Who are these guys? South Region long on underdogs
4 top seeds already have been ousted
ATLANTA — Loyola-Chicago’s bus got lost on its way to arena. How appropriate. With the exception of fifthseeded Kentucky, which knows its way around Atlanta all too well, no one could’ve expected these teams to need directions to the NCAA’s South Regional. Nevada? Not likely. Kansas State? No way. Loyola? Don’t make us laugh. “Obviously, we’re going to be picked as the underdogs,” Loyola star Donte Ingram said Wednesday, after he and his teammates finally arrived at Philips Arena for a light practice. “We embrace that.”
For the first time in tournament history, the top four seeds in a regional were eliminated on the opening weekend .
Virginia shockingly went down in its first game, knocked out by Maryland-Baltimore County in a historic 16-vs.-1 upset. Fourth-seeded Arizona was another one-and-done, blown out by Buffalo. No. 2 Cincinnati was ousted by seventhseeded Nevada, and 12th-seeded Loyola reached the Sweet 16 with a last-second stunner over third-seeded Tennessee.
LOUISVILLE: Louisville didn’t take long to make its first offseason move, parting ways interim men’s basketball coach David Padgett less than 24 hours after the Cardinals season ended.
The former Cardinals player was brought in to bring calm amid turmoil and upheaval after the school placed coach Rick Pitino on unpaid administrative leave following its acknowledgement that it was being investigated in a federal corruption probe of college basketball.
Padgett went 22-14 after being elevated from second-year Louisville assistant last fall.
“It was just a learning experience,” Padgett said Wednesday at a news conference on campus. “I didn’t give myself expectations, I didn’t give my team expectations. But having never done something before, you’re always going to say, how am I going to do, doing it for the first time. All things considered, I think it went really, really well.” BIG EAST: The Big East has recommended replacing oneand-done with a two-or-none policy in college basketball, along with NCAA regulation of agents and the creation of an elite player unit to focus on “players with realistic aspirations of playing in the NBA.”
ARIZONA: Freshman big man Deandre Ayton is leaving early for the NBA after one dominating season. He made the announcement on his Twitter feed Wednesday.
The 7-foot-1, 260-pound Ayton was named the Pac-12 Player of the year in 2017-18 after averaging 20.1 points on 61 percent shooting and 11.6 rebounds per game. PITT: Scratch Arizona coach Sean Miller off the list of potential coaches at Pitt.
Miller, a Pitt alum, said Wednesday he isn’t a candidate for the vacancy created when the Panthers fired Kevin Stallings earlier this month after he coached two years.