Should Missouri Tigers Fans Root For Kentucky In Final Four?

If you’re watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, you probably noticed that the Missouri Tigers aren’t in it.

That’s no secret.

But as far as Mizzou’s division rival Kentucky is concerned, things are going, well, just a little bit better. The Wildcats are 38-0, making their third consecutive Final Four, and going for history trying to be the first team since 1976 to go a perfect 40-0 for a season.

Mizzou, which just blundered away an entire season with a 9-22 record and barely managing to show up in the SEC tournament, has a few years (…decades?) to go before anything close to that happens.

Mar 28, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (15) dunks ahead of Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard/forward Pat Connaughton (24) during the second half in the finals of the midwest regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

So, with Kentucky being a division rival—and with many other reasons to root for or against UK, it begs the question, should Mizzou fans root for the Wildcats?

You’re probably in or in between one of two camps.

1) You HATE Kentucky— you’re not a supporter of John Calipari and you’ve always disliked how they do business. This year, you especially don’t want them to win because of the possibility of going 40-0. You don’t want this record broken by this team. You also probably love watching the juggernauts falling, the Goliaths be taken down. This team must be defeated, and you’re a defacto Wisconsin fan this week.

2) You want this to happen. You want to watch a team reach that 40-0 mark and you don’t really care who it is. The fact that Kentucky somehow assembles these unstoppable teams doesn’t bother you, even though they play in the SEC East. Perhaps you’re rooting for the Southeastern Conference. Mizzou’s poor play doesn’t make you bitter enough not to be a die-hard fan of this potential accomplishment

But this is an interesting debate topic, particularly for me since I can’t really decide where I lie. My conference allegiance is really combating with the fact that I don’t want this team to be the one to 40-0.

The fact that Mizzou was so horrible this year—and that Kentucky curb stomped the Tigers twice this year, it would make sense for Mizzou fans to throw a cold shoulder toward the idea of rooting for UK.

It may be true that I really don’t like the Wildcats and that I loath their coach. But the most significant reason I don’t want to see this team go undefeated is because I just don’t think they are that good. I think they’re one of the top three or five teams in the country, but I haven’t really ever gotten the feeling that “this is the best basketball team in the last 40 years.” I’ve never gotten those vibes when watching the team, thus I don’t really want them to pull this off.

I do, however, want to root for my conference; I’m usually all about doing that. But here, I just don’t want them to win.

The main question here for Missouri Tigers fans is this: should they be rooting for Kentucky?

Perhaps another reason has factored into where your allegiances lie in terms of who you’re pulling for: your bracket. In fact, that may be the only motivator behind where your cheers go during March Madness.

After all, it certainly can’t go towards Mizzou.

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