March Madness – (8) Cincinnati vs. (1) Kentucky
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
(8) Cincinnati Bearcats vs. (1) Kentucky Wildcats (-18.5, 127 o/u)
Next team up. That’s the mentality the 35-0 Kentucky Wildcats (35-0, 18-0 SEC) are bringing to March Madness. After breezing through their Round of 64 game against Hampton, the Wildcats will now face the Cincinnati Bearcats (23-10, 13-5 American) in the Round of 32 (2:40 p.m. Eastern at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville).
The Bearcats survived an epic battle with the Purdue Boilermakers on Thursday. Cincinnati trailed late, but Troy Caupain’s buzzer-beater at the end of regulation sent the game to overtime where the team was able to get an early lead and hold on for a 66-65 win. (The Bearcats failed to cover as two-point favorites, though.)
“We got too much heart and pride just to go out, just drop at the end of the game,” Caupain said of being down late in regulation. “There was a lot of time left, and the coaches did a wonderful job of telling us that.”
Freshman forward Gary Clark had nine points ,12 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block  for Cincinnati in his first-ever March Madness game.
Now the task for Clark and the Bearcats goes from difficult to monumental as they try to take down a Kentucky team that is not only 35-0, but is also playing its best basketball in the last few weeks.
Despite cruising to a 79-56 win over the Hampton Pirates late on Thursday, coach John Calipari had some criticism for his phenom-laden squad.
“I didn’t like how we started the game. I didn’t quite like how we finished the game, but it is 1 o’clock at night,” said coach John Calipari whose Wildcats had to wait to start their game until Cincinnati and Purdue finished OT. “[W]e had an overtime game where the guys were hanging out in the locker room for an hour and half, so I’m going to chalk it up to that and move on.”
Freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns led Kentucky with 21 points and 11 boards, but the Wildcats failed to cover the 35-point spread.
The Wildcats are 18.5-point favorites for tomorrow’s game, and the over/under is at 127. These two programs haven’t met since 2005 when the Wildcats took a 69-60 win as 2.5-point favorites.
(Photo credit: Phil Denton (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
