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K-State snaps home losing streak to KU
By HOWARD RICHMANThe Kansas City Star
The 22nd-ranked Kansas State basketball team knocked off No. 2 Kansas 84-75 on Wednesday night in front of quite possibly the loudest bunch of fans ever to walk through the doors of Bramlage Coliseum.
So, Bill Walker, how did you and the Wildcats get it done?
“I felt we had nothing to lose,” said Walker, noting his ears were still ringing from the noise. “They were the No. 2 team. We came out and played loose.”
So much has been made about the streak. Now, it can be used in the past tense because it’s history. K-State snapped a 24-game home skid to KU, and in the process, proved that the only thing that matters is the here and now.
And K-State, with a rookie coach in Frank Martin, has to like what today brings. The Wildcats find themselves alone atop the Big 12 Conference at 5-0 and 15-4 overall after extending their winning streak to six games.
“I’ve got nine first-year guys that have grown up a whole lot since November,” Martin said.
The maturation process has everything to do with how K-State responded when the going got tough against KU, 20-1 and 5-1.
The Wildcats played as a tight, well-drilled unit when it counted. K-State led by as many as 12 in the second half and withstood KU’s charge. The Jayhawks pulled within 61-55, but the Wildcats had an answer. K-State countered with freshmen Michael Beasley (25 points) and reserve freshman guard Jacob Pullen, who scored 20.
“I knew my team was capable of beating anybody,” said Beasley, whose guarantee that the Wildcats would bump off the Jayhawks came true. “We showed it tonight. We just knocked off a Final Four-caliber team.”
Pullen, who has 24 assists to just five turnovers in the Wildcats’ six-game winning streak, came up big with a three-point play that pushed K-State in front 72-61.
“It was a dagger,” Pullen said, “but we were already doing that. We were just doing it and maintaining.”
Martin said a key was dragging KU’s big men out to the perimeter, and minimizing turnovers. The Wildcats accomplished both, getting Darrell Arthur in early foul trouble. K-State also totaled just 13 turnovers compared with the Jayhawks’ 16.
The defense also sparked K-State. KU shot just 42.3 in the second half, quite a drop from its 53.6-percent effort before the intermission. Jayhawks coach Bill Self credited the Wildcats with forcing his team to speed up, perhaps panic, if that’s possible for such an experienced group.
“I don’t know if we took them out of what they wanted,” said Walker, whose 22 points sure came in handy, “but we made them take hard shots. And I thought if we could win the rebounding war, we could win the game (K-State did that by a 34-30 count).”
And don’t even go searching for a turning point, Walker said. He is convinced it occurred before a second had elapsed.
“From the tip,” Walker said about the turning point. “We showed we weren’t going to back down and let them do what they wanted to do.”
The Wildcats came out firing, sinking three of their first four three-point shots. Heck, K-State did lots of damage before Beasley got rolling. He didn’t notch his first basket until 9:22 was left. Ultimately, it didn’t matter that the prophet got a late start.
No need to seek a fortune teller to see K-State will receive more votes in next week’s poll. That’s for certain, especially if the Wildcats take care of Missouri on Saturday in Columbia.
On Wednesday, the present was all that mattered. And it was a lot of fun. That even goes for K-State’s old guard. Like Ed Elder, who played on the last Wildcat team to beat KU at home in 1983.
“We finally slayed the dragon,” said Elder, who was in attendance. “No more questions about the streak. They took care of that tonight.”