Kansas State Wildcats stun No. 7 Oklahoma for first signature victory of season
It was appropriate that Bruce Weber motivated the Kansas State men’s basketball team by challenging players to do something against the No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners that would allow the Wildcats to be the lead story on “SportsCenter” late Tuesday night.
A season filled with historic defeats and painful emotions now features a highlight moment.
It’s fair to say the Wildcats are an improving — and perhaps surging — team following a 62-57 upset victory over the Sooners at Bramlage Coliseum. A few days after defeating TCU on the road for their first victory of the calendar year, the Wildcats (7-18, 3-13 Big 12) followed up that performance with an even better one, this time against a top 10 opponent.
“I am just so happy for me and my teammates and my coaches,” K-State senior Mike McGuirl said. “It is a blessing to be able to have this happen. You wish it was the whole season, but, man, this was special. This was a great, great, great game.”
Once again, K-State made it happen with a late and unexpected string of clutch plays.
The Wildcats closed Tuesday’s game on a 15-4 run moments after the Sooners (14-6, 9-5 Big 12) appeared to be in total control leading 53-47 with 3 minutes, 57 seconds remaining. Not only did they hold a nice lead, they were in the double bonus and were getting stop after stop on defense.
K-State looked doomed. Then McGuirl took over.
K-State’s lone senior got an improbable rally started by hitting a three-pointer that gave his team hope, then he followed it up with another three-pointer that tied things up and then he drained another “heat check” three-pointer that put the Wildcats ahead for good.
“Mike had his magical moment,” Weber said. “It’s something he will remember for a long time.”
A driving layup in traffic from DaJuan Gordon on the next possession gave K-State 11 straight points and ultimately the game.
The Wildcats closed things out with some important free throws, but everyone’s focus kept going back to McGuirl.
“We’ve been like this the whole year,” Gordon said. “Early on in this season we were close against teams. In all the games we played we just let them slip away. Today, Mike showed up big. He helped us ... He just took over and played confident.”
McGuirl led the way for K-State with 19 points and seven rebounds. But freshman forward Davion Bradford gave him a big assist with 13 points and eight rebounds. Gordon also came up big with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The Wildcats needed a good all-around effort to beat the Sooners, especially with starting forward Antonio Gordon sidelined with a foot injury.
For most of the evening, it seemed like K-State wasn’t going to have enough to upset the Sooners. Wichita State transfer Austin Reaves scored a game-high 25 points and Oklahoma seemed to have a response for everything the Wildcats threw at it.
But none of that accounted for history. Oklahoma has had all kinds of trouble winning at Bramlage Coliseum since Lon Kruger took over as coach a decade ago. Kruger, the former K-State player and coach whose jersey hangs from the rafters at Bramlage, has lost nine straight road games against his alma mater.
It doesn’t matter how good the Sooners are or how bad the Wildcats are in any given year. The results never seem to change.
“The game was a grind from start to finish,” Kruger said. “Kansas State is playing better, they’re playing really hard, really aggressively.”
Still, this game was perhaps most baffling of them all. K-State began the calendar year with 13 straight losses, which included the most lopsided defeat in school history. Before that, it suffered a humiliating home loss to Fort Hays State.
On Tuesday, the Wildcats became the first team since Wake Forest in 1993 to lose to a Division II opponent and beat a top 10 team in the same season, according to ESPN.
“We aren’t perfect by any means but we have definitely made some strides,” Weber said. “We have made big strides. We are so much better.”
K-State also came up with some important defensive stops in the closing moments. That is where the Wildcats have made the biggest improvement as the season has gone on. They have been at their best lately, holding three straight opponents below 60 points.
Combined with some timely shots and poise from McGuirl, that was enough for K-State to win a game worthy of “SportsCenter.”
“They’ve got to be,” Weber said, “one of the first stories.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 10:26 PM with the headline "Kansas State Wildcats stun No. 7 Oklahoma for first signature victory of season."