What might have been: Players with Kentucky ties in the NCAA Tournament that wasn’t
The cancellation of the NCAA Tournament because of the coronavirus has been tough on basketball fans eager to spend hours in front of their televisions, or in arenas, watching the games.
But it has to have been even tougher on the athletes, including several Kentuckians, who had already qualified — or still could have — for the Big Dance.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi posted a final version of his Bracketology with a field that included some automatic bids awarded to the highest remaining seeds in conference tournaments that were canceled.
Some highlights: Kentucky as a No. 2 seed in a tough Midwest Region with No. 1 Kansas, No. 3 Duke, No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 5 Auburn; BYU, a No. 6 seed coached by former Kentucky star Mark Pope, playing Indiana in its opener; and Northern Kentucky, a 15 seed, playing its opener against Florida State, coached by former Kentucky assistant Leonard Hamilton.
So which players missed out on March Madness? Here’s a look at what might have been for players with Kentucky ties.
The stars
▪ Belmont, which ended Murray State’s two-year hold on the Ohio Valley Conference’s automatic bid, was led by Adam Kunkel. The 6-3 sophomore guard, a first-team All-OVC selection who starred in high school at Cooper, averaged a team-high 16.5 points per game for the Bruins. He shot 39.0 percent from three-point range and 82.1 percent from the free-throw line.
Kunkel’s big season came after he averaged 2.3 points and 9.4 minutes per game as a freshman while playing behind former Bruins stars Dylan Windler and Kevin McClain.
“I definitely had to be patient,” Kunkel said in December, according to The Tennessean. “Honestly, freshman year, I wanted to go in and make an impact right away, but I knew Dylan and Kevin were two key players to our team. They just kept telling me to stay patient, and that’s what I did. When my number was called this year, I’m there. I’m going to make it happen.”
Kunkel averaged 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals in Belmont’s OVC Tournament victories against Eastern Kentucky and Murray State.
▪ Former Henry Clay standout Isaiah “Pun” Tisdale was the Most Outstanding Player of the SoCon Tournament, leading ETSU to the title with a 24-point performance that included four three-pointers and a 10-for-11 mark from the free-throw line.
Tisdale, a 6-1 senior guard who was previously a first-team All-American at Vincennes Junior College as a sophomore, also scored above his season average (9.2 points per game) in the SoCon quarterfinals (12 points, eight rebounds vs. VMI) and semifinals (13 points, four rebounds vs. Western Carolina).
“Isaiah was phenomenal. He willed us to the win,” Coach Steve Forbes told the Kingsport Times News after the SoCon championship game. “I just know how valuable he is to us. It doesn’t show up in the stats all the time. It showed tonight. I could tell he was on a mission.”
Tisdale also averaged 4.6 rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game this season.
“This whole ride to this special moment has been an amazing trip. We’ve still got more to go,” Tisdale told the Kingsport Times News well ahead of the NCAA Tournament’s cancellation.
▪ Northern Kentucky, winners of the Horizon League Tournament and coached by former Tates Creek and Western Kentucky star Darrin Horn, had two former Kentucky prep standouts playing major roles for the squad.
Tyler Sharpe, a 6-0 senior guard who played at Bullitt East and then one season as a walk-on at Louisville, scored 23 points in a first-round NCAA Tournament game against eventual runner-up Texas Tech last season. This year, he was the Norse’s second-leading scorer at 15.1 points per game and earned second-team all-conference honors.
Trevon Faulkner, a 6-3 sophomore guard and 2018 Mr. Basketball winner from Mercer County, averaged 11.9 points and 4.1 rebounds for Northern Kentucky.
▪ Cincinnati’s fourth-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder was Chris Vogt, a 7-1 junior center who starred at Graves County and later transferred from Northern Kentucky. He averaged 11.0 points and 5.9 rebounds in 28.5 minutes while shooting 64.8 percent from the field.
▪ Meanwhile, Louisville was getting significant contributions from former Kentucky high school stars Dwayne Sutton and David Johnson.
Sutton, a 6-5 senior forward from Manuel who started his college career at UNC Asheville, averaged 9.1 points and a team-best 8.2 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per game while Johnson, a 6-5 freshman guard from Trinity, contributed 6.3 points and 2.8 rebounds.
▪ CJ Fredrick, a 6-3 freshman guard who starred at Covington Catholic, was Iowa’s third-leading scorer at 10.2 per game. That included 46.1 percent (46-for-102) from three-point range. He earned All-Freshman Team honors from the Big Ten.
Fredrick, who was the 2018 Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year and led the Colonels to the state championship that year, redshirted last season.
What about the Cats?
Kentucky’s stars weren’t from the Bluegrass, but the roster wasn’t short on Kentuckians. Four reserve players played high school basketball in Kentucky.
Dontaie Allen, a freshman guard and Mr. Basketball winner from Pendleton County, has been sidelined since December 2018 following a major knee injury.
Brennan Canada, a freshman forward from Clark County, appeared in five games and Ben Jordan, a sophomore forward from West Carter who also plays baseball for UK, played in three.
Zan Payne, a freshman guard/forward from Lexington Catholic and son of UK associate head coach Kenny Payne, sat out a second season after a knee injury suffered in high school.
More Ky. prep stars
Braxton Beverly, a 6-0 junior guard out of Perry County Central, averaged 7.1 points and shot 37.3 percent from three-point range for N.C. State. He made 136 three-pointers in his first two seasons, the most in program history through a sophomore season. He added 50 more this season.
Spencer Macke, a 5-11 freshman guard who played at Silver Grove, played in seven games and averaged 1.1 points and 2.3 minutes for West Virginia. Macke led the state of Kentucky in scoring as a senior with 34.9 points per game.
Sayveon McEwen, a 6-0 senior guard from Paducah Tilghman who played his first two seasons at Shawnee Community College, averaged 5.4 points for Robert Morris. He scored eight points, including two threes, in the Colonials’ NEC Tournament semifinal win against LIU.
Sean McNeil, a 6-3 sophomore guard from Cooper, averaged 5.5 points and 14.9 minutes for West Virginia. McNeil played last season at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and led the National Junior College Athletic Association in scoring with 29.7 points per game.
Vonnie Patterson, a 6-4 junior forward from Ballard, started out at John A. Logan College before heading to ETSU. He averaged 3.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in 16.6 minutes per game for the Bucs.
Kyle Rode, a 6-7 freshman forward out of Lexington Christian Academy, averaged 4.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 18.5 minutes per game for Liberty, the Atlantic Sun Tournament champions.
Grant Williams, a 5-11 junior guard from South Oldham, appeared in four games for Louisville.
Two more
Jemarl Baker, a 6-4 sophomore guard who transferred from Kentucky to Arizona, shot 34.4 percent from three-point range and averaged 5.7 points per game.
Kamani Johnson, a 6-7 sophomore forward who is the brother of former Kentucky star Dakari Johnson, averaged 11.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in 27.7 minutes for Little Rock, Sun Belt Conference’s regular-season champs. He was named third-team All-Sun Belt.
This story was originally published March 15, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
