ATLANTA — Kentucky didn’t succumb to anyone’s “poison,” as John Calipari had feared. It hadn’t gotten too big for its blue-blooded britches as it surveyed the wreckage of this NCAA South Region.
The Wildcats just ran into a hungrier collection of Wildcats — the Kansas State variety.
Junior Barry Brown made a twisting, contested layup with just over seven seconds left in a wild game, and K-State withstood a last-second 3-point attempt by Kentucky’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to take a heart-stopping 61-58 decision.
“It shows our resilience the character of our guys, we keep batting to make plays when it matters,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said. “It seemed like our whole team had fouled out and yet we grabbed every big rebound and a bunch of our guys had their moments.
“We knew we had to fight it out, grind it out. And we did that.”
Said Kansas State’s Xavier Sneed: “To fight it out and rough it out … that’s so big for us. I’m so proud of my guys.”
It was the first time in 10 all-time chances Kansas State beat Kentucky, and for the effort the purple-clad Wildcats will wear the home whites Saturday when they try to position their own improbable run in front of Loyola Chicago’s.
For the first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament a ninth seed (K-State) will play an 11th seed (Loyola) for the right to advance to the Final Four.
“We made some plays down the stretch,” said Brown, and no single play defined that more than his game-winner. “When it was time to win the game, we won the game.”
Kansas State (25-11) raced to a 13-1 lead to start the game, and then jumped to a nine-point edge in the second half despite only getting eight minutes out of their best player, Dean Wade, who is nursing a foot injury. Weber said it’s possible Wade will be able to play Saturday.
But Kentucky wound up taking the lead, 55-54, on a layup by Gilgeous-Alexander. A P.J. Washington layup with 1:32 left gave Kentucky its final lead at 57-56, but Washington couldn’t complete the three-point play. That was an area that will haunt Kentucky all offseason, as Washington shot 8-for-20 from the line, as a team missing 14 out of 37 free-throw opportunities.
“If I just make half of them,” Washington lamented, “this could have been different.”
On Wednesday, Calipari had scoffed at the notion his fifth-seeded team, as always heavily reliant on freshmen, had emerged as the favorite to escape this bracket after the first four seeds had been eliminated.
On Thursday they were simply outplayed most of the way — and still nearly managed to escape.
“Kansas State played the kind of physical game that they had to play and did what they had to do,” Calipari said. “They shot 35 percent and won a basketball game. My hat’s off to them, We didn’t play particularly well and sill had a chance to win.”
Sneed led Kansas State with a game-high 22 points and nine rebounds before becoming the third member of K-State to foul out; Brown added 13 points. Despite his foul-shooting woes Washington led Kentucky with 18 points and 15 rebounds.