On a Roll

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Kansas State, the team that has known nothing but wins over the last five games, the squad that jumped over the .500 mark for the first time in nearly a month with an 81-73 win over No. 16 Kansas on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum, has eight contests left until the Big 12 Tournament.

Watch out, Big 12.

"They're playing their best ball this season right now," Kansas coach Bill Self said following the loss to the Wildcats. "They're won five in a row, and they've looked good doing it, too. That team out there today didn't look like a 12-11 team."

K-State, 12-11 overall and 6-6 in the Big 12, used a simple formula to beat Kansas, 16-7 and 7-5, to even the season series after an 84-74 loss in Lawrence on January 18. The Wildcats used confidence and execution — the same recipe they used in wins against No. 23 West Virginia (73-60), Oklahoma State (85-57), at No. 3 Iowa State (80-61) and at Arizona State (71-70).

Led by Dug McDaniel's 15 points and 11 assists in a game-high 37 minutes, the Wildcats watched their senior point guard sprint by the Jayhawks while David N'Guessan scored 20 points inside the paint. With Coleman Hawkins adding 12 points, five rebounds, eight assists and five blocks, and Max Jones hitting a pair of 3-pointers on his way to 12 points, the Wildcats led for 37 minutes, 10 seconds.

"Our guys have just been so resilient and they're a lot of fun to coach right now, and it's really not a lot of coaching, it's just letting them play," K-State head coach Jerome Tang said. "They want to win."

In a way, that starts with McDaniel, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound junior transfer from Michigan, who has averaged 13.4 points and 7.4 assists during the winning streak.

"Man, Dug could always do this," Tang said. "It's all the other things that the point guard and the leader of the team, the guy with the ball in his hands, the point of attack on offense and defense that you have to do, and that's what he's bought into, and because he's done that, now the thing that he's special at is getting to shine.

"He's one of the best guards in this league, and he'll continue to get better. I don't even think he's scratched the surface yet. We're just seeing his physical tools and when he continues to learn and grow in this thing, the sky's the limit for this young fella."

McDaniel is feeling more comfortable — and he's executing.

"I definitely feel more comfortable," he said. "Coach has just allowed me to be me, and a lot of good stuff is coming out of it. My guys are believing in me and keep putting their confidence in me. Right now, I feel like I'm playing with the most confidence I've played with in a long time, and we're winning, so it feels good, for sure."

Tang became the first K-State head coach to win his first three home games against Kansas since Jack Gardner did so between 1947-49. That makes N'Guessan, a three-year player, the only K-State player in decades to go 3-0 against Kansas in Manhattan.

"Winning feels good," N'Guessan said. "Against KU, I guess a little bit extra. But it's just another game. We just have to keep it going and make sure we're winning in March. That's even more fun."

It certainly seemed to be all fun when K-State players watched the final seconds tick off the clock in front of a sellout crowd of 11,010 that reached ear-popping decibels at times.

"That was a great crowd," said Coleman Hawkins, who transferred from Illinois. "I definitely feel like the crowd was able to help affect how they played a little bit. They fueled us with energy. That's a crowd I'd love to play for every night. Them filling us with energy — the ball feels different when there are 11,000 people against you. We're going to need that kind of support the rest of the way, especially with the way we're playing right now.

"We're one of the hottest teams in the country, and we're going to need that the rest of the way for sure."

K-State's five straight wins are its most since it won five straight early last season, while it hasn't won five straight Big 12 games since January 2019.

Might this be a NCAA Tournament team? That was the question on the minds of at least a couple reporters following the win over the Jayhawks.

"I think we're good enough to win games in the tournament," Tang said. "Do we have the resume to do it? I don't know that. I'll leave that up to other people. Our goal is to win the next game, and the way we do that is by winning practice tomorrow."

While K-State prepares for Tuesday's 7 p.m. tipoff against No. 20 Arizona, Kansas, which has lost three of its last five, gears up for Colorado at Allen Fieldhouse.

Asked if K-State had a chance at making the NCAA Tournament, Self replied, "Yes, I mean, everybody has that possibility. Everybody plays in the tournament in Kansas City. Everybody has a chance. Yes, absolutely. They don't have much of a margin for error I wouldn't think, but if they play like that then they're going to have a chance to win a lot of games moving forward."

It might very well come down to confidence and execution.

"I don't know how to gauge confidence," Tang said. "I just know we're having really good practices and making good basketball plays. I think they believe in what we want to do and in what we're doing, and I believe in them.

"It was another great Big 12 game. Like when we were losing and we said we have to move on to the next, it's the same thing with the wins. You've got to tuck this one away and move onto the next. We have another great team coming in and another great opportunity in front of us."

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Coleman Hawkins

Max Jones

Dug McDaniel

David N'Guessan

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