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Dallas - So Close And Yet So Far Away
So close and yet so far away. The thought probably passed through the minds of the Kentucky Wildcats a thousand times since last Saturday afternoon.
Forget that the Wildcats advanced farther than anyone ever dreamed, save for eternal optimist Roger Harden.
The loss hurt. Oh, how it hurt.
The anguish clearly showed on the faces of the Wildcats for more than an hour after the game.
You could see the hurt in the eyes of Kentucky's coaching staff. So close and yet so far away.
Kentucky accomplished an unbelievable season, winning 32 of its first 35 games, including a record 20 Southeastern Conference games in a row.
It defeated the likes of arch-rivals Indiana and Louisville in December, then whipped Alabama and LSU not once, not even twice, but three times prior to the NCAA tournament.
But that wasn't enough. Kentucky was seeded first in the Southeast Region, but would have to defeat both Alabama and LSU a fourth time to earn a trip to the Final Four.
It just wasn't to be.
Kentucky met just about every challenge put to the Cats in Eddie Sutton's first year as head coach of the Wildcats.
Eddie Sutton's lessons were sound. The Wildcats responded well. The record says so. You don't compile a 21-2 SEC mark by playing so-so.
Fans, coaches and even the media, not just in Kentucky but around the country expected a 20-win season at best from the Wildcats.
As the season wore on, it quickly became apparent this Kentucky team would be a special one.
By tournament time, Kentucky had advanced to a No. 3 national ranking, not because of an awesome inside game, but because UK simply kept finding new ways to win basketball games.
It all started with a controversial, ex-perimential three-guard offense because three of Sutton's five best performers throughout the preseason workout just happen to be guards.
Sutton, himself, said the three-guard lineup would have to be scraped soon after the beginning of the season because the Cats would need extra strength in the paint.
Sutton was patiently waiting for one of three players to step forward and take command.
Sooner or later either Richard Madison, Cedric Jenkins or Robert Lock would become a starter. All three were impressive at times, but none sustained their star long enough to put either James Blackmon or Roger Harden or Ed Davender on the bench.
Kansas gave the Cats their first taste of defeat, thanks to the powerful inside movement of Greg Dreiling and Danny Manning. The Cats were no match and absorbed their only sound defeat of the season.
Because the guards played so well, Sutton stayed with them. They won and won and won. The three-guard offense continued its winning way through January, February and on into March.
Until that fateful Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. Oh, there had been times when the guards didn't play super basketball, but they performed more than their share of miracles.
But last Saturday, the Cats ran out of magic. Oh, the effort was there all right. I cannot remember a Kentucky team which played with more intensity than UK did the first six minutes of the game against LSU.
But LSU withstood the challenge.
It was forty minutes of grueling warfare. Ironically, it was a phsycial game, the kind that Rick Robey and Mike Phillips would have cherished. It was a game in which finesse players had little chance of surviving.
To be honest, neither team played particularly well. Both played as though their very lives depended on the outcome.
Kenny Walker was the Ail-American everyone knew he was, but his teammates were unable to involve him in the game as much as they would have liked.
Perhaps no one tried harder than senior guard Roger Harden. He's the young man who was bold enough back in October to predict that UK would go to the Final Four.
At the end of the line, he was begging for the basketball, in hopes of having one last miracle left in his collegiate basketball career. He wanted all so badly to get one last shot at Dallas.
Eight previous times that afternoon Harden had fired up shots. He was true on six of them. As the lingo goes, he was looking for his shots. He never got his hands on the ball.
Harden was speechless, just like his senior running mates - Walker and LeRoy Byrd.
Inside the Kentucky locker room, Byrd's face was covered with a towel as his body stretched out on a trainer's table.
Harden's reddened face told the final score as he held back the moisture in his eyes.
Walker once again tried to keep a stiff upper lip.
Destination Dallas was nothing but a bitter memory.
Kentucky hit a cold spell near the end of the contest and LSU didn't. That was the difference in the game. LSU goes on to a date with Louisville in the Final Four and Kentucky puts the wraps on a very successful season which ended in tears at The Omni.
Another rematch for Kentucky and Louisville was in the wings had UK defeated LSU Saturday, but the Tigers' win now leaves the Southeastern Conference with a single club in the Final Four.
Louisville took care of the other SEC foe by holding off Auburn in the championship game of the West Regional at Houston.
Denny Crum's Cardinals have been on a tear the past month and appear to have the momentum to go all the way in Dallas this weekend.
That is unless the Cardinals take Dale Brown and his Tigers for granted.
Without doubt, LSU is the one member of the Final Four which most everyone gives no chance of winning all the marbles.
Don't count Brown short. He's at his finest when his back is against the wall. Sure, his
back isn't against the wall right now. But it was when the Tigers started their late season rally.
