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NCAA
Wichita State surprises many on road to Final Four
PAGE 7
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the NCAA tournament field was announced a couple weeks ago, Louisville coach Rick Pitino wasn't a whole lot different from millions of other college basketball fans.
He started poring over the bracket for potential upsets.
His eyes quickly settled on Wichita State.
"I was talking with my son," Pitino said Monday, "and I said I thought Wichita State had a great chance of being a surprise team to the Final Four. He asked me, 'Which teams would you think?' I said VCU and Wichita State. ... I was very impressed with them."
Now, Pitino will have to figure out a way to beat them.
His top-seeded Cardinals (33-5) ran roughshod through the Midwest Region, and now roll into Atlanta as the heavy favorite to win their first national championship since 1986.
But first, Russ Smith and the rest of the Cardinals will have to get by a gutsy, gritty and grossly underestimated Wichita State team Saturday night that blitzed through Pittsburgh, knocked off another No.1 seed in Gonzaga, and ousted second-seeded Ohio State to reach the Final Four.
"Each game," Pitino said, "they looked better and better."
Pitino said there are some similarities between the Shockers (30-8) and the Providence team that he led to the Final Four in 1987, long before he won national titles at Kentucky, forayed into the NBA and landed back on the college basketball map at Louisville.
The Friars were the No. 6 seed that year, and beat second-seeded Alabama and top-seeded George-town on their way to the Final Four, where they lost to Syracuse — which just so happens to be playing Michigan in the other
match-up on Saturday night at the Georgia Dome.
"I guess you would consider both Cinderella teams, but Wichita State has much more talent than we had at Providence," Pitino said of a Friars team that featured a young Billy Donovan.
"He was sort of carrying us on his back, amazing young player," Pitino said. "I think Wichita State is a much better defensive team. He was a better guy making everybody better. But like some teams, we just caught offensive fire at the right time."
"We're better all year long when we're the underdog, when nothing is expected."
GREGG MARSHALL
Wichita State coach
In much the same way, everything has come together at the right time for Wichita State.
The Shockers opened the season 19-2, climbed to No.15 in the AP poll and ran their home-court winning streak to 19 games, beating eventual Missouri Valley Conference champion Creighton in a high-profile meeting at Koch Arena, the Shockers' venerable on-campus home.
Then came a disastrous loss to Indiana State, and the start of a three-game skid that included a vexing road loss to Southern Illinois, which finished 6-12 in the Valley this season.
It was similar to a three-game losing streak that Louisville had in January.
“it's interesting. I pointed to Louisville, I pointed to Kansas, great teams with great coaches that also suffered that type of blip, if you will, in their run to a marvelous season,” Wichita State coach
Gregg Marshall said on a conference call with reporters.
Marshall admitted thinking that the season was lost after losing to the Salukis.
The Final Four couldn't have been further from his mind.
"I'm thinking, 'Oh boy, we may have just shot our chances to get in the NCAA tournament right in the foot, we might just have blown it.' I am thinking that to myself, obviously, not relaying that to the team," he said. "Thank goodness our non-conference run where we only lost one game and beat some very good teams helped us, enabled us, to get into the tournament."
The signs were there, though, even before the start of the madness, that Wichita State was a dangerous team. Their only losses the rest of the way came against Evansville, which has won 21 games this season, and Creighton, which ousted them in the Valley tournament title game.
"We're better all year long when we're the underdog, when nothing is expected," Marshall said. "We got to 9-0 and lost. We got to 15-1, and then we lose. This team has done better when nothing is expected, when they're the underdogs, which we'll clearly be on Saturday."
The Shockers, who will travel to Atlanta on Wednesday, are the toast of the town this week, but keep insisting to anybody who will listen that merely making the Final Four isn't enough.
They went want to win the school's first national championship.
"Cinderella found one glass slipper. We won four games. I don't think she found four glass slippers," Marshall said. "Cinderella usually wins a game or two, but much like Butler a couple seasons ago, when you get to this point, you're good enough to win it all."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall celebrates after Wichita State defeated Ohio State 70-66 in the West Regional final in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament on Saturday in Los Angeles.
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kansas City Royals second baseman Chris Getz is unable to catch a shallow fly ball off the bat of Chicago White Sox's Alexei Ramirez during the sixth inning of the White Sox's opening day baseball game yesterday in Chicago.
Royals lose season opener, have high hopes for playoffs
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — Chris Sale outpitched James Shields, Tyler Flowers homered and the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 1-0 in the season opener on Monday.
A dominant performance by Sale and Flowers' drive leading off the fifth against Shields were just enough to beat a team that's trying to make a big jump after finishing with a losing record 17 of the past 18 seasons. It also gave the White Sox a rare win over the Royals, who took 12 of 18 from them a year ago.
The White Sox believe they're in position to make a run at the AL Central title even though they made no splash additions while the rest of the division loaded up. They're off to a good start after a late fade left them three games behind Detroit a year ago.
Sale (1-0) showed the form that made him a 17-game winner and
Along with the addition of Ervin Santana from the Los Angeles Angels and the re-signing of Jeremy
an All-Star in his first season as a starter. On a chilly day when the game-time temperature was 44, he allowed just seven hits and struck out seven while walking one, and he left to a standing ovation after Alcides Escobar's single with two outs in the eighth.
Nate Jones came in and, after Escobar stole second, threw a wild pitch while walking Billy Butler to put runners on first and third. Matt Thornton then struck out Mike Moustakas on three pitches to end the threat, and Addison Reed worked the ninth for the save.
Shields (0-1) was a tough-luck loser even though he gave the Royals exactly what they envisioned when they acquired him from Tampa Bay. The former AllStar lasted six innings, allowing just one run and eight hits while striking out six without a walk.
Shields got out of a tough spot in the second when he struck out Flowers and Gordon Beckham after back-to-back singles by Dayan Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez. Sale dodged a bases-loaded jam in the third when he struck out Butler and retired Moustakas on a pop fly.
Guthrie after he dazzled in a short stint with Kansas City last season, the Royals believe they have the arms to challenge reigning division champion Detroit and make the playoffs for the first time since the 1985 championship season.
Chicago finally broke through when Flowers drove a 2-2 pitch out to left-center leading off the fifth. It was his first homer since he went deep against Kansas City last Sept. 8, and it was a promising sight for the organization. After all, one reason the White Sox let A.J. Pierzynski sign with Texas was they believed Flowers was ready to become the everyday catcher.