‘We Want Kentucky’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it as ‘We Want Bama’

For the past few years, fans of the every non-Alabama team team in college football have had a mantra during big wins. “WE WANT BAMA.” There is no higher level of fan confidence than calling out the team that everyone supposes is the best. Now, it has moved to college basketball:

This is from Thursday night’s controversial Kansas State court-storm after beating Kansas.

Obviously, Kentucky basketball right now is the obvious analogy for Alabama football right now. They’re both perennially strong, perennially ranked extremely highly by pundits, perennially reeling in top recruits, perennially told how good their recruits are, perennially supported by fans who will burn you in effigy for insinuating any one of the players who plays on their team is not the best player in the history of sports. #BBN is 100 percent the college hoops version of Paul Finebaum callers.

But this still seems off:

It’s in that awkward five syllable range, and there’s no real way you can shorted “Kentucky” or “the Wildcats” to two syllables. “We Want The Cats” would be super-ambiguous. “We Want KY” would sound, well, dirty. “Bama” just has a great ring to it.

The reason “we want Bama” became a thing is because at the end of the college football season, two teams -- now four -- got a shot at the title, and everybody who didn’t got the opportunity to feel slighted by the shadowy cabal that got to play. You totally could’ve beaten Bama. You just never got the opportunity to play them.

Is asking to play Kentucky asking to be named a 16-seed in the NCAA Tournament? Is it asking just to be put on Kentucky’s side of the bracket? A lot more teams get the opportunity to win the basketball tournament

Anyway, this has been a far-too-serious analysis of a not-so-serious sign. I’m sorry for writing it and I am more sorry that you have read it. Please forgive me.