SportsPulse: Loyola-Chicago continues to dance in the NCAA tournament and will make an Elite Eight appearance for the first time since 1963. USA TODAY Sports
For the first time in NCAA tournament history, a No. 9 seed is facing a No. 11 seed in the Elite Eight — with a trip to the Final Four in San Antonio on the line.
Perhaps more intriguing is the matchup itself between two colossal underdogs in these NCAAs. Loyola-Chicago is the ultimate Cinderella of 2018's March Madness, advancing to the Elite Eight on three consecutive last-second, game-winning jumpers — over No. 6 Miami, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 7 Nevada, respectively.
Kansas State, meanwhile, wasn't supposed to be here by any stretch. In a South Region that featured No. 1 Virginia, No. 4 Arizona and No. 5 Kentucky, it's KSU — a middling Big 12 team that played itself off the bubble earlier this month — that's still dancing. While Loyola's upsets have been thrilling, and UMBC's drubbing of No. 1 Virginia was historic, the Wildcats' upset of Kentucky stands alone as one of the biggest shockers of this whole tournament.
Plus it's the way they beat a far more athletically superior Kentucky team that was expected to run away with this after seeing its freshmen blossom in the first two rounds. KSU pulled this off with several of its key frontcourt players fouled out and with a five-guard lineup in the closing minute. And Barry Brown's game-winning lay-up, in which he carved through UK defenders and scooped it in over the trees, encapsulated how Kansas State pulled off the upset: More heart, more drive, and more willpower.
So, is it Saturday yet?
This clash between the gritty and determined Wildcats and the well-balanced, offensively potent Ramblers will be a must-watch showdown of two different styles by teams that thrive in the halfcourt.
Loyola's highly-underrated defense proved it can counter NBA-caliber athletes and weather the comeback storm against Nevada, while KSU showed a similar resiliency in taking down a John Calipari team loaded with several future pro players.
And let's not forget about the battle within the battle — between two coaches who have done perhaps the best jobs of any coaches in this Big Dance. Loyola's Porter Moser, the Missouri Valley coach of the year, doesn't have the tourney experience that KSU's Bruce Weber has, but he's proven in three games that he has the chops to make smart manuevers that alter momentum and put his team in position for late-game heroics. Weber, the once Big 12 coach of the year who guided Illinois to a national title game in the early 2000s, has been underrated for a long time now. Perhaps it's time that changed.
And perhaps it's time both these teams start getting the respect they deserve. One of them will be playing in the Final Four, after all.
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