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Jay Bilas reacts to Kentucky’s upset, how it changes that portion of the NCAA bracket
By Keith Farner
Published:
Jay Bilas called Saint Peter’s upset of Kentucky a historic development in terms of the NCAA Tournament from a seeding perspective, being a 15 over a 2.
“Think about it this way, Saint Peter’s is ranked 260th in adjusted offensive efficiency, 317th in the country in 2-point field goal percentage and they have a 21 percent turnover rate,” he said. “And yet they shot 51 percent against Kentucky, went 9-of-17 from 3, and went 18-of-21 from the free throw line. What this really does, obviously Saint Peter’s goes on to the second round, but what it really does is open up the bracket for Purdue, UCLA and Baylor in the East Region. What an amazing win for Saint Peter’s.”
The historic nature is that the Peacocks became the 10th No. 15 seed to win a first-round game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 and handed Kentucky its first opening-round loss under coach John Calipari.
What a historic upset pic.twitter.com/v1WE1ogyPW
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) March 18, 2022
“At the end of the day, every team that made it to the NCAA Tournament deserves to be here. Every team that made it to the NCAA Tournament believes they can advance. It’s about this night,” Saint Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway said, via the Associated Press.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
