Kentucky trusts newcomers to end their recent post -man -frustration history

Milwaukee (AP) – Lamont Butler’s final fund has won a nickname when the former state guard of San Diego tries March, sadness.

“It’s Lamarch,” his teammate Andrew Carr joked. “That’s what we call it.”

Butler sank a jersey against Florida Atlantic to send the state of San Diego to the NCAA 2023 tournament championship, where is Lost to Uconn. It is now one of the nine transfers that try to help Kentucky undergo a reversal of the postseason fortune.

Kentucky (22-11) is seed number 3 in the west media region and goes to its first round game on Friday against Solar belt champion Troy (23-10). Although Butler injured his shoulder in the tournament of the Southeast Conference, he says he feels better.

The Wildcats were also a seed number 3 last year before an impressive 80-76 FIRST ROUND LOSS Al No. 14 Seed Oakland.

Kentucky does not have a single person on his list who played in that Oakland game. The 12 Kentucky scholarship players are newcomers. New coach Mark Pope, Member of the 1996 National Championship team of the Wildcats, rebuilt the list after John Calipari went to Arkansas and brought many of his former Kentucky players with him.

The Wildcats again will try to take Kentucky beyond the first weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time from a Regional final appearance 2019.

Butler knows what is needed to make a deep race in the NCAA tournament because he did it in the state of San Diego. He believes that this Kentucky team has all the pieces instead.

“We are excited to leave and really just show what we can do, show that people are wrong,” Butler said. “I hoped we were in a good position since the summer to win a national championship. That is in our mind, and that is what we are going to do.”

Pope had his own NCAA tournament problems.

His Byu teams were 0-2 in the NCAA tournament. Byu entered both tournaments as a seed number 6 but lost 73-62 to UCLA in 2021 and 71-67 to Duquesne last year.

“We will approach this game against Troy as if we have approached each game throughout the season, with the same words, the same intensity, the same vocabulary, the same urgency,” Pope said. “A little maximum of the preparation and intensity of each game, so we will do the same here.”

Kentucky’s possibilities of avoiding another discomfort of the first round depend on how well the Wildcats control the glass and avoid ball losses. Troy occupies the tenth place in division I in theft by game (9.4) and 11 in offensive players for game (13.9).

“Our coach is always preaching, regardless of who you are, the hardest team always wins,” Troy Tayton Conerway guard said. “While we can be the hardest team, we like our possibilities.”

Filling the tank

Pope won many friends earlier this week when he said he would pay gas expenses for fans that lead to Milwaukee to encourage Wildcats.

He would not speculate how many emails he received since he took him to that agreement.

“I am on purpose, I don’t have the account because I want to reduce my level of stress before playing the tournament,” Pope said. “But that’s not the most intelligent thing I’ve done.”

While Pope talked about the service stations, Troy’s coach Scott Cross has focused on another basic highway output element: Waffle House. Cross gave an interview in which he said he prefers to recruit the guys who like to eat in Waffle House, a comment that attracted great attention when the Trojans enter the center of the madness of March.

“Even our team meeting last year, when we were joining the team and trying to convince everyone to stay, met individually with each guy, and asked them where they wanted to go,” Cross said. “Probably of the 11 types that returned, probably nine of them said Waffle House.”

There is no time to rest for Xavier

Xavier coach Sean Miller said his team did not arrive in Milwaukee until 3 in the morning, local time after his emotion 86-80 Four Victoria de Cuatro About Texas on Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio.

But the Musketeers (22-11) do not believe that the lack of rest should bother them for their Friday night against Illinois (21-12), seed number 6 of the west medium.

“To be honest, I like our position, since I have already played a game, since I had already wet my feet, just entering this game already knowing what to expect in the atmosphere of March’s madness,” said Ryan Conwell Guard.

The story suggests that Xavier is able to make a deep career. VCU in 2011 and UCLA in 2021 I went from the first four to the Final Four.

Illinois faced the uncertainty of not knowing his opponent on Friday night. The Illinois coach Brad Underwood awaits a change in his pre -game preparation this season is worth it.

“We have been a team in the past that had been a two -day preparation team,” said Underwood. “We move away from that this year. We have made many more one -day preparations in terms of what we have happened with the players. We do not give them too much information. I felt that in the past we have killed them with numbers and too much information sometimes. We support that. So, it is not tremendously different.”

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