SE: Win Over Oregon Represents the Next Step for K-State
Dec 20, 2021 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
With Kansas State leading 68-56 and 17.7 seconds left on the clock in a signature win for head coach Jeff Mittie, No. 23 Oregon called timeout and Bramlage Coliseum went absolutely bananas, as the thumping beat of "Sandstorm" echoed across the arena, and you knew that you were witnessing a special step for the Wildcats' women's basketball team.
Adults jumped up and down in purple Santa hats in Section 5, and an older man in denim overalls pumped his fists into the air in Section 6, and little kids jumped and clapped with their oversized Wildcat mitts in Section 21, and the jumbotron at midcourt beamed "MAKE NOISE!" and everyone clapped and chanted, "Go K-State! Go K-State! Go K-State!" and older kids swung their fists up and down in Section 20, and band members pumped trombones and trumpets into the air, and cheerleaders twirled on the court, and you knew there was absolutely no chance that the Wildcats wouldn't win this game.
Surrounded by all this chaos, surrounded by the thumping bass, and the jumping, and chanting and clapping, Mittie and his coaching staff and players stood in a circle 10 feet from their bench. The players wrapped their arms around each other in the huddle. They had a familiar look in their eyes that all the notable teams carry when they're the cusp of taking a trip from the ordinary to the extraordinary, the walk from good to great, the look that all very fine purple and white teams in many different sports have possessed through the years.
The players were calm. They were determined. Their eyes were narrowed, their brows furrowed, and they swayed with swagger together amid the pounding bass.
They looked like they belonged.
"It's a really good win," Mittie said.
"This is a game we wanted pretty bad, and we knew we could get it," forward Emilee Ebert said.
"We came out really well and it goes back to our preparation," All-American candidate Ayoke Lee said. "We knew what we wanted to do."
And what did K-State do?
Unofficially, K-State recorded its most-lopsided win in school history when the Wildcats are unranked and facing a ranked Power 6 conference opponent. It's important to note that Oregon was unranked in The Associated Press poll, but was ranked No. 23 in the Coaches Poll, so we're splitting straws, but the polls are largely similar, and K-State had entered the night 6-44 all-time against ranked Power 6 foes in the AP poll. The Wildcats won two of them (71-66 over No. 23 Auburn in 2016-17 and 64-53 over No. 14 St. John's in 2010-11) when unranked. Both of those games were at Bramlage.
So, it can be said that unofficially no unranked K-State team had likely never beaten a really good Power 6 opponent so badly as the Wildcats did on Saturday night.
K-State, 10-2, led wire-to-wire in a game in which the Wildcats led by as many as 14 points and five times fought off the Ducks, 6-4, over the final three quarters when they crept to within one possession. Oregon trailed by six points in the final minute before the Wildcats scored the final six points.
Lee was outstanding with 19 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks and 1 steal. Brylee Glenn was outstanding with 15 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Ebert showed off her beautiful 3-pointer — she made 3 of 5 early in the game, and when you see that shot you wonder how she ever misses any — and defending Big 12 Freshman of the Week selection Serena Sundell had herself a numbers feast with 7 points, 8 rebounds and 1 turnover in 40 minutes.
Gallery: (12-18-2021) Oregon vs K-State basketball
Mittie and his staff were outstanding in traveling to No. 5 NC State and No. 1 South Carolina in preparing for this moment, as the Wildcats thrashed the Ducks, who are expected to challenge Stanford for the Pac-12 title this season. The Wildcats had the perfect game plan against tall Oregon players and alternated defenses and rattled the Ducks. K-State held Oregon to its worst scoring performance of the season while holding the Ducks to just 33.3% (21 of 63) from the floor, including 26.3% (5 of 19) in the fourth quarter.
"That's a top-10 type team," Mittie said.
These Wildcats continue to grow and look like a NCAA Tournament team.
"I'm proud of our team," Mittie said. "Any coach that watches their team grow up in stages of the season is just really proud of them preparing and coming together. I'm really proud of how our group was able to fight through foul trouble and fatigue."
