Yankees' dynasty reborn, are Cats next?

There was a lot of talk floating around Big Blue Nation during this World Series that included some interesting facts, but not exactly true. I heard someone say in my section at the football game Saturday night that the Yankees have won a World Series every year that UK has won a National Championship in basketball. Close, but not quite. I've also heard someone say that the Yankees have won World Championships each October of the previous year before the seven times that the Cats have won it in April, which also isn't exactly true. In fact, that hasn't even been true the last two times the Cats have won. The Braves beat the Indians in the 1995 World Series, just before the Cats kicked off their 95-96 campaign that ended with a victory over Syracuse in the Meadowlands. Then, the Marlins went on to win it in 1997 as Tubby Smith was getting prepared to lead the Cats to the 1998 National Championship. Ok, so there goes that theory that since the Yankees won, it's now destined that the Cats will do the same...

The Yankees did, however, win in the same year as the last six times the Cats have won titles (1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, and 1998 were championship years for both the Cats and Yanks). The only year when the Yankees did not win a title in the same year as the Cats was when Rupp won his first title in 1948. But the Yankees did win it in 47, so I suppose that each year the Yankees have either won it in the same year as the Cats, or the year before, or both. My point is, whenever the Yankees win, the Cats win. Whenever the Yankees struggle, the Cats struggle too. It's almost amazing how similar the two teams' successes have been mirror images of each other. Yeah, you can bring up all those Yankees championships in the 20's and 30's that the Cats didn't have, but the NCAA didn't even crown championships until 1939.

Especially since 1996, the two teams' successes have been even more similar to each another. The last World Series appearance for the Yankees before this year was 2003. That may have also been the closest the Cats have come to a title in this decade as they rolled on a 26 game winning streak and #1 ranking as they looked unbeatable until the high ankle sprain of Keith Bogans (and some guy named Dwayne Wade stood in the way as well). You could also say that the departures of Joe Torre and Tubby Smith are also very strikingly similar. Both men led their teams to championships early in their tenures for each team, but were both facing title droughts that are rare and frusterating for the very demanding fans of both teams. Torre and Smith both have new teams now and they're both doing very well with them. However, the Yankees have finally revived their dynasty under Joe Girardi and John Calipari hopes to do the same in Lexington in 2010. Heck, I just realized another similarity....Girardi, Calipari...both are Italian, AND thier names even ryhme. Heck, maybe it is destiny.