It’s the Sweet 16 for some is like winning the lottery. There are bragging rights for college basketball programs from state to state. For some like Michigan State, it’s a given to be here. For others they are not chasing bragging rights, they are trying to make history. anything less than a championship will be looked at as a failure. Kentucky’s pursuit of a perfect season is the main storyline but upset after upset makes one pause for minute. If Kentucky can go 40-0 they would be the first undefeated season by a national champion since Indiana in 1976. There are however a few teams that have something to say before Kentucky cuts the net down.
The Sweet 16: In The Team’s Own Words
- Wichita State: There’s so much to be said about this rivalry with Kansas but really, it’s all about the fans. What better story is there for Wichita State?” ~Guard VanVleet
- Notre Dame: “It’s a great feeling. We’re playing really well right now. We made big plays down the stretch, and we’ve been doing that all year, getting big defensive stops, hitting shots. So it’s a great feeling. We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now so we want to keep it rolling.” ~Notre Dame guard Steve Vasturia
- KENTUCKY: “I always like it when my team shoots 37, 36, 35 percent and wins in double digits. It shows them they don’t have to make shots to win. You can miss them all. No, you can’t miss them all. You can miss most of them, and you can still win games if you defend, you rebound and you play that way, make your free throws, and they did.” ~Coach John Calipari
- West Virginia: “It’s hard work. It’s hard, and it comes down to having a lot of heart.” ~Coach Bob Huggins
- Wisconsin: “We’re definitely excited and thrilled to be there, but we’re not as in awe or shocked as we were last year,” ~Nigel Hayes
- North Carolina : “If I could play just as well in the first half as I do in the second half, I would prefer to do that, but sometimes it happens that way,” ~Marcus Paige
- Xavier: “As far as playing Sean, it’s really tough,” ~Xavier coach Chris Mack
- Arizona: “We’ve weathered a couple of storms,” ~Coach Sean Miller
- North Carolina State: “We came out today with the feeling that everybody expected us to lose to a 1-seed, but we believe in ourselves and that we’re good enough to beat anybody in the country, and we went down and did it,” ~Beejay Anya
- Louisville: “We had to rally around it. We have a short bench. But these guys don’t take a play off, and that’s unusual in this world.” ~Coach Pitino
- Michigan State: “We’ve been a team all year that has banged around, probably lost more games than we should have just because of the free throw situation or dumb coaching with 2, 3 seconds left to go in the game and people hitting 3s and tying it,” ~Coach Izzo
- Oklahoma: “And you could tell when they hit big shots, when they hit 3s and got off our turnovers, and the crowd was going, but we just had to shut them down even though they got the lead late in the game, shut it down and play our ball,” ~Woodard
- Duke: “I don’t know how many times two Polish coaches will go against one another, where both of us are called Coach K, but he’s a good friend,” ~Coach Krzyzewski
- Utah: “I knew we were due at beginning of the season, I just didn’t know how the feeling would be. I saw it: We have the personnel. We put the work in during the summer but I just didn’t imagine what the feeling would be like. To experience it now, I’m lost for words.” ~Taylor
- UCLA: “The selection committee thought we were good enough to play in this tournament, and I think we proved it,” ~forward Tony Parker
- Gonzaga: “There’s no greater feeling than this, because I haven’t been able to experience it, and most of the guys in the locker room haven’t. So for us to be able to get past this is definitely a great feeling. But it’s not like we were stressing over what people were talking about. We just wanted to do it selfishly for ourselves and our fan base.” ~Pangos
