Kansas State continues winning streak by upsetting No. 13 Arizona. Here are takeaways
Kansas State is the hottest basketball team in the Big 12.
That sentence feels more like fact than opinion after K-State defeated Arizona 73-70 on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Both of these Wildcat teams entered the day on long winning streaks, but only one of those streaks is still alive today.
K-State won its sixth straight game, and continued its late-season push toward the NCAA Tournament, by handing Arizona its first loss since Jan. 18. After a dismal start to the season, no team in the conference has won more consecutive games than the one that wears lavender uniforms.
“This thing isn’t about coaching or X’s and O’s,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said. “It’s about players who have just decided that they wanted to win more than anything else. Whatever was asked of them, whatever was needed, they were willing to put forth.”
This might have been the hardest game to date for K-State, which improved to 13-11 overall and 7-6 in the Big 12.
Unlike other teams Tang and company have defeated over the past three-plus weeks, Arizona (17-7, 11-2 Big 12) didn’t roll over. It led by as many as seven in the first half and fought back from an eight-point hole in the second half to make this game go down to the wire. It had a chance to force overtime at the buzzer.
K-State won thanks to 24 points from Dug McDaniel and 16 points from David N’Guessan to go along with big plays from CJ Jones and Mobi Ikegwuruka.
McDaniel was the best player on the floor, as he hurt Arizona all night long with his speed and craftiness around the basket. It’s beginning to feel like no defender is tall enough to prevent him from banking home a driving layup.
“I see it every day at practice, so it’s not new for me,” K-State guard CJ Jones said. “But it’s still kind of impressive, how he gets up and finishes over a different 7-footer each night.”
Students fittingly chanted his name when the game was over.
“It was just a great feeling to know that they had my back,” McDaniel said. “I was going through a little bit of pain, and they just lifted me up. I could do nothing but smile in that moment.”
Next up for K-State is a road game against BYU on Saturday.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s action:
K-State won despite awful shooting
It was bound to happen eventually.
K-State had been shooting the ball at unsustainable levels from the 3-point line during its winning streak. It had made 10 or more 3-pointers in its past four games, and it was shooting well over 40% from beyond the arc during its past five games.
At some point, this team had to cool off ... or it was going to shoot its way to the Final Four.
Regression finally happened on Tuesday, as K-State made just 1 of 19 shots from 3-point range. Maybe the cold front that descended upon Manhattan made its way inside the Octagon of Doom.
K-State players saw many open looks from downtown, it just couldn’t convert them. Coleman Hawkins (0-for-6) and Brendan Hausen (0-for-4) both had ugly misses. But they found other ways to make an impact.
Lucky for them, Arizona didn’t perform any better. It only made 2 of 22 shots from beyond the arc.
Here’s the thing: K-State still found a way to win.
“Last game, we made shots,” Tang said. “Tonight, we didn’t. We had to guard and not hang our head when the ball didn’t go through the hole. They did whatever was needed at the time for us to have a chance to win.”
It stood to reason that K-State would suffer its first loss in weeks when a cold-shooting night like this came along. But the Wildcats found other ways to win. That is a sign of a mature and versatile team.
K-State forced a lot of turnovers
In college basketball, turnovers can happen for a wide variety of reasons.
A team can be careless on offense, its opponent can be ferocious on defense or the officials can blow their whistles.
But in this game there was only one main reason for the bulk of Arizona’s turnovers. K-State forced a great deal of them with its pressure defense. Arizona committed 17 turnovers. K-State finished the night with 14 steals.
McDaniel led the way with five steals of his own, including one in the final seconds when Arizona was attempting to inbound the ball for a game-tying shot. He said that was his favorite play of the night.
McDaniel used his speed on both ends of the court to give his team an advantage.
The K-State defense swarmed all of Arizona’s passing lanes and forced it into countless mistakes. That was needed on a night when the Wildcats shot 5% from 3-point range and 62% from the free-throw line.
CJ Jones was an unsung hero for K-State
It’s been a while since K-State fans have seen a big game from CJ Jones, but the reserve guard played a pivotal role in this matchup.
He was electric for the K-State Wildcats when he was on the floor.
Jones finished this game with 10 points and four rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
His biggest contributions came late in the first half when he sparked K-State to a 13-0 run by driving to the basket and scoring layups. Arizona had no answers for him.
Jones is usually a different type of point guard than both McDaniel and David Castillo. He is a smart player who will get the ball to where Tang wants it to go. He can also knock down an open 3-pointer. But he helped the Wildcats in this game by creating his own shot off the dribble and by scoring in traffic.
But he wasn’t the only K-State player who came off the bench and helped his team.
Ugonna Onyenso also played some valuable minutes while N’Guessan was in foul trouble.
And Ikegwuruka made an incredible steal at midcourt late in the game that he converted into a valuable layup on the other end. The junior-college transfer continues to play with maximum effort when he is on the floor.
K-State would not have won this game without all of those bench contributors.
This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Kansas State continues winning streak by upsetting No. 13 Arizona. Here are takeaways."