Taylor Tyndall was antsy. The 11-year-old knew Morehead State was a big underdog against big, bad Louisville.
So Donnie Tyndall, coach of Morehead State, sought to comfort his daughter.
“We talked late (Wednesday) night and she kept saying, ‘Daddy, I don’t know. They’re so good,’ ’’ Tyndall said. "I said, ‘Taylor, we’re going to win the game. Baby, relax. We’re going to win.’ ’’
Did Tyndall have reason for confidence? Well, Morehead State did beat Louisville in 1956-57, the only time in the past 25 meetings the Eagles had been victorious in the series.
What father said was good enough for Taylor to feel a lot better. On the bus to the Pepsi Center for Thursday’s second-round NCAA tournament game against the Cardinals, she declared, “I think we’re going to win by one or two, daddy.’’
Make that by one.
Morehead State guard Demonte Harper drilled a straightway 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds remaining to slay Louisville 62-61. Down went one of the two dominant schools in Kentucky, a state where the Eagles, who are from the eastern hamlet of Morehead (population 6,000), are largely regarded as afterthoughts.
“This was the biggest win in the history of our program,’’ Tyndall said.
With the Eagles down 61-59 and inbounding the ball with 30.4 seconds left, Tyndall knew this was the chance he sought for his No. 13 seed, a 9.5-point underdog to the No. 4 Cardinals in the Southwest Region. So he told Harper to dribble the clock down and shoot the 3-pointer for the win.
It was like clockwork.
“They believed in me and they put the ball in my hands when I was struggling,’’ said Harper, who had been 0 of 5 from 3-point range but came in as Morehead State’s best long-distance marksman. “I made the one that counted. I think we proved a lot of people wrong. ... It feels unreal right now.’’
After Eagles big man Kenneth Faried blocked a Mike Marra 3-point attempt at the buzzer, Morehead State players jumped on top of one another at center court in a wild celebration. And nearby was Taylor Tyndall, so emotional about the win she was crying.
Taylor stood on the court wearing a yellow T-shirt that read on the back, “Daddy’s Assistant,’’ with “Taylor’’ underneath. She says she’s a “little sister’’ on the team and the players are her “big brothers,’’ with her father saying she’s so dedicated she even watches game film with the team.
“I’m so proud,’’ Taylor said after her eyes had cleared. “We were the underdog. But I said to myself, ‘We’re going to win.’ Every time we were down, I would rub my (NCAA tournament) pin (on her chest). I kept saying, ‘I have faith in Morehead.’ After (Harper) made the shot, I was like, ‘I can’t believe it.’ ’’
Believe it. And now the Eagles (25-9) have a reasonable chance to advance to the Sweet 16, especially considering their foe Saturday is No. 12 Richmond, which upset No. 5 Vanderbilt 69-66 later Thursday, assuring at least one low-seeded team still will be playing next week.
The Eagles are saying to themselves, “Why not us?’’
“I keep telling the guys, there’s no reason we can’t be the Butler this year,’’ Morehead State guard Ty Proffitt said. “Somebody is going to be that Cinderella. It’s got to be us.’’
Butler actually was a No. 5 seed when the Bulldogs surprisingly advanced all the way to the NCAA title game last season before losing 61-59 to Duke. Nevertheless, a mid-major team going so far has given hope to many teams not from power conferences.
“They had a huge influence on us as a team,’’ Faried said. “We just kept thinking, hey, we can be like Butler if we stay perceptive and stay poised and listen to what Coach has to say."
Tyndall went so far as to say Faried, who has a chance to also be a first-round NBA pick, is like Gordon Hayward from last season’s Butler team and Harper is like Butler's Shelvin Mack, both talented guards. When the game was on the line, Morehead State's top two players stepped up big, even if their overall games were uneven.
Harper finished with five turnovers and just eight points, half his average, on a day in which Morehead State guard Terrance Hill led all scorers with 23 points and shot 5 of 6 from 3-point range. Faried shot just 4 of 17 in scoring 12 points, but the nation’s leading rebounder pulled down 17 and made the biggest defensive play of the game.
“It was all ball,’’ Faried said of the play that looked as if a foul could have been called. “I just smacked it down.’’
The 14th-ranked Cardinals (25-10) weren’t complaining after their smackdown. After all, they sure didn’t help themselves by falling behind 10-0 while shooting 0 of 7 from the field and 0 of 2 from the foul line and committing six turnovers.
The deficit reached 15-2 before the Cardinals fought back to tie the score 33-33 at halftime. Louisville led by as much as 47-39 in the second half and was up 48-44 when Cardinals star forward Preston Knowles was lost for the game with 8:51 left due to a sprained left foot. He eventually left the Pepsi Center on crutches.
Cardinals coach Rick Pitino refused to blame the defeat on the loss of Knowles, who wore a look of disbelief after the final buzzer sounded and remained on the bench long after all his teammates had gone to the locker room. Pitino pointed to Louisville, after falling behind 57-52, scoring nine straight points for a 61-57 lead. Of course, Morehead then scored the game’s final five points.
“This is as tough a loss as I’ve had in coaching, and I’ve been coaching a long time,’’ Pitino said. “After (Thursday), maybe too long. I feel terrible for our guys because they were just a wonderful group to coach.’’
Pitino coached Kentucky from 1989 to '97 and has been at Louisville since 2001. While Pitino was complimentary of the Eagles, he knows it means trouble in the state of Kentucky when one of the two powerhouses stumbles against one of state’s so-called lesser schools.
It's not often that the games are even close. Prior to Thursday, the Eagles had lost 12 straight times to Louisville by an average margin of 31.4 points.
“It is very tiring,’’ Faried said of Morehead State, which is 60 miles east of Kentucky and 130 miles east of Louisville, constantly playing in the shadow of those schools. “It is frustrating. But as players we just try to put it behind us and go in the gym and work as hard as we can so that maybe when we do play one of these teams… we can beat them and a lot of people will go ‘Morehead, Morehead’ instead of ‘Kentucky’ or ‘Louisville.’ ’’
A half-hour after toppling the Cardinals, Hill said he was “thinking I’m dreaming right now.’’ Speaking of that, Harper said Tyndall had told the team he had dreamed the previous night of the Eagles being down in the waning seconds and going for a game-winning three-pointer.
Tyndall later said he didn’t really dream that. But he did predict a victory to his daughter.
So, Coach, any predictions about beating Richmond to assure Morehead State of having its greatest NCAA tournament run ever?
“Maybe to her,’’ Tyndall said. “But not to you.’’
