For Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball fans, these are the times that try men's (and women's) souls.
No one can blame the Big Blue Nation if it feels the hoops gods have deployed the 2022 NCAA Tournament as a giant troll job.
Until the 2022 NCAA tourney, Kentucky had gone four decades without being on the wrong end of a tournament-shattering, David-over-Goliath upset.
Then came No. 15 seed Saint Peter's 85, No. 2 seed Kentucky 79 in overtime.
Alas, for Cats backers, the chides of March were only starting.
Until the 2022 NCAA tourney began, Kentucky held the mantle of men's college basketball's all-time wins leader.
Now, that list stands: 1. Kansas 2,355; 2. Kentucky 2,353.
Until the 2022 NCAA tourney started, Kentucky held the mantle of the all-time leader in victories in men's NCAA Tournament games.
Now, that list stands: 1. North Carolina 130; 2. Kentucky 129.
Until the 2022 NCAA tourney started, Kentucky stood alone in third place all-time in most Final Four trips with 17, only three off North Carolina's record:
Now, that list stands: 1. North Carolina 21; 2. UCLA 19; 3. Duke 17; 3. Kentucky 17.
For those who take pride in UK's self-proclamation as "the greatest tradition in the history of college basketball," this NCAA Tournament must feel like an Academy Awards-sized slap in the face.
The torment is far from over, too.
Ahead is a Final Four — Villanova vs. Kansas; North Carolina vs. Duke — that might as well have been designed to grate on the nerves of the Big Blue Nation.
For Kentucky fans, the 2022 Final Four has no good outcomes:
— If Villanova wins it all, it will mean the Philadelphia-based Wildcats have more national titles (four) since the modern NCAA Tournament bracket of at least 64 teams was launched in 1985 than the Lexington-based Wildcats (three) have.
— Should Kansas win it all, it would push Bill Self's Jayhawks' program into a four-victory advantage over Kentucky in the all-time wins race. It would also burnish the biggest debit — a lack of NCAA championships — on KU's claim to be the greatest men's college hoops program with a fourth national title.
— A North Carolina national crown would be the Tar Heels' seventh, pulling UNC within one championship of Kentucky (eight NCAA titles) in the second spot behind UCLA (11) for most NCAA championships. It would also mean Carolina had opened a three-win edge over UK for most all-time NCAA tourney victories.
— Duke cutting down the nets would cement the retiring Mike Krzyzewski's legacy as, arguably, the greatest men's college hoops coach ever with a sixth NCAA title. It would move the Blue Devils program within two championships of catching UK.
In the modern NCAA Tournament bracket (as noted above, since 1985), it would give Duke twice as many NCAA titles (six) as Kentucky (three).
It would send Krzyzewski riding into the sunset atop a chariot of acclaim.
Facing a Final Four filled with no good choices does not mean, however, that Kentucky backers should not choose.
What should UK fans do?
First, respectfully, here's what not to do. Don't act like Tennessee football fans on Twitter.
Don't jump into Twitter threads about the schools playing in this year's Final Four to stridently proclaim Kentucky's historic superiority.
If you've ever posted anything positive about UK football on Twitter, you know those tweets are magnets for Vols fans who hijack threads to relive the glory days of General Neyland or Tee Martin while promising an imminent Rocky Top football revival that never seems to actually come.
All that does is make Tennessee seem weak.
Don't be that this week in the social media.
Do root for the Villanova-Kansas victor to win it all.
Whatever would be gained by Jay Wright's Wildcats or Bill Self's Jayhawks in claiming the national championship would not create the same level of threat to Kentucky's standing in the pantheon of men's college hoops programs as would either Duke or North Carolina adding another national title.
Do pull for Duke to beat North Carolina.
That is counter-intuitive for a fan base that "still hates Laettner," but a sixth national title for Duke is less eminently menacing to Kentucky than a seventh national title for Carolina would be.
Plus, Krzyzewski is on the way out. A Duke national championship in 2022 arguably puts more pressure on Blue Devils head-coaching-in-waiting Jon Scheyer as he takes over starting next season.
Conversely, a North Carolina national championship for first-year head man Hubert Davis could turbo-charge the Tar Heels' recruiting. It could launch UNC onto a course toward becoming the preeminent program of the current decade.
Do keep things in perspective.
Having followed up a 9-16 season in 2020-21 by losing to a 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2021-22, Kentucky basketball is at a low ebb.
Nevertheless, UK history shows the Wildcats' program has returned to the mountain top from far deeper valleys than it is in now.
This, too, shall pass.
In the short term, the best news of all for Kentucky fans is there are only three games left in an NCAA Tournament that has seemed designed to taunt and haunt the Big Blue Nation.
