West Virginia's Daxter Miles Jr. after failed prediction: 'Kentucky played great'

It turns out West Virginia's Daxter Miles Jr. can't predict the future after all. 

Miles Jr. made headlines Wednesday ahead of the Mountaineers' Sweet 16 game against undefeated Kentucky, saying, "They're gonna be 36-1." He was wrong, about as wrong as you can be, and after his team was thoroughly embarrassed 78-39 by the Wildcats, Miles. Jr. didn't have much to say. 

"Kentucky played good," Miles Jr. said after Thursday's game. "Played great. We didn't play our best, and they played great."

Miles Jr., who had no points on 0-of-3 shooting and only one rebound in 19 minutes, wasn't available at his locker when the media was allowed into the room, according to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander. No, the young man was waiting for the storm to pass. But he would have to face the music, and he did. 

Norlander writes:

Miles Jr. was instead preparing himself for strangers' faces to cram into his personal space, to deal with something that clearly got bigger than he could have ever expected. Tucked around a corner, in the team's bathroom, Miles Jr. was waiting out the mob. When a media member approached one of his teammates for an interview in the small hallway leading to the bathroom, Miles Jr. then dipped into the handicap lavatory and closed the door behind him, his frizzy hair peeking above the tall stall.

WVU assistant Erik Martin sauntered over and said a few quiet words to Miles Jr. His head deliberately shook at the freshman. After Martin stepped away, Miles Jr. came out of the bathroom a few seconds later, and when he sat down, he went full Marshawn Lynch.

And not "Beast Mode" Lynch. Miles Jr. essentially said the same thing over and over again, because, well, what else was he supposed to say after his team was doubled up in an elimination game, an entire nation watching. 

"They played great," he repeated, again and again. 

Miles Jr. couldn't say much more than that, but his teammates had his back. Junior Jonathan Holton said:

If he'd have came in and said, "Oh, I don't know if we can win," ... I guess they would have used that as he was scared. (Miles) is from Baltimore, Baltimore's like a tough neighborhood, that's how he was raised. He was raised like a winner. Deep down inside, he really wanted to win. He didn't do it for attention. I respect him a lot for saying what he said. He's just got heart, you know?

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said Miles Jr.'s comment wasn't the reason why the Mountaineers lost. 

You know what, honestly, I think that's a bunch of B.S. I think once you throw the ball up, you play. It was a freshman that said it, and I'm kind of happy he had some confidence. I'm kind of happy he wasn't hiding under a chair somewhere, you know? There's nothing wrong with having some confidence and wanting to go out and compete. They just were way better than we were.

Kentucky, for their part, revelled in Miles Jr.'s misfortune. Wildcats guard Devin Booker said he was thinking before the game about the victory tweet he would send out to the world. And to his credit, it was a good one:

Kentucky's Tyler Ulis said Miles Jr.'s comment was motivation - pure and simple.

"I knew it was going to be like this," he said. "We've been talking about it all day - coming out all day and demolishing them because they were talking so much trash. Saying that we were going to be 36-1 - we felt like that was nonsense.

"Our whole plan was to crush their spirit. (To) beat them by 50 for disrespecting us." 

Mission accomplished.

"It's tough to talk and not be able to back it up," said Willie Cauley-Stein. 

Indeed. Lessons were learned Thursday night. Valuable ones.