ESPN’s auction to benefit The V Foundation is producing four words no one in the Big Blue Nation wants to read: Duke is beating Kentucky.
Two of the prizes in the auction are "coach experiences" with UK’s John Calipari and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. As of Tuesday afternoon, the leading bid to interact with Krzyzewski was more than $700 more than with Calipari.
Calipari’s prize had received more bids (42-28). But the leading bid was $2,025. The leading bid for the Krzyzewski prize was $2,777.
The auction will be on eBay through July 18. Bids can be made at www.ebay.com/espn. The V Foundation, which was founded in 1993, has raised more than $200 million for cancer research.
Other prizes up for auction include a courtside seat for a home game next to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a visit to ESPN to “spend a day in the life of a SportsCenter anchor,” a ticket to the next national championship game in college football and the chance to announce a selection at the 2019 NFL Draft.
Surely the descriptions of the experiences with Calipari and Krzyzewski would thrill and chill Kentucky fans.
On the thrill side, ESPN’s news release on the auction said “you can’t spell DYNASTY without UK.”
Sticklers for accuracy might say you can, but the BBN would agree that UK is “the most successful program in the history of college basketball . . . and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer John Calipari is one of the main reasons why.”
The similarly effusive description of Duke and Krzyzewski would chill UK hearts.
“There’s nothing like Duke basketball, and no other coach like the legendary Coach K!” the ESPN release says. Krzyzewski “built a dynasty that is unmatched in the world of college basketball.”
The experience with Calipari includes tickets to a UK home game, meeting the coach, touring the "UK athletic facility," attending the pregame walk-through and touring the Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Co.
The experience with Krzyzewski includes tickets to a Duke home game, meeting the coach, touring a facility and an autographed copy of Coach K’s book titled “Leading with the Heart.”
Those wishing for a peaceful Kentucky-Duke coexistence might like how the leading bids for the Calipari and Krzyzewski prizes dwarfed those for other basketball experiences.
The leading bid for a private shootout with ESPN analysts Jay Williams and Seth Greenberg was $610. Also in the Calipari-Krzyzewski rearview mirror were prizes involving Villanova Coach Jay Wright ($560), Notre Dame women’s coach Muffet McGraw ($305) and two tickets to the women’s Final Four ($610).
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