Not Jerry Tipton's Friday Basketball Notebook

The 2013-14 season is almost over, and Kentucky is still trying to atone for the disaster was the 2012-13 season. John Calipari’s team is trying to do something that no team in the history of college basketball has ever done: Win a national championship relying primarily on 6 freshmen who were McDonald’s All Americans. With disappointing losses to a whole bunch of teams, the team will fail to reach its ultimate goal of perfect season, and will instead try to console itself with a national title. To stay apprised and educated, follow me on Twitter @NotJerryTipton. Here’s the weekly notebook:

*If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band): After consecutive nail-biting wins over Wichita State, Louisville and Michigan in the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky fans were shocked. How could a team featuring 7 McDonald’s All Americans such as UK be in close games with three teams featuring a grand total of 1 McDonald’s All American? Yes, that’s right. Of the roughly 40 players on the rosters of WSU, UofL and UM, only one of them was a Burger Boy: Louisville’s Wayne Blackshear. If the Cats continue to struggle against teams with inferior talent, their time in this weekend’s Final Four figures to be brief.

*Blame it on Texas: In Sunday’s Elite Eight game vs. Michigan, Kentucky reserve Marcus Lee was a revelation, scoring 10 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. This, of course, leads to several questions, such as “why hasn’t John Calipari played him more? Is it because he is a bad coach? It must be because he’s a bad coach, right?” Despite the fact that he has been relegated to the end of the bench all year, Lee became the first player on the team to score on four put-back dunks in one half all season, probably. And it isn’t like this type of contribution from Lee wasn’t expected from Coach Cal, as he told the Californian before the game that he would play a big role in the contest. And as curious as they were about Lee’s absence all season, UK fans had another question on their collective minds once the final buzzer sounded. Will Marcus Lee transfer? So far, he hasn’t publicly stated otherwise.

*Deep in the Heart of Texas: After a season filled with trials, tribulations and losses, UK has finally started playing up to its potential and now finds itself in this weekend’s Final Four. This does not bode well for Kentucky. It was expected over the last few months that the Cats would return several players from this year’s team. However, this March run has made that particular scenario highly unlikely. Had Kentucky lost to Kansas State in the Round of 64, one assumes the Harrison twins, Alex Poythress, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, James Young, Willie Cauley-Stein and Julius Randle would have all returned next year. However, each of these players has come up big at one point in the NCAA Tournament, thereby improving their draft stock, while at the same time hurting UK’s chances to be really good next year. As the Cats face off against Wisconsin in tomorrow’s national semifinal, Kentucky fans will likely be wanting them to not play well.

* On this date: On this date in 2014, Rick Pitino is trying to figure out some way to convince Montrezl Harrell to return to school.