Just a reminder

Yes, I was among the Cards fans last night engaged in a little jig as the two green-clad mid-majors, Siena and Cleveland State, both won, seemingly paving the way for a relatively easy road to the regional final for our boys. I am thrilled, I repeat, THRILLED, to not have to play Ohio State in Dayton, regardless of how bad they looked, and equally excited not to have to play Wake Forest, a team that often played well against good opponents this year. On paper, we needed three results last night, and we got all three.

With this in mind, however, I want to point out the following statistic, which may or may not be relevant for tomorrow (and hopefully next Friday's) game: in the Pitino era, when playing in the tournament, we have played a team that wasn't supposed to play us (by this I mean a seed who advanced further than it was supposed to, numericallly speaking) twice. The first time was in 2003, the second time in 2005. The first time we lost to Butler in the second round, the second time we needed everything we had to beat West Virginia to make the FInal Four. I am fully aware that not a single player on this roster played in either of those games, I'm only reminding everyone that nobody should assume it's going to be a cake walk. We should absolutely win tomorrow, having snatched up several thousand putrid Buckeye fans and playing a team that seems to play into our hands based on tempo (a crappier Providence?), and we should win our game on Friday, considering that the two potential opponents would either a.) be playing a million miles from campus (Arizona) and b.) have less people in their entire fanbase than we'd have in Indy.

Hopefully we crush them and the game isn't even in doubt by halftime, but I'm just reminding everyone that there's a damn good chance this team is going to show up tomorrow and give us a game. Let's hope we are mature enough to handle their scrappiness and put them away. Sorry if you feel I've stated the obvious.