By now you’ve probably seen the video from last night: Nerlens Noel, a.k.a. the reason Kentucky had any hope of making a long NCAA Tournament run, crashing into the basket support and immediately falling to the floor in immense pain, eventually being helped off by teammates. Immediately in the wake of the injury, even before the severity was known, everyone was sad. Now that the severity is known – Noel is out for the season – everyone’s even sadder. After the jump, we do our best to explain why.

Kentucky’s narrow 60-58 win over Vanderbilt, in which the Wildcats nearly blew a 16-point lead, was marred by controversy, as Nerlens Noel scored Kentucky’s last points of the game on a shot that appeared on replay to come out of his hand after the shot clock expired. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings went ballistic, but when it came time for a coach who’d have really lost his mind at such a call, Bobby Knight, to give his thoughts… well, this happened. To say that least, it was odd. []

It’s basketball season. And soon enough, it’s going to be basketball-and-nothing-else season, so you best get used to these morning-after roundups looking like this. Not a basketball fan? Cherish that football you have left, is all I can say. Because today, we’re going all hoops all the time. Let’s get this train rollin’.

This is why John Calipari doesn’t want you playing pickup basketball, Nerlens Noel. Because when you go up for two-handed dunks, lose your balance, and hit the deck on the hard concrete, Kentucky’s title hopes briefly hit the deck with you. Video of Noel’s scary fall, after the jump.

Well, no one can accuse Kentucky basketball fans of being complacent. The school’s coming off its first NCAA title since 1998 – a title UK fans celebrated celebrated heartily – but the focus is on the new season now. Want proof? Just watch.

There were probably many people who contributed to the Kentucky basketball team’s championship season, and were deserving of a ring. Was Drake one of them? No. No he wasn’t.

Anthony Davis was an emergency addition to USA Basketball’s national team when Blake Griffin went down with a knee injury, but he acquitted himself well in a warmup game against the Dominican Republic last night. And he even got to trash-talk his former coach while he was at it.

Sometimes, we ask ourselves why we continue to watch sports after seeing these gut-wrenching endings.

In significant but completely unsurprising news, the top five underclassmen from Kentucky’s national-title-winning team – Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist Marquis Teague, Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb – are all headed to the NBA.

You know some Kentucky basketball fans will go to extraordinary lengths to try and lure a top prospect to UK, so it follows that they’ll go to similarly extraordinary legnths to see their team try to win a national championship. And they will.