Onto The Next One

By: D. Scott Fritchen

What we witnessed was a Big 12 Tournament grand awakening of a team and a mighty step for its youngest starting player. What we witnessed was that dog mentality of a Kansas State team that pushed aside an early 10-point deficit and declared that it wasn't ready to go home. What we witnessed were the chills and cheers of March under the bright lights here at T-Mobile Center, that familiar sweetness that accompanied the Wildcats climb a year ago, and which wafted across the hardwood once again.

To say it was magical is too cliché, to not call it magical is doing a disservice to the craft of clawing, of coming from "Out the Mud," and dropping the hammer on Texas — one moment K-State is trailing — and poof! — now it is leading, and its lead is growing and growing still, and the K-State cheers grow louder, and the chills grow bigger, and there's Jerome Tang clapping his hands, and there's Dai Dai Ames going against giants, and there's Tylor Perry hitting a 3-pointer, and another one, and free throw after free throw, and oh, by the way, here it comes: Texas is toast.

Boom.

That just happened.

K-State 78, Texas 74.

Soak it in, but only for a minute, because these tournaments move quicker than Clark Griswold on a sled, and they'll creep up on a guy like tax season, and there's no time to spare, because it's on to the next one. Which for K-State is a meeting against No. 2-seed Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Thursday at T-Mobile Center.

"It's not done yet," K-State senior forward Arthur Kaluma says. "We still got games to win."

Adds Perry: "We can enjoy this one (over Texas) for the next couple hours, and then we got the No. 17 team in the country on the same floor as us. We have to respect them just like we did when they came to K-State a couple days ago.

"We have to bring the fight to them."

The toughness of this K-State team was at its highest level against Texas, as the Wildcats utilized unflinching aggressiveness in the second half, fighting back from a 39-29 deficit to take a 10-point lead of their own with 4 minutes, 28 seconds remaining in the game. The scout by associate head coach Ulrich Maligi was brilliant, and the only thing that prevented the Wildcats from greater success during the first 20 minutes was their inability to get out of their own way.

That was the sentiment players shared after the contest, anyway. But what we saw, perhaps most prevalently, was Ames, the rising true freshman star point guard, whose Chicago toughness lingered across the court. Time after time, Ames drove it to the hoop, and a few times he made stellar assists, but mainly it was his tough 10 points and grittiness that stole the show.

"Just seeing everybody's face in the locker room, everybody wanted it, but we were playing against ourselves," Ames says. "We weren't playing as a team. When we're playing the right way, we can beat anybody in the country."

Ames is a 6-foot-1, 185-pound bulldog of a player who started in the final 10 Big 12 Conference games of the regular season. Although he scored a career-high 14 points against Central Arkansas and 12 against Bellarmine, those performances paled in comparison to the headaches he caused the Longhorns.

"He's a pit bull," Kaluma says. "He's a great player at a young age. We always knew he was special ever since this summer. He's really starting to blossom right now."

Ames was a 2023 Jordan Brand Classic All-American at Kenwood Academy in Chicago. He once scored 65 points in a high school game. He was always used to playing with the big boys. At age 10, he played on an eighth-grade team. He received scholarship offers from Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State, Oklahoma and Notre Dame. He chose K-State over the rest. Upon his arrival in Manhattan, he said, "I love the lights. I like to show people what I'm capable of. That's when I perform the best." And now he's here, in this moment, and he's literally speechless inside the T-Mobile Arena locker room, sitting in a chair, soaking it all in while chatting with reporters.

"It's March," he says, finally. "March means championships. That's what it means. I've been wanting this since I was a kid. It's a great feeling, a great feeling."

Wasn't too long ago that K-State experienced a great feeling against the Cyclones. The Wildcats handed them a 65-58 loss on Senior Day at Bramlage Coliseum last Saturday. The Cyclones, a likely top-3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, have had to live with that loss. They haven't played another team since that day.

"Obviously, they've had a great year," Tang says. "They're going to probably be a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They're one of the best defensive teams in our league. They pride themselves on all the things we pride ourselves on, too.

"I'm just happy we get a chance."

It'll be an interesting dynamic Thursday evening as well. Iowa State fans famously travel well. The bright red and yellow colors were ever-present inside T-Mobile Center and outside the arena. Meanwhile, K-State fans showed up in droves to see the Wildcats take down Texas in what could be the final time the two teams play for a while.

"I mean, I felt like we were playing a home game," Kaluma says. "We're in Kansas City. Everybody came through."

Adds Perry: "We need them. We have the best fans in the world, and I truly believe that. When they run with us, I feel like we're invincible. We need them. Just as much as they want to see us play, we appreciate them so much. Hopefully, they're here again and get us going again."

Watch out. It's March. And the Wildcats have that dog mentality in them.

They certainly showed it against Texas — a team that is headed home.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dai Dai Ames

Arthur Kaluma

Tylor Perry

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