Dwight Schrute Jumps on the Cornell Bandwagon. Andrew Bernard is not Pleased.

I actually know nothing about basketball. I am more of a fan of Norwegian Bike Polo. I am just doing this because picking Cornell is En Vogue and Andy hates it.

Let's start with the Cornell love. Basketball analyst and guru Jay Bilas has picked Cornell to upset the Cats. Doug Gottlieb still has the Cats in his Final Four but is openly questioning whether or not Kentucky will be defeated. Last night on MSNBC's Count Down with Keith Olbermann, the shows host, a Cornell grad, had a little fun with the fact that his team is now in the Sweet 16. He went through Cornell's surprisingly sordid past as a basketball program which included racism, prostitution and player abuse. Really? Cornell? Olbermann kept shouting "This tournament is ours!" until he ended with the line, "That is until we face Kentucky."

Make no mistake about it, Cornell is a potentially dangerous team. They are loaded with seniors(they start 4 of them) and experience. They have a seven footer and three guys that are 6-8 or above. They can flat out shoot the dang ball from the three point line, something that the Cats have had trouble defending since the beginning of the year (Same Houston State anyone?). They have blown out their first two opponents by double digits. Temple (5) and Wisconsin (4), two teams that have been known for their hard nose play and their defensive capabilities.

Cornell is also helping themselves with the media by being all smiles and quoting "Friday Night Lights" during the post game press conferences. Another X-factor that Cornell has is ex-UK player Mark "The Coury Flurry" Coury. Coury is best known b y UK fans for starting just about every game during the 07-08 season for "practicing hard". Every time Coury was on the floor all of Big Blue Nation grimaced in pain and disgust. Coury doesn't even start of his current team. I doubt Coury will be able to give much insight about his former team being that the Cats current coach and over half of it's roster wasn't even there while Coury was on the team. Mark Coury will always be remembered for starting when he had no business starting and being a "weird dude".

This all being said, I still think that this is Kentucky's game to lose. They have the better talent, the better wins, the better coach, the better fan base and the better pedigree. Cornell had not won an NCAA tournament game until they beat Temple. Now they have two to their credit. Kentucky has a gazillion.

The way the Cats are playing now, if they can continue it, there is no reason to think that they will not roll over Cornell and stomp the living daylights out of them. Kentucky is also big (the tallest team in the land) and they have also been shooting well as of late (thank you Bledsoe and Miller). I also don't think that The Big Red have faced the speed and the athleticism that Kentucky brings to the table. If Cornell wants to try and speed up the game and make it into a foot race they do so at their own peril.

One more thing that the Cats have seemed to develop in this tournament that they have been lacking all year long: the killer instinct to put teams to bed. They had a bit of a problem putting teams away when they have had the chance early on in the season. Calipari kept talking about, the team kept talking about it, but nothing seemed to change. 29 and 30 point blowouts have seemed to indicate that the Cats have become all Mortal Kombat on teams. FINISH HIM!!!