NCAA Tournament Scores: Kentucky Escapes Major Scare from Princeton to Move on – Bleacher Report
J. Meric/Getty Images
NCAA Tournament Action Has Featured Plenty of Thrilling Finishes Thursday, Including a Down to the Wire Contest Between Kentucky and Princeton
Brandon Knight hadn’t made a shot all day, in fact he hadn’t scored a point all day.
The Kentucky point guard who could very well be a top-15 pick in this June’s NBA Draft was even benched late in the game according to the Associated Press.
But that was the first 39 minutes and 50 seconds. In the last ten seconds Knight showed why he’s one of the best freshmen in the country, hitting the game-winning shot with two seconds left to save Kentucky and send the No. 4 seed in the East into the Round of 32 with a 59-57 win against No. 13 Princeton in the East Region.
For the Wildcats and John Calipari, it was a simple survive and advance today, as Kentucky got all it could handle from the Tigers, especially considering the Wildcats young stars were basically held in check today. Knight ended with two points on 1-for-8 from the field, Terrence Jones had 10 points and shot 50 percent from the field but he only took eight shots.
And regardless of the fact that the Wildcats were able to survive, when your freshman backcourt combines for nine points on 4-for-15 from the field, that’s not going to be enough.
The frontcourt and veterans for the Wildcats carried them today, with Darius Miller scoring a team-high 17 points. And if they can continue to get contributions from Miller, that will be a big help. But let’s be honest, Jones and Knight are the players who need to be the stars.
I’ve written about it all week and you’ve heard it too about how important guard play is in the tournament. And when the guards struggle like that, that’s not a good sign. Now Princeton should get a ton of credit for hanging around with the Wildcats and defending Knight as well as they did. One has to think teams will be paying attention to how they defended him.
But still, Kentucky accomplished what they wanted to do.
And it was a good day for Knight, at least for the last 10 seconds.
And for more NCAA Tournament news, head to Bleacher Report’s March Madness page.
Most recent updates:
This article is
What is the duplicate article?
Why is this article offensive?
Where is this article plagiarized from?
Why is this article poorly edited?
Flag This Article