The Wildcats appeared to have ample energy down the stretch of one of their biggest non-conference victories in years. They landed their punches and staggered the Ducks, and that's really the best part of it all. That and the fact that Bramlage became bananas at the end of the game. A man in a trucker hat behind the basket yelled, "Here we go Wildcats, here we go!" as the team broke their huddle for the final time with 17.7 seconds left in the game. "Sandstorm" blared for about 2 minutes, which is unofficially the longest that "Sandstorm" has played in Bramlage for a men's or women's basketball game since 2011.
Mittie emerged for the postgame interview with wet hair.
"I don't know if it was worthy of dumping a bunch of water on me in the locker room, but (players) wanted to," he said.
He laughed.
"I think we should celebrate all of (the wins)," he began again. "It's a really good win and I think we should celebrate stuff like this. I want the team to celebrate. I want them to celebrate the little things. Even after the year we've had with the pandemic, let's just celebrate playing basketball and playing it the right way.
"If they want to dump water on me every game, I'm fine with it."
In the end, Lee held the ball above her head as the buzzer sounded. Her teammates mobbed her. The team huddled at the free throw line as Oregon players retreated to the locker room. Five cameras surrounded the postgame huddle. Mittie presented Lee with a basketball to commemorate her 1,000th career point from earlier in the season. Her teammates mobbed her again. They hugged. They locked arms and swayed as the band played the Alma Mater. Then the players walked around the arena and high-fived fans.
As Lee passed Section 7, K-State super fan Robert Lipson stopped her. He handed her a large white sign with a purple Big 12 Logo emblazoned upon it. They exchanged words. Finally, she held that large Big 12 sign. And she held it high. And the crowd cheered some more.
"He told me to hold that sign up," she recalled later. "He told me to extend my arms."
And she did.
"It's a great win for the Big 12," she said.
It's about conference pride, yes, but Saturday was about so much more. It was about taking down a very good Power 6 opponent, and doing so emphatically, and taking that next step, and continuing to grow, and showing signs of going from good to great, like so many K-State teams in many different sports have done over the years.
In the end, though, it's simply about this: Saturday was a signature win for a K-State team that appears plenty ready to make some noise in the Big 12 Conference.
With Kansas State leading 68-56 and 17.7 seconds left on the clock in a signature win for head coach Jeff Mittie, No. 23 Oregon called timeout and Bramlage Coliseum went absolutely bananas, as the thumping beat of "Sandstorm" echoed across the arena, and you knew that you were witnessing a special step for the Wildcats' women's basketball team.
Adults jumped up and down in purple Santa hats in Section 5, and an older man in denim overalls pumped his fists into the air in Section 6, and little kids jumped and clapped with their oversized Wildcat mitts in Section 21, and the jumbotron at midcourt beamed "MAKE NOISE!" and everyone clapped and chanted, "Go K-State! Go K-State! Go K-State!" and older kids swung their fists up and down in Section 20, and band members pumped trombones and trumpets into the air, and cheerleaders twirled on the court, and you knew there was absolutely no chance that the Wildcats wouldn't win this game.
Surrounded by all this chaos, surrounded by the thumping bass, and the jumping, and chanting and clapping, Mittie and his coaching staff and players stood in a circle 10 feet from their bench. The players wrapped their arms around each other in the huddle. They had a familiar look in their eyes that all the notable teams carry when they're the cusp of taking a trip from the ordinary to the extraordinary, the walk from good to great, the look that all very fine purple and white teams in many different sports have possessed through the years.
The players were calm. They were determined. Their eyes were narrowed, their brows furrowed, and they swayed with swagger together amid the pounding bass.
They looked like they belonged.
"It's a really good win," Mittie said.
"This is a game we wanted pretty bad, and we knew we could get it," forward Emilee Ebert said.
"We came out really well and it goes back to our preparation," All-American candidate Ayoke Lee said. "We knew what we wanted to do."
And what did K-State do?
Unofficially, K-State recorded its most-lopsided win in school history when the Wildcats are unranked and facing a ranked Power 6 conference opponent. It's important to note that Oregon was unranked in The Associated Press poll, but was ranked No. 23 in the Coaches Poll, so we're splitting straws, but the polls are largely similar, and K-State had entered the night 6-44 all-time against ranked Power 6 foes in the AP poll. The Wildcats won two of them (71-66 over No. 23 Auburn in 2016-17 and 64-53 over No. 14 St. John's in 2010-11) when unranked. Both of those games were at Bramlage.