Sure, LSU beat Purdue and Memphis State on their home floor, but the Tigers whipped Georgia Tech on the Yellowjackets' homecourt and finally turned the tables on Kentucky after three straight losses to the Cats.
More importantly, LSU won its last two games without the great John Williams playing very well.
As far as Louisville is concerned, the Cardinals should be in better shape matching up with the Tigers in a physical game than UK. The Cards will probably get better play off the bench than UK did and it's doubtful if Louisville's outside shooting will suffer as badly as Kentucky's did Saturday.
Still, it's too bad that Kentucky and Louisville didn't get to meet a second time in Dallas. Louisville won and Kentucky didn't.
Both Kenny Walker and Winston Bennett earned All-Southeast Region tourney honors in Atlanta for their play, but the loss in the finals probably cost Roger Harden a spot on the team although his play time again kept UK in the championship game.
While Kentucky's other guards were hitting only six of 18 shots, Harden's six of eight prevented LSU from totally ignoring UK's outside game.
Inside, Kenny Walker was doing his usual job, but managed only eleven field goal attempts with eight of those coming in the first half. He scored 20 points, but only four came after intermission.
Bennett was a battler on the boards, getting 12 rebounds (same as he did two nights earlier against Alabama) but his three for 13 field goal shooting suffered.
Kentucky hit only 46 percent from the field. However, LSU didn't perform any better from the field, hitting only 45 percent.
You might say the game was won or lost at the free throw line and in turnovers. LSU hit 11 of 14 from the line while UK (which suffered at the charity strip more than once down the stretch) hit only nine of 16.
Kentucky was forced into 12 turnovers compared to nine for LSU.
Also named to the all-tourney team were Don Redden (MVP) and Ricky Blanton of LSU and Georgia Tech's Mark Price.
So often, after a loss, you hear complaints about officiating and how it cost the game.
Right here and now, the officiating of Hank Nichols, John Clougherty and Tom Fraim was as good as we've seen all season long.
It tended to allow the teams to play more physical, but the game was called consistently and fairly.
The officiating crew was definitely a major improvement over much of the officiating we had previously witnessed in the tournament.
I'd take that level of officiating anytime,
anywhere and know I got a good fair shake.
HITS AND MISSES . . . With the season now behind the Cats, the UK staff will be hitting the recruiting trails hot and heavy between now and the middle of April, the time when high school players may sign a national letter of intent . . . UK assistant James Dickey was out in Hutchinson, Kansas last week attending the national junior college tournament. A couple UK prospects were playing  in that event,  including Independence's Harvey Grant,  the JC youngster who originally signed and attended Clemson for a year. He is considered the top power forward in the juco ranks this year . . . Kentucky is also high on a 6-5 swingman by the name of Chris Blocker of Southern Idaho Junior College. Kentucky is still hoping to sign at least one point guard. At the top of the list apparently is Tulsa, Oklahoma's Kevin Pritchard although one recruiting service says Pritchard will choose among Kansas. Tulsa and Kansas State UK has also been recruiting 6-5 Derrick Miller of Savannah, Georgia. One recruiting expert said the choice was likely to fall down among DePaul, South Carolina and Kentucky. Now, the same recruiting service - Ail-Star Sports - has replaced Kentucky with the name of Oklahoma State, where former UK assistant Leonard Hamilton is now head coach. Earlier, reports were that South Carolina was eliminated from the race because Bill Foster was axed. Miller, according to our sources, liked Foster. Supposedly, Georgetown was once in the running . . . Pulaski County star Reggie Hanson's stock went up a great deal last week when he led his team to the Kentucky state high school championship and Hanson was named the tourney's MVP. He scored 92 points. Many believe he will really develop once he puts on extra weight during the next couple years ... It was like old times at the state tourney in Lexington as rural schools challenged the big city boys and won out against. It was a bitter one Saturday morning when Louisville PRP edged Hazard in the semi-finals by two points after a couple controversial calls. Hazard had been the crowd favorite, having won its first state tournament game in twenty years. At one time, Hazard was one of the state tourney's two kingpins, with Owensboro being the other. Pulaski County, from rural Southcentral Kentucky, claimed all the marbles with Dave Fraley (who once coached at Powell County in Eastern Kentucky's 14th Region) at the helm . . . While Hanson was the star of this team, keep your eye on junior guard Shannon Fraley, the coach's son who is going to be one fine college guard somewhere year after next. . . And for you real basketball fanatics, you'll have an opportunity to see Hanson and his Pulaski County team play the Indiana high school state champions at Lexington's Rupp Arena on April 5. It's a new series created by the high school athletic associations of the two states and the first an-
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