PJ Washington going beast mode not enough to get Kentucky to Final Four

PJ Washington came to play in the Elite 8. The only issue was that his teammates left their games back in the locker room.

PJ Washington was not going to let the Kentucky Wildcats go down without a fight. The only problem was, he was the only one who bothered to show up.

Washington, who a few days prior wasn’t even on the court for Kentucky, came back in the Sweet 16 to give the Wildcats an emotional lift in their win over Houston. With a Final Four appearance on the line, Washington did it all, scoring 28 points and snagging 13 rebounds.

He played a grown man’s game on the court, but it would have been nice if his other teammates decided to join him in trying to get past an Auburn squad that had momentum, and was playing for their injured leader.

With that much flowing against Kentucky, a beast-of-a-game from Washington was needed, but what was also needed for the Wildcats to prevail was for the rest of the cast around him to play up to their potential.

That was not the case.

Kentucky’s second-leading scorer was Keldon Johnson, who scored 14 points, but went 5-for-13 from the floor. Behind him was Ashton Hagans, who went for 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. No one else scored in double-digits for Kentucky, and in their biggest game of the year, they went cold from the three-point line, connecting on just three of their 17 attempts from deep.

That is not usually a recipe for success, especially against a team like Auburn, but they had their chance to make it a third-straight victory against their conference foes.

And, it simply wasn’t meant to be.

Just like that, a great performance from Washington went in vain, and you have to wonder that, if he had a little bit more help, Kentucky would be the one’s punching their ticket to Minneapolis, not Auburn.