“This is why I’m here!” he screamed. For that, we can blame the NCAA Tournament selection committee, which egregiously under-seeded both the Wildcats and Hoosiers. It was nine with 1:10 to play, but United Kingdom didn’t give up.
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“I wish we could have gone out a different way”, said Poythress, who scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in his last game in a Kentucky uniform. For the Big Ten, today was filled with Indiana-Kentucky, of course, but with only one team in action, it also provided an opportunity for reflection on the tournament thus far. “I’m sick for some individual players who didn’t perform well”. “I saw the lane opening up and saw I could drive to the rim”. That’s what made this unusually stellar Round of 32 matchup bittersweet. This is common place for John Calipari coached teams.
“That’s how it is”, he said.
“It’s good to see him grow and be a very, very big part of what we’re doing this year”, junior forward Collin Hartman said. This is 8 assists and 15 turnovers, but let me remind you, six of those were offensive fouls.
Selden and Ellis combined to shoot 17 for 27 from the floor, shooing away the disappointment of second-round defeats in each of the last two years.
The sophomore guard is likely National Basketball Association bound but his leadership, calming presence, ability to attack defenders off the dribble and intense in-your-shorts mentality on the other end of the court was one of the main reasons Kentucky made a late season run. “I want to keep game-planning. When you can make an adjustment in a game so quickly as we can, you know, that just helps us and adapt to the game”.
Next up for the Zags (28-7), a game against Syracuse or Middle Tennessee in the Midwest Regional.
A rivalry isn’t just about a mutual hatred. Just play the game again. The anxiety caused by that shame was evident on both sides. They’re not computers. That stuff happens. But even that long winning stretch didn’t seem to appease critics, who thought an easy schedule had more to do with Indiana’s success than a transformation from the early season.
The Hoosiers (27-7) are back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013 despite losing starting guard Robert Johnson to an apparent left ankle injury late in the first half.
Ferrell, after looking shell-shocked and tentative early against Ulis and Kentucky’s denying defense, played like his All-American self for the final 25 minutes. Kentucky was the SEC’s great hope, and yesterday’s loss means the Aggies of A&M are it. Hey, at least neither the Big Ten or SEC has matched the ineptitude of the vastly overrated Pac-12.
Indiana, especially Crean, started the season under pressure and fell to 5-3 with a 20-point loss to Duke. No team ever led by double digits.
Tyler Ulis was the dominant scorer for Kentucky (27-9) and led all players with 27 points.
And it was IN, behind Yogi Ferrell, Thomas Bryant and a strong bench effort, that emerged from this Round-of-32 matchup for the ages with a 73-67 victory that will send the Hoosiers to the East Region semifinals IN Philadelphia next week.
It was a dogfight from start to finish, as exciting in its own way as the underdog wins of Friday.
“The amusing thing is, on our first day on campus, Thomas and I had a free-throw contest”, Nick Zeisloft said. Troy Williams had 13.
By largely matching Ulis, Ferrell allowed his team’s better overall depth to shine. “That’s just another stopper for us”.
“This is one that should have been played on another weekend”, IN coach Tom Crean told CBS Sports.
“I was confident in him”, said Max Bielfeldt, Bryant’s backup. He wouldn’t rule it out. “I think everybody on this team had fun”. He’s beaten rivals plenty of times.
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But when it counted the most, Bryant, the 6-foot-10 freshman who joined the Hoosiers over Missouri among others in a heated recruiting battle, came through. We went through a few issues here and there, and they responded to all of that.
