Final Four.

A fellow could pocket a modest fortune for times we’ve heard this Final Four: Ways to beat Kentucky.

From bee hive buzz of television talking heads on the Kentucky-Wisconsin game, ESPN’s Jay Williams stirred the pot with an intriguing mostly unnoticed little sentence. “Ya know what? It’s time to stop betting against Kentucky.”

Irony? This is precisely that time.

With 38 opponents dispatched (three escapes – Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Notre Dame), a generous list of best-of-the-rest teams gone home, this is the match they (Badger Nation) wanted most and you (Big Blue Nation) wanted least.

As entertaining as UK-Notre Dame was last Saturday, this match, on its face, has qualities for greatness. A game to rival Greatest College Game ever played, Duke-UK, 1992 (Bob Ryan, Boston Globe).

√ By today, Big Blue and Badger hoops scientists have examined match-ups (Sam Dekker-Willie Cauley-Stein, could be for the purist worth taking a vacation day to see).

√ You/they have compared depth, options, who likes to shoot from where and intangibles, including dance-with-the-stars routines to come from Calipari and normally stoic Bo Ryan.

√ Trips and time required to buy wings, arrange work schedules and program VCRs, all done.

√ Chips ‘n dips are prepared and ready for rat-a-tat-tat of talking heads to be found among CBS’ endless, mind-numbing, “we’ll be right back” (in about seven minutes) commercials blizzard.

All that done, be ready to hear more final four analysis: Ways to beat Kentucky

Prediction? Too close to call, but considering Kentucky’s a Commonwealth, we know where our hearts are.

APRIL TRIBUTE TO 120-COUNTY BLUE

Natural as daffodils dancing on a sun bank to a southerly breeze, Big Blue Nation flags flutter across 120-county Kentucky this week. Wildcats back in the Final Four. Au naturel.

What is supernatural is, to borrow from baseball, the perfecto still intact into extra innings hasn’t happened …. until 38-0. A new UK notch whittled into the NCAA archives.

For these high marks across the Commonwealth we call home, I am most pleased for blue collar Big Blue fans old enough to know and appreciate roots. Ones who …

√ Still hear Claude and Cawood, and Happy Chandler’s enchanting My Old Kentucky Home.

√ Know Fabulous Five was born here and there is no other.

√ Remembers John Crigler defending Elgin Baylor … Tubby Smith outfoxing Mike Krzyzewski in ‘98 … stayed up late to see LSU lead by 31 in 1994, and lose to UK. … And, Rick Pitino’s time in Mecca.

√ Need a single word to kindle that exquisite heritage made by Cliff and Cotton, Casey and Calipari; Fiddlers, Runts, Unforgettables and, of course, Adolph. Man who chiseled the base on which this much trophy-ed monolith stands.

√ And this: Recognize they saw Pat Riley incarnate last weekend. The unrelenting Runt running around in a green shirt, number backwards, 24 instead of 42. Announcers kept calling Riley … Pat Connaughton.

In the Final Four again. National prominence for the Bluegrass State alongside Lincoln, Clay Cooper and coal.

To Big Blue Nation, tribute.

CARDINALS WERE GALLANT, BUT …

Gallant, Louisville’s run to the last eight was tribute to over-achievement.

Says here, Chris Jones’s exit was pivotal. UofL was a better team because Rick Pitino’s options expanded, his bench men sat up straighter, paid attention better, each expected to play and play well and did.

And so, the oddity in the final moments of the Cardinals’ season. During time-out and last possession sequences against Michigan State, Montrezl Harrell seemed 1. worn out, (put-back shot was short), 2. disgusted being a screener; 3. tuned out when Pitino end-game options involved Wayne Blackshear or Terry Rozier, not All-American Harrell.

COLLEGE COACH OF YEAR

Damaged Cred Dept. The U.S. Basketball Writers Association tried to have it both ways the other day.

Choosing Virginia’s popular and charismatic Tony Bennett as college coach of the year was to reward popular and charismatic.

Snub for John Calipari was petty and political nonsense, but it does elevates conversation on preserving a semblance of college basketball as NOT a one-stop-shop to the NBA (Calipari), but IS a pre-job time of life to be savored and reminder: You’re a college dude one time.

Calipari is college basketball’s coach of the year. 38-0 says so, right? Wrong. Proof is: Having achieved the most with the most (talent). Any other choice, including Bennett, makes the award a popularity contest.

One caveat: If selectors make clear beforehand, criteria for the award includes graduation rates and student-athletes’ progress toward a degree, there would be no argument. Calipari would be a non-qualifier.

COACH CAROUSEL

Final Four aside, most entertaining department in college hoops this time of year is the athletic department when heads roll. Best and worst …

BEST. “you’re fired” notice to Donnie Tyndall at Tennessee. Caught cheating at Morehead State (two years probation in 2010), then Southern Mississippi, Tyndall won’t be back any time soon.

WORST. Rick Barnes gave University of Texas 17 years, wanted another, was promised another year by his boss, then was fired.

“The wins and losses are fleeting, but it’s the relationships that matter,” Barnes said at a farewell news conference.

When tears are wiped away, Texas donors have ponied up (pocket change) buy-out money, Barnes will have $1.7 million to last until his next job offer probably before summer.

America. I love this place.

And so it goes

You can reach me at bob.Watkins24@aol.com