Cultures clash over Kentucky and Louisville

Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky.

This Bluegrass State rivalry runs deep, and the divide is wide.

Just 70 miles apart, Lexington and Louisville are worlds apart when it comes to college basketball. Come Saturday when the Cardinals and Wildcats meet at the Final Four in New Orleans, a berth in the national title game is just the beginning.

Here, the game is likened to a civil war.

Pick a side: Wildcats or Cardinals. Rupp’s Runts or the Doctors of Dunk. Dan Issel or Wes Unseld. John Calipari or Rick Pitino.

“If the excitement and frenzy and turbulence that’s been stirred up in Kentucky this week could be harnessed, we could solve our energy crisis,” Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Basketball fans from Kentucky have been waiting their whole lives for this game.”

This is the grudge match to end them all.

It’s the fifth time the schools will meet in the NCAA tournament — the two sides have split the four previous meetings — and it pits Louisville coach Pitino against one-time friend and now frosty foe Calipari. Not to mention Kentucky freshmen phenoms Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who have been steady in taking the Wildcats to the top, vs. a ragtag flock of Cardinals who’ve won eight straight with a rotating cast of mostly unknowns such as Peyton Siva and Gorgui Dieng.

“It’s not about [Pitino] or I; it’s about these players,” said Calipari, who’s in his second consecutive Final Four still searching for the national title that’s eluded him.

The Cardinals (30-9) lost this year’s matchup vs. the Wildcats (36-2) 69-62 on Dec. 31. Even though there is much more on the line Saturday, it will be difficult for the game to be much more intense.

“There’s going to be so much pressure on the players,” former Louisville forward Earl Clark said.