This looked like a Kentucky team that was waiting for someone else besides Oscar Tshiebwe to show up and help them get away from the aggravating Peacocks. Tshiebwe finished the night with 30 points and 16 rebounds, helping the Wildcats stay in the game. The Wildcats led by 8 points with just over three minutes left in the game, something John Calipari pointed out numerous times postgame.

Calipari said he wished he had answers for his players when they were up, but couldn't finish the job. He kept referencing that he hoped that he could do enough to get them by this first game, hoping they could get comfortable in the tournament by escaping tonight.

The Cats never looked comfortable, even when they had the size advantage inside the paint, something they didn't use enough tonight. this came back to bite the Cats' in a very big way. It was Doug Edert who hit the layup with :21 seconds remaining to send it to overtime, where the scrappy Peacocks never backed down, even when Kentucky took a 75-71 lead in the first minute of the overtime period.

Saint Peter's outscored Kentucky 10-3 down the stretch to close out the win, moving on to the second round of the tournament. There is always that one team in the tournament that does something special and leaves us with incredible memories. Saint Peter's is that team right now and will go down in history as defeating Oscar Tshiebwe in possibly his last game in a Kentucky uniform.

"Every team in the country thinks they can advance, it just comes down to one night and tonight was our night," Saint Peter's coach Shaheen Holloway said postgame.

Holloway took it a step further, noting that his players came into this game with a chip on their shoulders, knowing they could play with some of these bigger teams.

"We got good players. We got good players. I know this is getting old, it's a cliché, but we have guys that really have a chip on their shoulder; that really believe they belong at big-time schools. I give the guys freedom to play offense. As long as they do what they have got to do for me on defense, on offense, they have their freedom."

The Kentucky fans that took over the arena tonight were nervously biting at their fingernails in the final few minutes, watching this team implode in overtime. Folks were leaving their seats yelling curse words and asking themselves what just happened. I was just as stunned, having watched the Peacocks fight for forty minutes, then come back from a five-point deficit to get it to another five minutes.

It felt as if I was watching Rocky continue to land shots against Drago, hoping to chop the giant down. Then in the final round, Rocky (Peacocks) continued throwing vicious shots to the body, with Drago (Kentucky) finally hitting the canvas after the final shot to the head. They never gave into the crowd, the tension, the deficit or the name on the white jerseys.

Simply put, those young men weren't backing down to anyone, especially when the Cats' continued to let them hang around.

Daryl Brooks III

The Peacocks Of Saint Peter's Pull Off The Massive Upset Over Kentucky