Rod Strickland has taken a long, meandering route to the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament, from Truman High in the Bronx to Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., to DePaul University in Chicago and to eight N.B.A. teams in 17 seasons. For the last five years, Strickland has been looking at the game as assistant to Coach John Calipari, first at Memphis and this season at Kentucky.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.