Kenneth Faried entered the Morehead State locker room Thursday afternoon intent on getting a shower and beginning to rest up for his next game.
But that’s not the life of a star in the making.
The power forward, who has growing NBA buzz swirling about, was abruptly stopped. Assembled media had more questions, though he had just come from his formal news conference at the Pepsi Center.
You can never know too much about The Next Big Thing. Faried — and his team — stepped out of the shadows into the national spotlight after their stunning 62-61 upset of fourth-seeded Louisville.
Not many outside of Morehead, Ky., knew of Faried before Thursday, yet he’s so revered by the university that his jersey is already retired.
Now, fans nationwide are finding out about him. Demonte Harper hit a shot for the ages, the game-winning 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left, but it was Faried’s work inside that gave the 9 1/2-point underdogs a chance to win late.
“Hopefully, the world knows me,” Faried said, laughing.
For the Eagles, seeded 13th, the victory was part revenge and part gaining respect back home in Kentucky. Louisville beat Morehead State the last time the teams met, two years ago in a first-round NCAA Tournament game.
“I feel like we’re proving a lot of people wrong who doubted,” Harper said. “This is big for our program.”
At the center of it all was the 6-foot-8 Faried, whose rebounding exploits were well-known coming in — he is the all-time NCAA Division I leader in double-doubles with 85. But Louisville never found a way to keep him off the glass.
Faried grabbed 17 boards to offset a nightmarish offensive game from the field (4-for-17).
“All coaches use the cliche that every shot is a pass to you,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “He’s the only one I’ve seen since Dennis Rodman truly make that statement true.
“He’s a great rebounder. He’s improved some of the other aspects of his game. He’s done it against us, Ohio State, Florida State, averaging 17 rebounds, 18 rebounds, so that’s pretty darn good.”
Faried credits his parents for putting him on rebounding’s yellow brick road.
“When I was a little kid, I wanted to shoot, like everyone else,” he said. “But my mother switched that on me, and my father taught me how to do it.”
Now, Faried has one thought every time the ball hits the air: “It’s mine. Nobody else’s.”
Kind of the way the Eagles went after victory. They led 57-52 with 5:16 left when Pitino called a timeout. Louisville then scored nine consecutive points and appeared to have the game in hand, leading 61-57. But Faried was fouled with 30.4 seconds left and made both free throws, cutting the margin to 61-59. Then, after Louisville’s Elisha Justice missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 23.9 seconds left, Morehead State called time to set up a final play.
Harper dribbled the shot clock down standing a few feet outside of the 3-point line at the top of the key before getting loose to swish a shot that sent tournament junkies scurrying to talk about what they had just witnessed.
Louisville got the ball back with 4.2 seconds left, and after a timeout, Mike Marra attempted a shot from the left corner, which Faried blocked.
“It feels good to know we messed up some people’s brackets,” Faried said.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
