Gonzaga, Michigan, Florida State and Texas Tech. The last team there is the odd one out in the West Regional, as the three others played last year in Los Angeles.
Odd one out? Disrespect? All this leads to a motivated Red Raiders team entering Thursday’s Sweet 16 matchup with the Wolverines in Anaheim (9:39 p.m. EST, CBS).
It’s a familiar mindset for head coach Chris Beard and company. In the preseason Big XII poll, his team was picked to finish seventh just a year after the program’s first-ever Elite 8 appearance. They bucked the odds by tying with Kansas State for first in the regular-season, boxing the Kansas Jayhawks out of the title for the first time in 15 years.