So many little things....

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Give credit to UK though, they got the offensive rebounds to get second chances, and while their 2nd half game plan of run into the lane and get fouled ticked me off, they hit the FREE THROWS down the stretch.

I believe they only had the James Young 3 as a FG down the stretch.

[Shock Top]

Best description of yesterday came to me from a Kentucky/LSU fan (Dont understand that)

"It wasnt that one team was better. It was a battle of two equals that left everything on the court. College basketball is better for it, and no fan of college basketball can say that was a truly 1 vs. 8 game.

Sadly though, there are still millions of haters out there that will not view it the same way.

This team doesn't deserve that.

I rue the day a hater crosses my path.

[Shock Therapy]

Best description of yesterday came to me from a Kentucky/LSU fan (Dont understand that)

"It wasnt that one team was better. It was a battle of two equals that left everything on the court. College basketball is better for it, and no fan of college basketball can say that was a truly 1 vs. 8 game.

I was actually a pretty irritated by coach Cal's elite eight comment. That was a championship level game. The surprising thing is that from most of the chatter that I've seen in the aftermath, I think that most everyone who appreciates basketball actually recognized that appreciated it for what it was. That was one of the greatest college basketball games that I've ever seen, and I don't think that there's any hyperbole in saying that. It just kills me that we had to be on the losing end.

[Shock Therapy]

Sadly though, there are still millions of haters out there that will not view it the same way.

This team doesn't deserve that.

I rue the day a hater crosses my path.

Anyone that bad mouths us after that game deserves to be ridiculed as someone that doesn't know basketball. May god have mercy on any of them that cross my path.

[ABC]

I haven't heard any detractors - yet. But I've heard a lot of people saying that people will not give WSU credit.

[Shoxfan11]

I haven't heard any detractors - yet. But I've heard a lot of people saying that people will not give WSU credit.

If you search hard enough on Twitter, you'll find them. But I wouldn't recommend putting that much effort into finding idiots, it's just not worth the time.

[shock]

this year reminds me of the year UCONN won it all.

[Shock Therapy]

I haven't heard any detractors - yet. But I've heard a lot of people saying that people will not give WSU credit.

I have. It did not go well for him. That said, they appear to be few and far between.

[pogo]

If the field goal was not wide right for the bills. If Rosé hit that free throw. Seems there's always little things that could change the outcome.

If George Washington had not crossed the Delaware, if Joshua Chanberlain of the 22nd Maine had not held Little Roundtop at Gettysburg, if Hitler had been killed in WWI, lots of little things impact history.

[CBB_Fan]

The sad thing is this region had between three and five teams that win in all (depending on your faith in Michigan and Duke). Us, Louisville, and UK all had the ability, even if UK never consistently showed the effort and complete team play that they did against us. 3 title contenders in just the top half of our bracket. I think it is fair to say that there were as many tournament contenders in our bracket as their were in the entire rest of the tournament, and the fact that two of them had to lose before the Elite 8 is an absolute sham. Whoever makes it will have gone through two title contenders before anyone else plays a single game at that level (Florida may not get a real test till the Final Four).

[ShockerEngineer]

(Florida may not get a real test till the Final Four).

It kind of makes me sick to look at other parts of the brackets and see how easy of a path other teams are going to have. Although I thought KU had a cakewalk to the elite 8 and we know how that turned out..

[tw805]

It's always easy to point at a couple of things that could have gone this way and that and would have affected the outcome, and there are certainly those things here. (Wessel and Wiggins missing both chances on two trips to the line conjure up a lot of "what ifs".) But I look at this game and am impressed by what you don't see.

WSU played about as good as you can play against those guys. In Kentucky's losses this year, they nearly exclusively beat themselves. They constantly turned the ball over. In playing Kansas State, they turned the ball over 15(!) times and still won by 7. In the second half of our game, they cut way back on those turnovers, and did essentially nothing to beat themselves. Their guards, who had been very suspect all year, couldn't miss anything. Randle showed post quickness that I have never seen in a guy that weighs over 250. They killed the offensive glass, limited transition opportunities, didn't reach when guarding the ball, and effectively played their best game of the season by an exponential margin.

Because of that, I think WSU just played an NBA team to within 2 points. (And don't kid yourself, every one of those UK kids is going in the first round.) What is there to obsess about? Having survived the 1990s as a student, I never thought I would see the day that a game against Kentucky wouldn't end with them choosing band members to fill out the bench and still winning by 50. I would tend to agree that it's suspect that UK was an 8 seed. (UK played the #2 SOS and were 18 in the RPI. Kansas was #1 SOS and #3 RPI. UK should not have been a two or three, but you can't tell me there they should be a 2 and 8 spread between them.) But WSU said all year they would take all comers, so they got them. They played a great game against a team that in December laid only 6/1 odds on a national title. The talent is absolutely there, and we met them head on. That's a pretty significant feat, in my estimation.

[Shock Therapy]

I still hate the committee for what they did. I'd really like to listen in on the phone call if/when Wake Forest's AD calls Marshall about the job. I mean, they already didn't have much of a chance. But now. We all know how personal coach takes this sort of thing.

[KC Shox]

I've been thinking the same thing, so many little things that if just one went our way. The missed oop dunk was huge, instead of going up 5, UK went the other way and got it down to 1. Wessell missing the lay-in on the nice out of bounds play, then missing both FT's. FVV's 4th foul on the hand check was a joke. Then Cle has the lay-in roll out, and next possession (I think) Cotton's 3 does the same thing. Every ball out of bounds seemed to go their way, even when it looked like they hit it out. Any one of those plays could have turned it, it just seemed like it wasn't mean to be. I would take FVV shooting a straight on 3 for the win any day of the week and like our chances, it just didn't work out that time.

Give credit to UK though, they got the offensive rebounds to get second chances, and while their 2nd half game plan of run into the lane and get fouled ticked me off, they hit the clutch shots down the stretch.

Kentucky's second half game plan was the exact game plan we used at SMS to get that game into overtime and secure the win. Although that helped them stay in the game, we had our chances to keep them at arm's length (everything you mentioned) and couldn't capitalize. We needed our 'A' game to win, we ended up displaying our 'A-' game. However, whudda thunk the day we shoot above our FG and 3PT FG averages, Kentucky would do the exact same thing in FG, 3PTFG and FT%. Crap!

[Shock Top]

We needed our 'A' game to win, we ended up displaying our 'A-' game.

THIS IS BS!!!

THIS TEAM PLAYED AN A+ GAME AND NO ONE CAN SAY DIFFERENT!!!

THIS TEAM LOST TO A TEAM WITH SEVEN FUTURE NBA PLAYERS - HAD THE BEST RECRUITING CLASS EVER, THE PRESEASON #1, THE TEAM THAT WAS SUPPOSE TO BE 40-0 - BY ONE EFFING SHOT!!!

YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO DOWNGRADE THE WAY THIS TEAM PLAYED!!!