Kansas State challenges No. 2 Baylor before bowing out of Big 12 men’s tournament
Kansas State’s men’s basketball season came to a predictable end following a 74-68 loss to Baylor in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday at T-Mobile Center, but the Wildcats showed off some serious potential before the final buzzer sounded.
Even though the Wildcats (9-20) were unable to upset the No. 2 ranked and top-seeded Bears (22-1) and continue their late-season surge with a truly memorable victory, K-State proved better days might be on the horizon by challenging the Big 12’s best team for a full 40 minutes.
That didn’t seem possible during the regular season when Baylor humiliated K-State by scores of 100-69 and 107-59. But the Wildcats improved drastically since those beat downs and held a second-half lead on the Bears before bowing out of the Big 12 Tournament.
“It was an amazing game to be in, a great atmosphere even though we didn’t have the full crowd in attendance,” K-State guard Nijel Pack said. “It just felt great to be able to give them a run for their money. Everybody probably looked over us. It felt good to be able to give the people what they want. It felt good for us to have the courage and show our improvement we made from the beginning of the year to now.”
The few K-State fans in attendance screamed with excitement when Selton Miguel hit a driving layup to put the Wildcats ahead 42-41 with 17 minutes, 1 second remaining.
At that moment, it sure seemed like they had a shot to win as 20-point underdogs.
“If we had to start the season over right now,” K-State sophomore DaJuan Gordon said, “we would be one of the best teams in the country and a NCAA Tournament contender.”
That may be, but they weren’t quite good enough to close out Thursday’s game against Baylor.
The Bears pulled away thanks to their plethora of outside shooters, wich MaCio Teague (24), Davion Mitchell (23) and Jared Butler (18) combining to score 65 points on just 40 shots.
They proved too much to handle down the stretch, and the Bears advanced to the tournament semifinals, where they will play Oklahoma State on Friday.
K-State got an impressive 18 points from both Nijel Pack and Davion Bradford, on top of 15 points from Gordon, but it needed a little bit more.
Mike McGuirl struggled in what could be his final game as a senior guard. He missed all seven of his shot attempts and finished with three points, though he did have seven assists.
Transition offense was also an issue. The Wildcats forced the Bears into 21 turnovers, but K-State only scored 17 points off of them.
Still, the Wildcats had a shot in the final moments until Pack tried to draw a shooting foul near midcourt with Baylor leading 70-66. But he didn’t get the call, and the ball ended up soaring into the air and ending up in the other team’s hands.
“I felt like they were going to blow the whistle and I was trying to get a three to go with it,” Pack said. “Didn’t get it. Kind of made myself look stupid. It sucks to have the season end the way it did like that, but I know the game is not defined on one play.”
K-State also struggled with how to handle both McGuirl and Miguel both picking up their third fouls.
MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell proved too much to handle down the stretch, and the Bears advanced to the tournament semifinals, where they will play Oklahoma State on Friday.
Things unraveled for K-State in the second half, but the first half went about as well as fans could have possibly expected.
In each of their regular-season meetings, the Bears were so far ahead at halftime (56-27 and 54-26) that the Wildcats didn’t need to bother coming out of the locker room for the final 20 minutes. Both of those games were over.
But on Thursday, K-State trailed only 36-34 at the break.
Every time the Bears threatened to pull away, like when they made back-to-back threes and surged ahead 31-25 midway through the first half, the Wildcats were able to stop the bleeding and keep things close.
K-State could thank freshman forward Bradford for that, as he scored an impressive 15 points in the first half and helped the Wildcats outscore the Bears in the paint 20-14.
In the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament, it was Pack who proved he belonged on the conference’s all-freshman team. On Thursday, it was Bradford’s turn.
The Wildcats needed him to play at a high level, because they didn’t get much offense from leading scorers McGuirl and Pack, who combined for just four points in the first half.
K-State needed a little bit more, but it is fun to think about what this team might be able to accomplish next season if its young nucleus of players returns and picks up on where it ended this year.
“We wanted to win,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We came here with big dreams and hopes. All I cared about was playing with courage. The first two times they didn’t just beat us, they just played with us and did whatever they wanted. We just played with one of the best teams in the country and we gave them everything we had.”
Wednesday’s opener
On Wednesday, K-State looked nothing like an underdog seed as it pummeled TCU 71-50 in a first-round game. The Wildcats held the Horned Frogs to 37% shooting.
Nijel Pack drained five three-pointers on his way to a game-high 23 points, while Mike McGuirl scored 17 points in a variety of ways. They both also had five assists.
It was K-State’s largest victory margin since a 70-46 home win over Jacksonville in December. It was also the Wildcats’ first 20-point victory over a conference opponent since the 2018-19 season when it shared the regular season league title with Texas Tech. They scored 16 straight points at one point and led by as many as 27.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Kansas State challenges No. 2 Baylor before bowing out of Big 12 men’s tournament."