All morning we've been talking about remaining 2011 NCAA Tournament teams who are forced, by way of the spectacularly bizarre Final Four bracket we have before us, to play roles that they wouldn't normally play. Even the UConn Huskies—third-seeded UConn, with one of the best players in college basketball in Kemba Walker!—is unable to resist the force of sportswriting narrative. Never underdogs by any means, Connecticut is left, thanks to VCU, Butler, and even Kentucky, playing the role of the evilest of evil superpowers, twirling its mustache for a leering crowd.
UConn is a long-time basketball powerhouse, a power-conference stand-out, and the only team that ever wins, so far as I can tell, the NCAA Women's Tournament, for good measure. But normally they'd at least have a No. 1 or No. 2 seed around to balance out the hate.
If they beat Kentucky in the Final Four they'll be left to play in a National Championship game in which nobody outside Connecticut—figuratively literally no one—is rooting for them to win. It's tough to find a neutral court when whichever team you're playing is America's sweetheart. So twirl away, UConn, and do the best job you can of tying that mid-major-in-distress solidly to the railroad tracks.