Kentucky basketball playing Illinois in wrong NCAA Tournament location

[ad_1]

MILWAUKEE — The NCAA Tournament selection committee got some things wrong, and Kentucky basketball is about to face one of the most egregious mistakes Sunday in its second-round game against Illinois.

While the immediate outrage from broadcasters and those who swear they have a Ph.D. in bracketology was to rail against North Carolina’s admission, they should have shown the same energy to Illinois, as a 6-seed, getting to play in Milwaukee.

This is usually the kind of perk reserved for No. 1 seeds, which is why Duke gets to play 30 minutes from campus in Raleigh, North Carolina.

(The committee also got Louisville wrong, both as an 8-seed and allowing it to play in Lexington. It ended up being a moot point with Creighton’s win over the Cardinals.)

No one, of course, is going to feel sorry for Kentucky. 

Not when it comes to men’s basketball.

But a team’s body of work in the regular season is supposed to account for something. 

Illinois had a very inconsistent season, complicated by injuries for sure, culminating in a 43-point loss to Duke in Madison Square Garden. 

The Cats tied a program record with eight wins against teams ranked in the top 15. One of those wins came against Gonzaga in Seattle in which they rallied from 16 down and won 90-89 in overtime. 

That game is why the Cats have a comfort level heading into the game against Illinois.

“We’ve been through it before,” UK center Amari Williams said. “When we played Gonzaga in Seattle, their fans were able to pack that arena at a neutral site, so we’ll be ready for it.”

It’s as if the basketball gods are punishing the Cats for 1984. That was the last time they faced Illinois in the NCAA Tournament, and that Midwest Region final was played at Rupp Arena.

The Illini had the better team, but the Cats earned the Final Four berth after a controversial no-call when UK’s Dicky Beal appeared to get away with a travel in the closing seconds. 

It led to an NCAA rule change for the men’s basketball tournament…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/columnists/c-l-brown/2025/03/23/kentucky-basketball-illinois-ncaa-tournament-milwaukee/82460718007/

Author :

Publish date : 2025-03-23 09:11:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.