So, it can be said that unofficially no unranked K-State team had likely never beaten a really good Power 6 opponent so badly as the Wildcats did on Saturday night.
K-State, 10-2, led wire-to-wire in a game in which the Wildcats led by as many as 14 points and five times fought off the Ducks, 6-4, over the final three quarters when they crept to within one possession. Oregon trailed by six points in the final minute before the Wildcats scored the final six points.
Lee was outstanding with 19 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks and 1 steal. Brylee Glenn was outstanding with 15 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Ebert showed off her beautiful 3-pointer — she made 3 of 5 early in the game, and when you see that shot you wonder how she ever misses any — and defending Big 12 Freshman of the Week selection Serena Sundell had herself a numbers feast with 7 points, 8 rebounds and 1 turnover in 40 minutes.
Mittie and his staff were outstanding in traveling to No. 5 NC State and No. 1 South Carolina in preparing for this moment, as the Wildcats thrashed the Ducks, who are expected to challenge Stanford for the Pac-12 title this season. The Wildcats had the perfect game plan against tall Oregon players and alternated defenses and rattled the Ducks. K-State held Oregon to its worst scoring performance of the season while holding the Ducks to just 33.3% (21 of 63) from the floor, including 26.3% (5 of 19) in the fourth quarter.
"That's a top-10 type team," Mittie said.
These Wildcats continue to grow and look like a NCAA Tournament team.
"I'm proud of our team," Mittie said. "Any coach that watches their team grow up in stages of the season is just really proud of them preparing and coming together. I'm really proud of how our group was able to fight through foul trouble and fatigue."
The Wildcats appeared to have ample energy down the stretch of one of their biggest non-conference victories in years. They landed their punches and staggered the Ducks, and that's really the best part of it all. That and the fact that Bramlage became bananas at the end of the game. A man in a trucker hat behind the basket yelled, "Here we go Wildcats, here we go!" as the team broke their huddle for the final time with 17.7 seconds left in the game. "Sandstorm" blared for about 2 minutes, which is unofficially the longest that "Sandstorm" has played in Bramlage for a men's or women's basketball game since 2011.
Mittie emerged for the postgame interview with wet hair.
Coach loved it 😂#KStateWBB x #BeKStateGr8 pic.twitter.com/JRtUBTlpQh
— K-State Women's Basketball (@KStateWBB) December 19, 2021
"I don't know if it was worthy of dumping a bunch of water on me in the locker room, but (players) wanted to," he said.
He laughed.
"I think we should celebrate all of (the wins)," he began again. "It's a really good win and I think we should celebrate stuff like this. I want the team to celebrate. I want them to celebrate the little things. Even after the year we've had with the pandemic, let's just celebrate playing basketball and playing it the right way.
"If they want to dump water on me every game, I'm fine with it."
In the end, Lee held the ball above her head as the buzzer sounded. Her teammates mobbed her. The team huddled at the free throw line as Oregon players retreated to the locker room. Five cameras surrounded the postgame huddle. Mittie presented Lee with a basketball to commemorate her 1,000th career point from earlier in the season. Her teammates mobbed her again. They hugged. They locked arms and swayed as the band played the Alma Mater. Then the players walked around the arena and high-fived fans.
As Lee passed Section 7, K-State super fan Robert Lipson stopped her. He handed her a large white sign with a purple Big 12 Logo emblazoned upon it. They exchanged words. Finally, she held that large Big 12 sign. And she held it high. And the crowd cheered some more.
"He told me to hold that sign up," she recalled later. "He told me to extend my arms."
And she did.
"It's a great win for the Big 12," she said.
It's about conference pride, yes, but Saturday was about so much more. It was about taking down a very good Power 6 opponent, and doing so emphatically, and taking that next step, and continuing to grow, and showing signs of going from good to great, like so many K-State teams in many different sports have done over the years.
In the end, though, it's simply about this: Saturday was a signature win for a K-State team that appears plenty ready to make some noise in the Big 12 Conference.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballK-State Baseball | Game Highlights vs TCU
Saturday, April 04
K-State Volleyball | March Madness Tournament
Friday, April 03
K-State Football | 2026-2027 Student Athletic Passes ON SALE NOW 🔥
Friday, April 03
K-State Tennis | Timing is everything 🎤
Friday, April 03
