Four deaths around the time he took the job six years ago made for a rough start for Wichita State men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall. But today, his Shockers reach a new height when they meet Louisville in the Final Four.
Wichita State guard point guard Malcolm Armstead took the long route to Kansas. The Florence, Ala., native played junior-college ball in Florida, played a year at Oregon and transferred to Wichita.
The observation level of the Georgia Dome was a lonely place just more than 24 hours before Wichita State takes the court against Louisville on Saturday in the Final Four.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino doesn’t need to be convinced his opponent in Saturday’s national semifinals, Wichita State, is a good team.
It seemed like Wichita State had a better chance to make the Final Four last season. The Shockers were seeded fifth, compared to a No. 9 seed this season playing with four new starters. The same thing happened to the Shockers in 1965, who played without their best players from mid-season on and still made the Final Four.
Wichita State senior guard Malcolm Armstead will tell you he believed in the Shockers all the way back in the summer. Armstead, who sat out last season after transferring from Oregon, saw last season’s team win the Missouri Valley title and lose in its first game of the NCAA Tournament. But he looked at the players coming back, and the newcomers, and started telling teammates to think Final Four.
Everyone wants an interview with the Wichita State basketball team following its surprise run to the Final Four, whether it’s local, hometown, college newspaper, TV station, national writers, radio stations. But no Shockers are complaining.
Few can appreciate Wichita State’s run to the Final Four more than Doug Elgin. In 24 years with the Missouri Valley Conference, the league’s commissioner didn’t see a single Valley team advance past the Sweet 16. That all changed last weekend, when he watched the Shockers beat La Salle and Ohio State to win the NCAA Tournament’s West Regional and advance to the Final Four.
The Final Four means euphoria, bragging rights and a never-ending source of conversation, but it also means one of the little guys of college basketball can enjoy a bigger payday.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino made his second visit to an Indianapolis hospital late Monday morning to see Kevin Ware, the player who gruesomely broke his leg while attempting to block a shot in the first half of the Cardinals’ victory over Duke in the Midwest Regional final on Sunday. Pitino said his player was in good spirits.
College basketball’s last four standing each has a regular-season stretch to forget. But Louisville, Michigan, Wichita State and Syracuse didn’t panic. They adjusted, regained confidence and played their best ball over the past two weeks to create a bracket-busting Final Four.
Others may be surprised Wichita State is in the Final Four, but the team isn’t.
The Final Four in the NCAA men's basketball tournament is now set. Louisville will play Wichita State on Saturday in New Orleans. The Cardinals won the Midwest region Sunday by beating Duke 85-63 on Sunday in Indianapolis. Michigan will play Syracuse in the other national semifinal game. The Wolverines won the South region by beating Florida 79-59 on Sunday in Arlington, Texas.
Wichita State can play angry all the way to Atlanta for the Final Four. The Shockers finished their destruction of the NCAA Tournament’s West Regional with a tour de force of aggression, determination and spirit properly channeled with a 70-66 defeat of second-seeded Ohio State at Staples Center.
Wichita State’s amazing run in the NCAA Tournament will continue to the Final Four with Saturday’s 70-66 victory over Ohio State in the West Regional final. But this march to the Final Four is no more improbable than Wichita State’s first, in 1965, when the Shockers lost their two best players at midseason.
The end is almost always a brutal beast for the best basketball programs. Early endings are especially rough, and there is enough in this one to drive everyone around Kansas basketball mad. NCAA Tournament games — and the reputations that are built within them — are decided without safety nets. Kansas plunged in an overtime loss to Michigan in the Sweet 16 on Friday, carving new pain in a proud program’s history.
Alex Hall scored a season-high 35 points, including seven three-pointers, for Drury in a 107-97 win over Western Washington in the NCAA Division II men’s basketball semifinals. The Panthers face Metro State in the championship on April 7 in Atlanta.
Using its trapping, shot-challenging 2-3 zone defense to perfect effect, No. 4-seeded Syracuse shut down No. 3 Marquette 55-39 in the East Regional final Saturday, reaching the Final Four for the first time in a decade.
Critics have taken swings at the NCAA since its formation more than a century ago, but the volume has increased — and the trust damaged — over the past several months, largely in reaction to its handling of investigations involving the University of Miami and Penn State University that, in different ways, were conducted outside normal procedures.
