My apologies to those of you who couldn’t possibly care less about basketball, but Laura over at Fixin’ Supper takes a break from dinner to talk about basketball grudges. She and I share some grudges and we both struggled during last night’s Tennessee versus Louisville game. For her, UT is both a rival of Memphis and Vanderbilt (her two teams), so the Vols top her list. Check out the rest of her list here.

For me, it’s a little more complicated. I’ve held a grudge against Louisville since I was a small child, when I’m not even sure Tennessee had a basketball team (I keed, I keed). UT didn’t even get on my grudge-dar until I discovered while in college at Memphis that my school also had a football team (that–with one notable and oft-referenced exception–routinely got whipped by the Vols). And after the Metro conference dissolved, we had a new basketball rival, Cincinnati. And Bob Huggins. Read a couple of pages here to get a little of the story. I never threw anything at him, but I most certainly did shout “Bundy” at him (25 pounds ago, he resembled the guy who played Al Bundy on “Married…With Children”).

So, with that little history lesson, I present my top basketball grudges:

1. Tennessee–because we’re supposed to avenge gridiron losses on the parquet. I don’t like it when we don’t. And Bruce Pearl gets on my last nerve. Man, that guy is smarmy.
2. Louisville–it’s an old grudge dating back many years and re-ignited by the rivalry between marginally friendly rivals Cal and Pitino. Only Pearl out-smarms Pitino, too (which is really difficult to do).
3. Cincinnati–old habits die hard.
4. WVU–only because Bob Huggins is there now.
5. Ole Miss–same reason as Laura.
6. Every other SEC team–because, growing up in Memphis–right smack in the middle of the SEC yet not being IN the SEC–I got really sick of the SEC. And their fans. Particularly those who make fun of C-USA.

So I wasn’t really cheering for either team in last night’s UT-Louisville game, but just enjoying some good basketball. And enjoying what looked to be Bruce Pearl nearly having a stroke. It’s nice to see the smug wiped from his face, no matter how briefly that lasts. And though in my brackets, I’ve got UNC set to defeat Louisville in the next round, I’d love nothing better than to meet them in the championship game. And see Pitino get whipped. And I shed no tear for Bob Huggins last night either.

*I really hope all this shite-talking doesn’t jinx my Tigers tonight. Thanks to Ned for pulling for us. I hope we get the support from the rest of the UT fans, too.