NEWYou tin at present mind to Fox News articles!

Something nigh Saint Peter's doesn't add together up. Put aside for the moment how the Peacocks go along winning games. It'southward hard enough getting a handle on what they do well.

No. 2 Kentucky couldn't, seventh-seeded Murray Land didn't, and by the end of their Sweet 16 matchup Friday, No. iii Purdue was left grasping at air. That'south the brusk answer to how the Peacocks became the first 15 seed in the history of the NCAA Tournament to book a spot in the Elite Eight.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Saint Peter's isn't long on experienced players, similar the mid-majors that have been turning over the tables at the tournament in recent years. The Peacocks aren't big, either, which ways 6-pes-7 KC Ndefo, their all-time and nearly experienced thespian, frequently plays out of position. They don't take a real star, let lone a surefire NBA prospect.

What they do amend than anyone else is plow those doubts into fuel.

"What," motorcoach Shaheen Holloway asked later on his Peacocks held off the Boilermakers for a 67-64 win, "are they going to say now?"

"Good luck" would be a proficient showtime, since Saint Peter's draws blueblood N Carolina — which already holds the record for well-nigh Last Four appearances (20) — in Sunday's Eastward Regional Concluding. The Tar Heels crush UCLA 73-66, after Caleb Dearest made the game-tying and become-ahead 3-pointers 37 seconds apart, then added two gratis throws with 7.8 seconds left to seal the win.

Beloved shot for 1 for 8 in the first half, and in a move probable to be commemorated in a sneaker ad by the time yous read this, changed shoes at halftime after Eric Hoots, the team's director of operations, suggested the switch. Love went 10 for 16 in the second.

Head coach Shaheen Holloway of the St. Peter's Peacocks during a television interview after beating the Purdue Boilermakers during the Sweet 16 round of the 2022 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament held at Wells Fargo Center on March 25, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Head coach Shaheen Holloway of the St. Peter's Peacocks during a idiot box interview later on beating the Purdue Boilermakers during the Sweet 16 circular of the 2022 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament held at Wells Fargo Center on March 25, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

"I'yard going to give him a enhance," Tar Heels coach Hubert Davis said, referring to Hoots and not Love.

Coach Pecker Self might exist in line for a pay bump himself after the Kansas Jayhawks, the lone remaining No. 1 seed, locked upwardly Providence on the defensive end of the flooring and held on for a 66-61 win. In the deal, Kansas avant-garde to face No. ten Miami, and also moved ahead of Kentucky for nearly wins in Segmentation I history with two,354.

History, nevertheless, didn't come like shooting fish in a barrel. Despite scoring just 17 start-half points and abaft by 13 early on in the 2d half, the Friars roared back behind Noah Horchler, who hitting a pair of 3-pointers to pull within 41-40 at the midway point. Horchler then added a layup with five:49 left to requite Providence its commencement lead at 48-47.

"I don't know that I totally buy in 100 per centum that we don't ever go rattled," Cocky said afterward. "Only I do think ... our league (the Big 12) has prepared us in the way you play and so many close games. Every game is a fistfight."

The Hurricanes shell 11th-seeded Iowa Country 70-56 in the nightcap, though the matchup of two of the near suffocating defenses left in the tourney was a mostly one-sided affair. The Cyclones shot 32% in the 2nd one-half, submarining their ain cause further by turning the ball over eighteen times.

Miami's Kameron McGusty led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-eighteen shooting and added half-dozen rebounds.

"At the beginning of the flavor if we told yous we were going to the Elite Eight, everybody would laugh at united states and look at us crazy," McGusty said. "Even three weeks into the flavor, everybody would await at us crazy."

The Peacocks, and peculiarly their 45-year-erstwhile coach, know the feeling. The arc of Holloway'due south basketball game career is worthy of a documentary, though in that location are likely several more chapters still to be written, and the i about his stay at Saint Peter'south might be close to finished.

Holloway was one of the best point-guard prospects in the country in high school, wresting MVP honors in the 1996 McDonald's All-American game from the likes of Kobe Bryant, Richard Hamilton and Mike Bibby. He spurned scholarship offers from Duke, Kansas and Syracuse to stay close to home and chose Seton Hall.

CLICK Here TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

A freak ankle injury in a 2000 tournament game against Temple ended both his college career and his chances of playing in the NBA. Instead of bitterness over what might have been, he went to piece of work preparing to go a coach. The 2 themes that defined Holloway — loyalty and a pick-yourself-upward-subsequently-you've-been-knocked downwards mentality — proved irresistible to the collection of overlooked and nether-recruited he drew to a tiny driver school in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Ultimately, what the Peacocks do well depends on the dark. Against Kentucky, it was Daryl Banks 3 going off for 27 points. Against Purdue, he scored the tying and get-ahead baskets late, but scored but 14 full. Clarence Rupert added 11 and battled the Boilermakers vii-pes-four Zach Edey in the paint throughout. Doug Edert added 10, including ii costless throws that finished off Purdue.

Saint Peter's will exist a large underdog yet again when it meets North Carolina. What the Peacocks won't be is awed.

Asked after the Murray State upset how his players handled being pushed around by a bigger, more experienced team, Holloway only scoffed. His answer has go the Peacocks' mantra.

"I got guys from New Bailiwick of jersey and New York City," he said. "You think we're scared of anything?"