Cornell vs. Kentucky: Much more than David vs. Goliath.

In its first two NCAA Tournament games, Kentucky scored a total of 190 points and won by the greatest amount of points of any team in the NCAA Tournament in two straight games since the 1996 Wildcats, who were considered by many to be the greatest college basketball team of all time. The Wildcats are heavy favorites over 12th seeded Cornell. It's not only a David vs. Goliath story. That is just the beginning of the dominating storylines for this matchup.

"They're saying smart kids versus the dumb guys," said John Wall. "I just think it's Kentucky basketball versus Cornell." Demarcus Cousins explained that "We're not out there reading books," Cousins said. "We're playing basketball." Cousins was wearing glasses as he spoke. When asked if it's a "Cornell look," Cousins joked that he would need a piece of tape on the nose bridge for that look.

It's the Ivy League vs. SEC, it's dumb kids against smart kids, it's also black vs. white.

Yesterday's Boston Globe column by Dan Shaughnessy was elitist and even a bit racist. It raises the question, would articles like this pop up all over the web by elitist Northeastern sportswriters if Cornell was playing Kansas, who started a couple of white kids? Sure, if Kansas was matched up with Cornell, it would certainly be a David vs. Goliath matchup too, but would sportswriters bring up intelligence as much with two white kids starting for Kansas?

What about Duke? Yes, Duke is a very good school just as Cornell is, but they do not hold the same admissions standards for basketball players as they do for the rest of their student body. In a heated debate on Boston sports radio this morning, Kentucky sports blogger Matt Jones pointed out that several of UK's starters have higher ACT scores and higher GPA's than members of Duke's starting lineup of four white kids.

If Duke played Cornell in this game tonight with four white kids starting, would they be considered the dumb kids against the smart kids of Cornell? As a matter of fact, two black kids in UK's starting lineup were both recruited at Duke (John Wall and Patrick Patterson). Patterson is about to graduate in three years and Wall has a 3.5 GPA. Both players have higher ACT scores and GPA's than the starting point guard and power forward at Duke, both of whom are white.

It's also safe to say that Demarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe went through more struggles in their 18 year childhood than any Cornell student will most probably go through in their entire lives. Kentucky's freshman class is blessed with unbelievable talent, but they had to work and go through a lot in unstable family situations to get to where they are today. The fact that they are probably going to leave school early for the NBA to use their God given talent does not make them any less of a person than a Cornell player who stays four years and graduates.

In yesterday's open practice at the Carrier Dome, the Cats were "booed" and cursed at by thousands of fans in a way that no college athlete deserves, especially at a practice. There is no doubt that literally everyone outside of the state of Kentucky will be rooting very hard against the Cats tonight. It's Glory Road all over again at the Carrier Dome. The 1966 Kentucky vs. Texas-Western National Championship game featured a heavily favored, all-white Kentucky team against an all-black starting lineup and huge underdog team from Texas-Western. Only this time, the roles are reversed for Kentucky as a predominately black team against the smart, Cinderella, white boys that everyone wants to win. These young Cats have faced and met every challenge thrown at them to this point, and I can't wait to see them do it again tonight.