Kentucky does enough to top Northern Kentucky

Will No. 2 Kentucky have any struggles when it faces in-state foe, Northern Kentucky, tonight at 9:40PM ET in the NCAA Tournament? It just hit me. “Kentucky’s a good team”.

The standout Kansas freshman proved true to his word in an opening-round 100-62 victory over UC Davis on Friday night, scoring 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting in his return from a one-game suspension for an accumulation of embarrassing incidents.

Malik Monk has taken his game to another level in the second half of the season, and is the type of player that is capable of leading a team to a national title by himself.

Wichita big man Shaquille Morris was redshirting that year. For Wichita State, it’s junior Shaq Morris, a redshirt in 2013-14, and seniors Zach Bush and J.R. Simon. Kentucky seniors Dominique Hawkins and Derek Willis are still Wildcats.

So we wanted a big team to give ourselves that great opportunity in the tournament to play the best and put our name in a record book somewhere. I’ve got the whole state of Kentucky behind me. By halftime, the Wildcats built a 38-24 lead and the Wichita State fans realized they were not going to get an upset this night. “We shouldn’t be playing this late”. “It’s kind of the last go-around”. Once again, it is happening because one of the teams was drastically underseeded by the NCAA selection committee.

With Oakland and Valpo going down early in the Horizon League tournament, the sea parted for the Northern Kentucky Norse who took full advantage to punch their first-ever ticket to the dance in the program’s very first year of eligibility. And they’re scheduled to play none other than the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

Dayton coach Archie Miller suggested Wichita could have been a No. 4 or 5 seed after seeing the Shockers too close up.

“I’m kind of used to the short end of the stick, if you will, on the seedings”, he said. “NKU is a real asset to the community as they continue to produce extraordinary talented leaders for our region and beyond”. He’s made just three three-pointers in Kentucky’s past five games. The bad news? You have to be an authenticated cable subscriber -or, at least, have access to an authenticated cable subscriber’s login and password details!- to watch.

LITTLE EXPERIENCE: Eight of the Norse hadn’t played in Division I before this season.

“Revenge? It’s been years since that happened”.

“A lot of players on our team have a sense of urgency, they know their futures depend on making it far in this tournament”. “We have that in the back of our minds”.