The Dean Wade-less Wildcats emphatically find way to victory

Kansas State’s Mike McGuirl swished a corner three and tumbled as Creighton’s Marcus Foster committed the foul. As he stood, McGuirl started to look back at Foster, in that “I-got-the-better-of-you“ way. Immediately, teammate Xavier Sneed grabbed McGuirl’s chin and turned it away, saving perhaps a taunting technical.

“Oh, no, I was just checking to see if he was all right,“ McGuirl tried to say with a straight face.

In an NCAA Tournament game with countless surprising developments, this may have been the best; an unexpected freshman star who entered the game averaging 1.8 points coming up with a quick and clever response.

Give yourself a star if you had Kansas State going wire to wire in a 69-59 victory over Creighton for the program’s first round-of-64 victory since 2012, snapping a three-game skid.

Or if you had the Bluejays, who entered the game averaging 84 points, being held to a point total that matched their season low.

Or if you believed Barry Brown could throw such a blanket over Creighton scoring leader and ex-Wildcat Foster, taking the lead in holding him to five points — and none in the game’s first 30 minutes.

Or if you identified McGuirl, once headed for a redshirt season and then only appeared in eight games, as a star with 17 points. He’d made one three-pointer on the season. Friday, besides the four-point play, McGuirl buried a deep triple just before halftime.

And all without the services of Dean Wade, who continues to nurse a foot injury. Games that match eight and nine seeds are toss-ups, but Kansas State was down its all-conference forward, which should have tipped the toss-up clearly toward Creighton.

Instead, the Wildcats opened the game on Kamau Stokes’ 7-0 run, and never trailed. They played small, strong and deliberate, often taking the shot clock to the final ticks before a launch.

The Bluejays’ system malfunctioned. Foster was a mess, and running make Khyri Thomas, the team’s second-leading scorer and top NBA prospect, wasn’t much better.

Kansas State prepped with and without Wade, the top scorer and rebounder. He practiced lightly on Wednesday and did a little more on Friday. He moved OK, but the Wildcats were concerned about how he felt after the workouts.

At a shootaround on Friday, Wade informed the coaches that he continued to feel pain and lacked mobility.

But K-State coach Bruce Weber still thought about ways of getting Wade in the game.

“If we needed to have him take the ball in-bounds, or an emergency thing,” Weber said.

Weber talked to Wade’s parents as the team was getting on the bus to the arena that he didn’t think Wade would play. He’s not ruled out for Sunday, but it’s hard to imagine an effective Wade suiting up.

The Wildcats obviously are better with him, but his absence changed things for Creighton, not prepared for a smaller lineup.

“Defensively, without Wade they could switch everything four ways, and because of that we weren’t able to get into the teeth of their defense,” Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said. “The guards were very athletic, very physical.”

Each time Creighton drew close, Kansas State delivered an artful response. One 22-second sequence in the first half was particularly demoralizing to the Bluejays.

The Wildcats drained the shot clock, and Cartier Diarra found himself at the top about 25 feet from the hoop. Down it went for a seven-point lead.

Diarra then blocked a quick shot, starting a transition that Stokes finished with a lob pass slammed home by Sneed.

The Bluejays took a timeout. Had this occurred in Bramlage Coliseum, the roof would have come off. As it was, confidence soared on the Wildcats' sideline. It continued through McGuirl’s shot before half and his four-point play, and with Brown’s overall play that resulted in 18 points and six rebounds.

On to the second round and new territory for this team. They advance perhaps down a star, but with a new one in tow. McGuirl handled his assignments, during the action and in the postgame, like a veteran.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 10:00 PM with the headline "The Dean Wade-less Wildcats emphatically find way to victory."