Final Four!

Whoo-hoo!!! After 13 years, the University of Kentucky is back in the Final Four. When I first saw the seed Kentucky got (they should have been a 3 at least) and saw they'd most likely have to beat Ohio State and North Carolina, I thought they'd never do it. I'm glad I was wrong.

We stayed up late Friday night to watch them play the number one team - Ohio State. They played lock-down defense and won on a shot by Brandon Knight with 5 seconds to go. I didn't know if they could recover emotionally from that to play well today. They did! They beat North Carolina by 7. The game was tied was just a few minutes left, but UK rode a couple of clutch threes by Brandon Knight and DeAndre Liggins to win by 7.

We left the car with the score 70-69 and went into church. People crowded around me as I kept up with the score on my Blackberry. We saw that Liggins hit a three with 35 seconds left just before we started services. Then, I saw the final where they'd won!

But that isn't the best thing of all. For years, I've put in an application to try and get tickets to the Final Four. I first tried in 1984 when the Final Four was in Rupp Arena - the year Villinova upset Georgetown. I've never gotten the tickets. In August of this year, I got this email..

Dear Stuart Yancy
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that a random computerized program selected your application for tickets to the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four, to be held April 2 and 4 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas

I honestly thought it was Spam. I did some research and even examined the email headers (being an email admin has it's benefits) and finally realized it was legitimate. I still didn't entirely believe it until I got an application to request a parking pass. The tickets actually showed up February! I figured I would end up selling them especially when the NCAA made it's bizarre ruling not allowing Enes Kanter to play. Again, I was wrong.

So, we'll be heading for Houston on Friday...