The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Late foul (or was it?) helps Kansas squeeze past Samford in 1st round
SALT LAKE CITY — Kansas’ Nicolas Timberlake swears he was fouled. If he did, Samford’s A.J. Staton-McCray insisted, “I guess Casper hit him.”
The fourth-seeded Jayhawks took advantage of what looked like a phantom foul in the waning seconds Thursday night that set up two key free throws by Timberlake for a 93-89 victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The 13th-seeded Bulldogs used their frenetic press and deep bench to trim a 22-point deficit to one with less than a minute left. They were trapping KU in the backcourt when Timberlake took a long pass in stride as he was streaking toward the basket.
As he went up to dunk, Staton-McCray came from behind and blocked the shot, appearing to touch nothing but ball.
The whistle blew and Timberlake calmly made both free throws with 14.7 seconds left to help Bill Self’s team push the lead to three and set up a second-round meeting against Gonzaga.
“I was definitely fouled on the breakaway,” Timberlake said.
Well, maybe not.
“I feel like it was a great play by me. Terrible call,” said Staton-McCray, whose opinion was backed up by numerous TV replays.
The debate will play out for about a day back in Lawrence, where bigger things await, but will linger longer in Birmingham, where Samford, champion of the Southern Conference, was denied the first tournament victory in program history.
“I thought A.J. made an incredible play, you know what I’m saying?” Samford coach Bucky McMillan said. “I’m not faulting the call. You can see it different ways. But I was really proud of our guys’ ability to go make a play.”
The call certainly didn’t detract from the game center Hunter Dickinson had for Kansas.
Playing with a sleeve on to protect his recently dislocated right shoulder, he finished with 19 points, 20 rebounds and four blocks. KJ Adams Jr. led the Jayhawks with 20 points, while Timberlake finished with 19 after his two game-deciding free throws.
Self’s team came into the tournament without leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr. (knee) and having lost four of its last five. The Jayhawks play on. And Self wouldn’t play into the good call-bad call debate.
“I thought Nic attacked the basket well,” Self said. “He’s a much better athlete than what a lot of people think. He attacked it strong, just like he should.”
That he had legs left to do that was a feat, given the way Samford played fullcourt basketball for 40 minutes, slowly wearing down a KU rotation that basically had been reduced to six players.
Achor Achor, who played at Greenforest McCalep Academy in Decatur, had 23 points and eight rebounds for Samford, including a tomahawk jam with 38 seconds that cut the Bulldogs’ deficit to two.
Dickinson then hit Adams with a long pass for a dunk, but Jaden Campbell (18 points) answered with a 3-pointer for the Bulldogs to set up the crazy finish.
The Jayhawks won this game, but they were forced to do it Samford’s way. The Bulldogs rushed Kansas into tying its season high with 18 turnovers.
The tradeoff was that Kansas shot 60% from the floor and made this look like a dunk contest at times. Of KU’s 35 field goals, 14 were layups and eight were slams
“I’m not blaming the whistle (but) if there is no whistle, we’re going to have the numbers advantage going the other way to advance to round two,” McMillan said. “That’s how close the game was and that’s how well our guys played when we were down 22.”
Kentucky loss crushes millions of brackets
Kentucky’s 80-76 loss to Oakland on Thursday night didn’t just end a bunch of perfect brackets. It all but ruined many when it comes to the big picture.
The third-seeded Wildcats were picked in 95% of brackets in the ESPN Tournament Challenge to beat the 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies. What’s more, 74.21% had Kentucky making the Sweet 16, 28.84% reaching the Final Four and 6.5% winning the national championship.
Kentucky’s exit erased a lot of perfect brackets, and by the end of the first full day of the NCAA Tournament, only 1,825 remained at ESPN.
March Madness Live, the NCAA’s official site, reported only 0.005% of brackets were flawless.
MTSU pulls first upset of women’s bracket
Savannah Wheeler scored 20 of her 22 points in the second half, and No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee overcame an 18-point, second-quarter deficit to shock sixth-seeded Louisville 71-69 in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Jalynn Gregory scored 24 for MTSU, which won its 20th in a row. It has not lost since falling to Grand Canyon on Dec. 30.
The Blue Raiders matched the third-largest comeback in the opening rounds in tournament history while advancing to the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2007. Center Anastasiia Boldyreva had 11 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks for the Blue Raiders.
Olivia Cochran had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Louisville. Louisville is the only team in the country to have played in each of the past five Elite Eights.