How Markquis Nowell led Kansas State to epic win over Michigan State ... on one foot
Kansas State basketball fans everywhere held their collective breath when Markquis Nowell crumbled to the floor with an injury to his right ankle on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.
Then they started to sweat when the senior K-State point guard was unable to stand under his own power and limped off the floor with the help of two team trainers. A sense of panic filled the arena when he began receiving medical attention on the end of the bench. What if he couldn’t continue?
A team’s dream of advancing to the Elite Eight was in danger of vanishing for an unfortunate reason.
“It was a little scary,” K-State forward David N’Guessan said. “He’s our leader.”
This was happening early in the second half of a Sweet 16 game against Michigan State and the Wildcats were ahead on the scoreboard, but their chances of winning the back-and-forth contest were about to plummet without Nowell on the court. That much was clear as the Spartans surged into the lead with Nowell on the bench.
But Nowell returned to the game after a two-minute absence. He threw a towel on the ground in disgust as he watched the Spartans score. Then he put EMAW nation at ease when he banked in a three-pointer as soon as he touched the ball.
K-State went on to defeat Michigan State 98-93 in overtime and Nowell went on to fill up the stat sheet with 20 points, 19 assists and five steals.
Crisis averted.
“I just wanted to do it for my teammates,” Nowell said. “I love being out there with these guys. I wasn’t going to let a little injury like this that happens on the basketball court all the time stop me from playing in the Sweet 16 and advancing to the Elite Eight.”
Nothing, it seems, can stop Nowell from leading K-State to greatness in this NCAA Tournament.
Not even a rolled ankle that slowed the Harlem native significantly at times down the stretch of this instant classic. Trainers wrapped up his ankle with tape and he re-entered the game after a brief absence. He was clearly hurting, but that didn’t stop him from putting up big numbers.
Nowell sent out so many beautiful passes that he broke the single-game NCAA Tournament assists record.
“It looked like he really wanted to win,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said. “He didn’t care how much it hurt.”
K-State players admitted they were concerned when Nowell had to leave the game. Having a next-man-up mentality isn’t enough to make up for the hottest player in the country.
Nowell began March Madness hot with 17 points and 14 assists against Montana State. Then he backed that up with 27 points and nine assists against Kentucky. No one was going to fill that void.
Luckily, Nowell was somehow able to play even better against the Spartans ... injury and all.
He did a little bit of everything to help his team win. Nowell made a pair of three-pointers, he drained a combination of five layups and floaters, he connected on all four of his free throws and he found his teammates for open looks with a plethora of nifty passes. Nowell twice connected with Keyontae Johnson on lob dunks and he continually got the ball to Ismael Massoud for a surprising 15 points.
Perhaps best of all, he only committed two turnovers. Flirting with a 10-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio is the opposite of bad.
“He is different,” Massoud said. “It is nothing new to us. It is nothing new to me. He is Mr. NYC for a reason. He showed it tonight. It’s his city. Nothing he does surprises us. I mean, 19 assists is a little surprising. That’s insane. But it’s also Markquis, so I expect it.”
Tang wasn’t surprised, either.
He saw games like this coming all the way back when he was working as an assistant coach at Baylor and scouted Nowell as an opponent.
“I could tell that, pound for pound, he was the toughest kid in the Big 12,” Tang said. “I knew that when I got here I had to figure out a way to keep that dude here. The crazy thing is that I didn’t have to figure out how to keep him here. He was trying to figure out how to get me here. To get that kind of belief and love from a player is incredible as a coach.”
Few saw an NCAA Tournament run like this coming from either K-State or Nowell.
But now that it has happened it’s fair to wonder when, or if, it will end.
This was arguably the most entertaining game of the entire NCAA Tournament. Michigan State played at an elite level with AJ Hoggard scoring 25 points and his teammates refusing to lose until the clock struck zero in overtime. Neither team led by more than nine. There were 16 lead changes.
“It was like a Rocky fight tonight,” Nowell said. “We were going back and forth, and a lot of guys made big-time plays.”
But it was Nowell who made the most.
That much was unmistakable after the final buzzer sounded. The folks at Madison Square Garden flashed his picture on the video board and announced his achievement for everyone to see with his family and closest friends watching.
What a moment.
To think, it happened with him nursing an injured ankle and playing on one healthy foot.
This story was originally published March 23, 2023 at 10:55 PM with the headline "How Markquis Nowell led Kansas State to epic win over Michigan State ... on one foot."