Posted on 03/23/2018 5:37:48 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
ATLANTA The South Regional was supposed to be the Kentucky Invitational, a warm up tournament for the vaunted Wildcats before the team took its rightful place in the Final Four next week in San Antonio. The regional semifinals, after all, were lacking star power and quality. Loyola-Chicago and Nevada were mere upstarts.
And Kansas State? It might be a pretty good football school, but it was widely considered the weakest team of the 16 remaining in the N.C.A.A. tournament so said various pundits and analysts who re-ranked the tournaments survivors. They brought to Thursdays matchup a 24-11 record, a mid-pack finish in Big 12 Conference play and a seeding of No. 9.
Star power? Few outside Manhattan, Kan., had heard of Xavier Sneed. They know him now. Behind Sneeds 22 points and gritty all-around play, Kansas State defeated Kentucky, 61-58, and will face No. 11 seed Loyola here in an improbable South Regional final the first game between a No. 11 seed and a No. 9 in tournament history.
Weve been picked eighth in the Big 12, finished fourth, and we saw the new seedings come out, 16th in the Sweet 16, Sneed said. So we felt disrespected all year, and we just came out here and proved people wrong, and were going to do that game by game.
What went wrong for the Kentucky Wildcats? About everything.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Was tough to be left at home after 7 straight years.
Looks like next year we could be back. 2 good freshmen returning and a great recruiting class coming in. Not to mention the UVa transfer becoming eligible.
Predicting a mid conference finish next year and another trip to the dance for our ‘clones next year.
As a UK fan I really didn’t like this roster of players, note I didn’t say team. For the majority of the season all we saw as each player trying to pad their highlight reel for the NBA. They were not likable and took no pride in where they were playing. They sort of attempted to play as a team the last thirty days of the season and it finally caught up with them last night.
I can pull for anyone left in the tourney except for Puke and Kansas at this point, I can’t go there.
The major downside to recruiting the top talent. Most are one-and-dones and naturally come with that mercenary attitude. They see college as nothing more than a showcase for highlighting their skills for NBA scouts.
Agree. I just hope the ‘Cats don’t suffer a letdown after upsetting Kentucky. And every time I even think about using “K-State” and “Final Four” in the same sentence I get verklempt.
I do have this awful feeling that we are living on borrowed time, though.
Im struggling whether to stay home and watch the game tomorrow or go to Easter Vigil.
Because some of the Snow Birds are still here and the C&E attendees will flood in, we go to early Easter morning service and walk so we don’t have to park. It is only a half of a mile.
Of course, with no Daylight Savings Time, our MST is the same as PDT and we are two hours behind you but our Saturday 4:00 lasts three hours for vigil so its the same thing.
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