Who would have believed before this South Regional began that Kentucky would play the role of (relative) creampuff?
But there it is, plainly evidenced by Kansas State’s Atlanta experience.
Kentucky, it could deal with. KSU handcuffed those high-pedigree Wildcats in Thursday night’s Sweet 16 matchup at Philips, frustrating them with a defense that had absolutely no respect for reputation or breeding.
But Loyola Chicago? A whole different caliber of opponent, and an entirely different outcome. Did anyone get the license plate number of that Rambler that just ran over Kansas State?
And after the No. 11-seed Loyola went for 78 points and beat K-State by 16 in Saturday’s regional final, there was little Wildcats coach Bruce Weber could do but acknowledge the obvious.
“We put on the board (before the game) ‘toughness’ and ‘discipline.’ And they were tougher than us from the get-go. They were very physical, very disciplined,” Weber said.
Where Kansas State had allowed opponents a mere 53 points a game through three NCAA Tournament games (Kentucky scoring 58), Loyola could not be turned away. In the face of KSU pressure, the Ramblers did commit 15 turnovers, but none of them mattered one whit. Not with Loyola shooting 57 percent from the field, and making half (9 of 18) of its 3-pointers.
Oh, and a big difference between Kentucky and Loyola, besides the number of NBA scouts at their games: Loyola makes its free throws. Kentucky missed 14 of them Thursday (23 of 37). The Chicagoans missed just three (15 of 18) Saturday night.
“I think they were just more disciplined on offense,” said KSU’s on-floor leader, Barry Brown Jr. “We really didn’t have a disciplined defense. They were spreading us out, getting in gaps, playing off each other and just making the right passes.
“And we were never able to recover and stop it and close out.”
And here was one more poke in the eye for Kansas State: It was a Kansas native, Overland Park’s Ben Richardson, who was the engine of the unstoppable Loyola offense. Averaging just a bit over six points a game this season, the senior guard went for game-high 23 against K-State. Weber was moved to near flowery prose. “Ben Richardson stepped up and had his shining moment, his magic game,” the Wildcats coach said.
Kansas State’s last lead of the game was at 5-4, just three minutes into the night. It would climb no closer than 11 points down at any time in the second half, no matter how Weber exhorted his team to turn the screws, defensively.
“They jumped out to that big lead in the beginning and it was hard to come back from that,” KSU forward Xavier Sneed said. “They just kept the foot on the gas.”
It was Loyola’s underappreciated defense that troubled K-State as much as anything.
“We never could get in any rhythm,” Weber said.
“They were better defensively than I even thought, to be honest,” he added. “I thought we might be able to get some things, some looks, but we just didn’t do that.”
Kansas State was an equal partner in the most unlikely of regional finals. The South’s No. 9 seed had been picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 this year. Its leading scorer was lost – playing a few minutes Thursday, Dean Wade did not make even a token appearance Saturday. Getting this far is a consolation that will take time to coalesce.
“It’s hard to get to this spot, and right now we’ve got a lot of sad faces, a lot of tears, but I told them I appreciate them so much,” Weber said.
And in packing for the trip back to Manhattan, Kan., there was only one model to take home from the Atlanta regional.
“We found a way to be Kentucky to get to this point, obviously,” Weber said. “But I said (to the team), learn from Loyola. How hard they play. How tough they are. How they play together. We’ve got to take that step.”
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