First things first: I’m a Duke basketball fan. That being said, if you know much about college basketball, you know I’m probably not a Kentucky basketball fan. But, this piece is attemptedly written from that small piece of my mind and that tiny piece of my heart that is almost completely unbiased to Kentucky.

To catch those of you up who don’t spend time perfecting your March Madness bracket and obsessing over nearly every college basketball game, the Kentucky Wildcats were 38-0 this year before facing Wisconsin in the Final Four. That’s pretty impressive. They’d made quite the name for themselves this season. They were the favorites to win the tournament and take the national title this year. However, the Badgers of Wisconsin upset Kentucky in this game of poor overall officiating and thus, an undefeated season was crushed along with thousands of Wildcat fans.

Let’s define poor overall officiating in this specific game: missed calls on each side. They were obvious on each side, including a missed flagrant foul for Wisconsin and a missed shot clock violation for Kentucky, both late in the second half. Both teams had room to be angry; however, both teams were hurt by the calls, leaving it to actually be fair in a way. If a referee were to have only missed calls for one of them, that would be a different story. Anyway, the game ended 71-64, Wisconsin.

Kentucky rioted. 31 Kentucky fans were arrested due to fighting and fires. 1,500 fans poured into the streets of Lexington and had to be monitored by police and firefighters until after two in the morning. The cost of the damage to the city is unsure of right now, but it is certain that damage has been done, according to dailykos.com.

Too much is too much.

Now, I’m not just talking about Kentucky basketball. Unfortunately, rioting after big wins and losses is a long-standing tradition in sports. Not only does this “tradition” reduce respect of the sport in whole, but also the team and especially the fans themselves. In this case, I hated Kentucky before, but now that the team members couldn’t shake the hands of Wisconsin’s after the game and the team’s fans set fire to their city, I’ve lost all respect. I at least had respect for the team beforehand; they were good basketball players. Now, the art of their playing and the game itself is lost under the attention to the rioting and immaturity of those associated with the team. The riots ruin the city, ruin respect towards the team and ruin the art of sports. You win and you lose. Professional sports and their fans both need to learn how to do each with grace.