, and all the other accoutrements unseen in the land-locked Hoosier State.)

Indeed Indiana is all business, and that business is basketball. UCLA will still be in Westwood, still swathed in sunshine, still be the best school in Southern California, if Alford leaves. But Indiana will be a cold, ornery place if Alford stays. Coincidentally, both places are essential to the life and growth of Wooden, who was born and raised in Indiana, but made his name and game in UCLA.

In the meantime, two teams are playing a basketball game. A darn good one. And for two hours on Friday night we can ignore all the games beyond the game.

Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel