DENVER — One team is led by a power forward who believes every rebound should be his. The other is led by an undersized point guard, who believes every big play is his to make.
Neither was highly recruited coming out of high school.
One of them is going to lead their team into the Sweet 16 today.
Kenneth Faried, Morehead State’s dreadlocked, dreaded rebounder, said he’s accustomed to opponents employing unorthodox means of trying to keep him off the glass.
“There’s nothing unusual to me now,” he said. “I’ve been through it for four years. My sophomore year was really my breakout year for rebounding. People just boxing me out, different people, groups of people grabbing me, pulling me. I’m used to almost everything, probably.”
Now he’ll have to be ready for Richmond’s matchup zone. Morehead, the 13th seed in the Southwest Region, upset instate rival Louisville, 62-61, on Thursday. It will face the 12th-seeded Spiders, which upset Vanderbilt, 69-66 on Kevin Anderson’s floaters.
The 6-foot, 175-pound Anderson did more than hit 4-of-9 three-pointers against Vandy. He’s become more of leader in the final month of his career.
“We all know how quiet ‘Little Man’ is,” teammate Kevin Smith said. “It speaks volumes to his growth as a player, how much he’s come from being a quiet point guard to being a floor general, somebody who is able to lead a team by not only example but with his mouth, what he’s able to bring to the team outside of just his play.”