surreal alert -- my alma mater is going dancing.........nm, go Kentucky!

galaxy27 · March 17, 2019 5:16AM

i'm sure this is tritely familiar for a lot of you who graduated from sizable institutions of higher learning that regularly make it to the big dance, but when you're an alum of a minuscule private university that is playing in the NCAA tournament for the very first time, it is an immense deal.

to put this into perspective, when i was at ACU they were Division II. they made the leap to D-I Southland Conference back in 2013, and after a "probation" period for being a newbie on the block, they've actually had something to play for the past couple of years. well, after winning the Conference championship last night (i was there), that something is an invite to the 66-team party.

it is bittersweet, however. how can that possibly be, you may ask? two starters (including their tallest and best player) were kicked off the team about a month ago. whereas a stud athlete may be given extra leeway at a big D-I school, committing a cardinal sin at a smallish Christian university will not fly. you will be off the team and out of school in the blink of an eye, and unfortunately that fate befell those two young men. as a result, they haven't been playing with a full deck for weeks, yet they still somehow managed to overcome adversity and have their ticket punched.

my first thought was the play-in game, but when i woke up this morning i checked out Joe Lunardi's bracketology and he has them in the West region as a #15 seed, due in large part to their 27-6 record, i presume. who does he have them playing? i can't believe i'm about to type this, but..........Kentucky. to give everyone an idea of how they may stack up against superior competition, they played Texas Tech (ranked 7th in the nation) and lost by 34 points earlier this season. and that was with the two aforementioned starters who are no longer a part of the team.

so if you are into tournament brackets and are trying to look like a genius by picking a 15 over a 2, don't do it. and if Estil happens to read this and gets any potentially bright av ideas, just start thinking about something else. i may be proud, but i'm not proud and stupid. a shellacking is forthcoming, but it really matters not. they've already emerged victorious. somewhere Wilbert Montgomery, Bobby Morrow (wiki him) and Randall "Tex" Cobb (can you say disparate?) are smiling.

Darin · March 17, 2019 8:16AM

Coinstartled · March 17, 2019 9:38AM

Congrats on your team getting in the tourney. Better to have a team with integrity lose in the first round than to watch a corrupt team reach the final four.

Hope you guys do well.

Justacommeman · March 17, 2019 4:12PM

Congrats galaxy! I caught a few minutes of their championship game. Fun team

mark

DIMEMAN · March 17, 2019 4:18PM

Not to be snippy, but ho is ACU?

Justacommeman · March 17, 2019 4:22PM

Of course you drew Kentucky

m

galaxy27 · March 17, 2019 4:39PM

prior to the line coming out i thought that an outcome of less than 35 points would be a moral victory

well, it opened at -21.5

far too low imo

i'm a realist before i'm a homer

galaxy27 · March 18, 2019 6:03AM

btw for all the Browns & Pats fans on the board, Anthony Pleasant's son is on ACU's roster

he is going to be called upon to do yeoman's work on Thursday night lol

erikthredd · March 21, 2019 7:32PM

@galaxy27 That was a tough loss but your boys played hard. At least half of that Kentucky team will probably end up in the NBA and their size was too much to overcome.

Coinstartled · March 21, 2019 9:09PM

But did they cover?

Coinstartled · March 21, 2019 9:11PM

Youch...I guess they did.

galaxy27 · March 21, 2019 9:40PM

@erikthredd said:

@galaxy27 That was a tough loss but your boys played hard. At least half of that Kentucky team will probably end up in the NBA and their size was too much to overcome.

i knew they were totally outmanned and the stage was going to completely overwhelm them, but the first half even managed to duck under my very low bar of expectations. having a fractured femur and cracked tooth while being forced to watch my gf sleep with someone else would have been less painful for me personally.

i mentioned up above that 21.5 was a ridiculously low number. even more remarkable was the fact that it shrunk to 20.5 just prior to tip-off. i thought long and hard about making some of the easiest money of my life, but i just couldn't do it. and i'm so thankful that i didn't pull the trigger. it would have felt like one of the filthiest moves of my life.

i said inside 35 would be moral victory and it landed right on the number. so i guess i'll take it, especially after they posted 13 in the 1st half. thirteen.

i'm proud of the school for sticking to its guns and kicking two integral starters off the team for their inability to be the kind of student-athletes that was expected of them, and i'm beyond proud of the remaining players who fought tooth and nail for 40 minutes while drowning in quicksand with nary a branch in sight.

Justacommeman · March 22, 2019 6:23AM

I tried to watch but then I would have had to hide the woman and children. That was brutal. I had my AC gear on.

m

Estil · March 22, 2019 3:40PM

I don't know what you mean by "bright av ideas" but hey congrats on your first! I hope you got to go to the game because you only get one first game right? On a semi-related note, my HS teacher (now vice principal) who most inspired me to go to UK has his alma mater (Murray State) making a bit of a splash this year as well!

So is Abilene really indeed the prettiest town where the women there don't treat you mean?😊
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gu4XsZo005I#

galaxy27 · March 23, 2019 4:02PM

@Estil said:

I don't know what you mean by "bright av ideas" but hey congrats on your first! I hope you got to go to the game because you only get one first game right? On a semi-related note, my HS teacher (now vice principal) who most inspired me to go to UK has his alma mater (Murray State) making a bit of a splash this year as well!

So is Abilene really indeed the prettiest town where the women there don't treat you mean?😊
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gu4XsZo005I#

@Estil i have made a number of ill-advised avatar bets in the past half year, so i was just letting you know ahead of time (in case you saw this thread) that i wanted no part of another. if i had caved i would've asked for 35 points, which technically would have been a "victory" for me because we would've pushed.

i was on the golf course today thus i didn't see any of Kentucky's game, but i caught the score so congrats on making the sweet 16. hope you guys make a deep run.

as for the music vid you posted, i'm not sure what ties (if any) George Hamilton had to the city, but he definitely needed to tweak those lyrics

Estil · March 23, 2019 4:43PM

Why, is Abilene really NOT what he said it was?

Did you get a hole-in-one?

surreal alert -- my alma mater is going dancing.........nm, go Kentucky!

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