The National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament started two weeks ago with 68 teams hoping to play in the Final Four.

For 64 of those teams, that dream didn’t come true. The hopes of winning a national championship are still alive for four teams, however.

During the past two weeks, teams have battled Thursday through Sunday for the right to represent their schools in college basketball’s final weekend. A Final Four trip embodies a team’s ultimate success and a payoff of hard work. Fans brag about the number of Final Fours or championships their teams have been to or won. Programs with high success rates of reaching this final weekend usually turn it into big paydays for their schools.

The teams playing this weekend are four of college basketball’s most storied programs.

The Kansas Jayhawks will tip off against the Ohio State Buckeyes. Kansas is the third winningest team in all of college basketball and has won three national titles. Ohio State has won one national title and last reached the title game in 2007. Both programs are true college basketball powers, however, it’s the other Final Four contest that will have most college basketball fans outside of Ohio and Kansas buzzing.

The University of Louisville will play the University of Kentucky in the first Final Four contest on Saturday night. These two teams and their fans have one of the most intense rivalries in all of college sports, and it is sure to continue boiling this week and through game time.

The cities of Louisville and Lexington, Ky. ”“ home to the University of Kentucky ”“ are only 65 miles apart, which is a stone’s throw away for this basketball-crazed state.

Kentucky is the beloved team of the Bluegrass and has one of the best basketball pedigrees in the league. The Wildcats are making their 15th Final Four appearance and are trying to win their eighth national championship. Kentucky is also the all-time winningest team in college basketball and has won the most ever tournament games.

Louisville, while not at the level of Kentucky, has won two national championships and last reached the Final Four in 2005.

Despite their storied pasts, these two teams have only played against each other in the tournament four times, but this is the first time in the Final Four with a championship berth at stake.

Thickening the plot are the teams’ coaches: Kentucky’s John Calipari and Louisville’s Rick Pitino have made no secret that they don’t really like each other.

Pitino has told the story of how he helped Calipari get his first head coaching job at the University of Massachusetts in 1988, but Calipari is quick to say that story’s not exactly true.

Pitino used to coach the Wildcats and beat Calipari’s UMass team in 1996 in the Final Four on Kentucky’s way to its sixth national title. Pitino, once the beloved Kentucky coach, left to coach the Boston Celtics in 1997, much to the disappointment of many faithful Kentucky fans. He returned to the Bluegrass in 2001 to take over the University of Louisville program.

Calipari left UMass to coach the New Jersey Nets in the NBA and returned to the college game where he became the coach of the University of Memphis. Three years ago, he took the Kentucky job.

That decision probably didn’t make Pitino too happy as he was gaining a formidable rival at Kentucky.

Calipari has returned Kentucky to national prominence. His first team reached the Elite 8 and his second team reached the Final Four.

This week will be interesting as the two coaches will compliment each other’s schools. Pitino will talk about Kentucky’s great team and No. 1 ranking, while Calipari will give the Cardinals kudos for shrugging off a mediocre season to reach college basketball’s pinnacle weekend.

Fans of the schools will flock to the teams’ message boards and sling a lot of mud. The national media will analyze and dissect the two schools more than medical school students do cadavers.

In reality, college basketball wanted this game. It didn’t need this game to help its popularity, but the story lines are just too tantalizing. Let’s hope the game can live up to the hype.

Ӣ Ӣ Ӣ

Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.