Western Kentucky gains recognition with Sweet 16 run in NCAA tournament

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — When guard Tyrone Brazelton went home to Chicago in the spring of 2006 to tell family and friends that two years of work at junior college had landed him a basketball scholarship at Western Kentucky, the reaction was less than overwhelming.

"Some of the older people in the community in Chicago, they know about the history and the tradition and heritage [of Western Kentucky]," Brazelton said. "But most of the younger people still ask me is it a Division II, so they don't know much about it.

"They will now."

Brazelton and the Hilltoppers have seen to that.

Western Kentucky's run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament — the 12th-seeded Hilltoppers (29-6) will play top-seeded UCLA (33-3) in the West Region semifinals on Thursday — has given the program that plays in a state whose loyalties are usually divided between national powers Kentucky and Louisville a public-relations boost.

Just don't call the Hilltoppers "Cinderella," even if they are 12 ½-point underdogs against UCLA in Phoenix.

"Cinderella is a great phrase by outsiders looking in, but we really haven't spoke about being a Cinderella team," Brazelton said. "We feel like we belong."

Western Kentucky, called "WK-who?" by some skeptics, has made 20 NCAA tournament appearances. The Hilltoppers reached the Final Four in 1971, losing to Villanova in double overtime in the semifinals. They made the regional semifinals in 1993, when current coach Darrin Horn was a guard, before falling to Florida State.

"We did it so early in its evolution that we probably missed out on a lot of branding and a lot of awareness that happens now with the tournament," athletic director Wood Selig said. "If we'd have been doing what we did 10, 15 years ago now, it wouldn't be Gonzaga that people would be talking about, it would be WKU."

Notes

• Tennessee guard Chris Lofton, the team's leading scorer, has a leg injury but is expected to play Thursday against Louisville in an NCAA East Regional semifinal game in Charlotte, N.C.

"If we had a game tonight, he would play," coach Bruce Pearl said.

• Television ratings for the NCAA tournament on CBS declined 9 percent from last year. After four days and 15 telecasts, the games averaged a 4.8 rating, network officials said. The tournament had a 5.3 rating over the same period in 2007.

CBS officials attributed the drop to the Easter weekend.

Meanwhile, CBSSports.com officials said there were 3,318,844 total unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video player, a 129 percent increase from last year.

• Forward Michael Beasley is still grappling with a decision, but coach Frank Martin said he expects Kansas State's standout freshman to head into the NBA draft and predicted "he's going to be the top pick."

• Kevin O'Neill had little to say about his future with Arizona after meeting with Wildcats coach Lute Olson, who returned to work Monday. O'Neill was named interim coach after Olson went on a personal leave of absence in November.

O'Neill was later designated Olson's permanent successor when the Hall of Famer retires, but he has not said whether he would return as an assistant coach next season.