Kentucky elimination cements unusual stat involving Duke, North Carolina, Kansas
As the Sweet Sixteen gets set to begin, there are a noticeable lack of blue blood programs in this year’s version. Duke, Kansas and Kentucky all lost in the second round, while North Carolina missed out on the NCAA Tournament entirely.
That marks the second time in the past three seasons that all four of those schools have failed to make the round of 16. According to CBS, the 2021 season ended a 40-year streak from 1980-2019 in which at least one of those programs was in the Sweet Sixteen every season.
Of course, the Tar Heels, Blue Devils and Jayhawks all made the Final Four last season, so the sky is not quite falling for these programs. North Carolina and Kansas faced off in the national championship game, with the Jayhawks coming out on top for their fourth national championship in program history.
As for Kentucky, this marks the second straight season the Wildcats were bounced within the first two rounds. Last year they were a two-seed but fell victim to Cinderella story Saint Peter’s in the opening round.
This year’s Sweet Sixteen already features one 15-seed after Princeton defeated Missouri on Saturday to advance. With 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson set to play Florida Atlantic on Sunday after taking out No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday, things could get even crazier.
Duke, Kansas and Kentucky all suffer second-round elimination
Duke became the first of the previously mentioned teams to suffer elimination in this year’s NCAA Tournament, falling to Tennessee 65-52 on Saturday. The Blue Devils struggled to get anything going offensively against the Volunteers as star Kyle Filipowski scored just 13 points on 6-of-16 (37.5%) shooting.
Coming off an ACC Tournament title in its first season since the retirement of Mike Krzyzewski, Duke earned a No. 5 seed and cruised past Oral Roberts 74-51 in the first round. However, Jon Scheyer will wait to wait another year to lead the Blue Devils on a deep NCAA Tournament run.
Immediately after the Duke loss, Kansas squared off against No. 8 seed Arkansas. The Jayhawks led by as many as 12 in the second half, but allowed the Razorbacks to come back behind 25 points from Davonte Davis. KU became the second No. 1 seed to fall, ending its hopes of defending its national championship.
Finally, Kentucky saw its season end Sunday afternoon in a 75-69 loss to Kansas State. The game remained neck-and-neck until the end, and Kentucky actually led 62-61 with just over two minutes remaining. However, K-State responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to pull away for good.
Kentucky committed 16 turnovers as guard Antonio Reeves shot 1-of-15 (6.7%), both things that cost it in the loss.