At Arlington, Texas
This is how it ends for Kansas. A stunning collapse. An overtime loss. A 2-minute, 52-second stretch that will linger in infamy, the latest NCAA Tournament disappointment for No. 1 seed KU. Sophomore guard Naadir Tharpe’s off-balance three-pointer was off target in the final seconds of overtime as the Jayhawks fell 87-85 to No. 4 Michigan in the South Regional semifinal on Friday night.
A series of mistakes and bad decisions — all the way down to the final field-goal attempt in overtime — doomed the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks to one of their most painful NCAA Tournament losses, 87-85 to No. 4 seed Michigan in the South Regional semifinals.
The worst moment of a basketball life is a young man slumped over in front of the people who love him and those who don’t. Eyes closed, ears unable to block out the painful noise. There is no way to know exactly what this feels like. Later, someone will ask, and Elijah Johnson will shake his head. He doesn’t know what else to do.
Any conversation about Ben McLemore must now begin with the obvious question — was Kansas’ 87-85 loss to Michigan in the Sweet 16 his final game in a Kansas uniform?
It’s a mistake to think Michigan guard Trey Burke only dominated after halftime in the Wolverines’ 87-85 NCAA Tournament victory over top-seeded Kansas. He finished with 23 points in a dazzling shooting display that included one of the tournament’s signature moments — a long-distance three-pointer that send the game into overtime.
After several years of NCAA Tournament success in the early rounds, the Big 12 wound up 2013 with a paltry 3-5 record. It’s the fewest NCAA Tournament victories for league since 2001.
Kansas coach Bill Self fell to 7-3 in Sweet 16 games, a number that includes his stops at Tulsa and Illinois. He dropped to 6-1 in Sweet 16 games in which his team was the better seed.
Kansas fans traveled in throngs to Cowboys Stadium on Friday, but they will be returning home with a mixture of shock and disappointment after the Jayhawks lost to Michigan 87-85 in overtime.
Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall largely escaped questions about job openings in Salt Lake City. Then he came to Los Angeles, where UCLA and Southern Cal are looking for coaches. But Marshall insists he is happy in Wichita.
An answer from Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall on how to defend Ohio State star forward Deshaun Thomas sent reporters into a frenzy.
Syracuse takes on Marquette in a Big East (Region) battle, and in the West, Wichita State faces Ohio State as the Shockers try to reach their second Final Four in school history.
It’s gotta be the fro, right? How else do you explain Kansas senior Kevin Young, the 6-foot-8 human pogo stick with the never-ending supply of energy? How else do you explain a mid-major power forward transferring to a tradition-rich blue-blood and becoming a key catalyst on a top-seeded NCAA Tournament team?
Elijah Johnson says he’s not ready to put his KU career in perspective. He won’t sum it up, not until it’s done, and he’s not ready for it to be done yet. Johnson talks almost exclusively in terms of team, which is how a point guard should speak. Personal sacrifice is not a problem for him, and that’s never been more evident than this season.
Wichita State advanced to the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament — the Elite Eight — for the first time since 1981 with Thursday’s 72-58 win over La Salle. The ninth-seeded Shockers, 29-8, will play second-seeded Ohio State on Saturday in the West Regional final, with the winner headed to Atlanta for the Final Four.
The Big 12 Conference isn’t calling this a test run for when it hosts the men’s NCAA Final Four next year in the same location – at Cowboys Stadium – but that’s what this weekend’s South Regional amounts to.
KU’s top-ranked field-goal percentage defense figures to factor in Friday’s game against Michigan. If the Jayhawks want to advance to the Elite Eight for the third straight year, senior center Jeff Withey conceded that they will need to do two things: Stop the Wolverines’ Trey Burke from penetrating into the lane — and find a way to recover when he does.
Brett Comer, the starting point guard for Florida Gulf Coast University, got his start in high school basketball at Blue Valley Northwest. His late father is “always with me,” he says.
Looking back on Kansas State’s early exit from the NCAA Tournament, Wildcats coach Bruce Weber still isn’t totally sure what went wrong. A few days ago, he asked his players for their thoughts. They said they were mentally prepared, they simply played poorly. Weber also said Angel Rodriguez is scheduled for surgery on his left wrist and Martavious Irving and Nino Williams surgery to repair lingering knee injuries.
Team tops South Carolina-Aiken 84-75, will play Western Washington next.
WHEN/WHERE: 6:37 p.m. Friday at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas
