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NCAA Tournament 2014: Andrew Wiggins Criticism And Other Takeaways From Sunday

By Nathan Giese

Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Wichita State Shockers guard Fred VanVleet (23) misses a three-point shot with 1.6 remaining defended by Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (15) and Aaron Harrison (2) during the second half in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men
Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Wichita State Shockers guard Fred VanVleet (23) misses a three-point shot with 1.6 remaining defended by Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (15) and Aaron Harrison (2) during the second half in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men /
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Wichita State is not overrated; They lost to a good team in a great game. That’s all

Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Wichita State Shockers guard Fred VanVleet (23) misses a three-point shot with 1.6 remaining defended by Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (15) and Aaron Harrison (2) during the second half in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men
Mar 23, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Wichita State Shockers guard Fred VanVleet (23) misses a three-point shot with 1.6 remaining defended by Kentucky Wildcats forward Willie Cauley-Stein (15) and Aaron Harrison (2) during the second half in the third round of the 2014 NCAA Men /

All season long we’ve had to hear about who Wichita State didn’t beat. You know who they did beat? Everybody. Going 35-0 is not some mundane occurrence that happened every day. College basketball fans were treated to history and they took it for granted with cynicism and scrutiny towards the Shockers. Now that they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats in a game that is widely regarded as the best NCAA tournament game in years, we have to hear it again.

Maybe it’s just the social media aspect of sports these days, but seeing how many negative comments were swayed towards the Shockers after the game really just broke my heart. Be a fan first and a critic second. That’s how I treat every single game, team and player I cover here. It’s what makes my job so much fun. If you see things as a fan then you can enjoy things more. But nobody wants to do that anymore. Instead they go with the route of being a critic first, rooting for only their team and everybody else is mediocre.

What Gregg Marshall and the Shockers accomplished this season should be celebrated, not criticized. Get this warped idea out of your mind about their conference’s strength or their non-conference schedule. I can only imagine what people would’ve said during the days of Larry Bird‘s Indiana State squad or Jameer Nelson and Delonte West sparking Saint Joe’s on that incredible season. Take a step back and just appreciate what you’re watching once in a while.

Kentucky played their best game of the season and it wasn’t because they were facing a weaker opponent. The Wildcats played the way they did because through the later portion of the season and now in the postseason Kentucky’s freshmen have finally figured out how to play as a team, the one thing that kept them from being the ones with an undefeated record heading into the tournament. Both teams played a great game and it just didn’t go Wichita State’s way. That’s the story here, not whether the Shockers were actually good or not.