by Alec Busse • EMAWOnline – Lead Reporter – @Alec_Busse NEW YORK — Playing in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2018, Kansas State defeated Michigan State 98-93 in overtime behind an NCAA Tournament record 19 assists from point guard Markquis Nowell. Each team started the game well from the field, but Michigan State was unable to take advantage of four combined offensive rebounds on their first two offensive possessions, which helped K-State jump out to a 5-0 lead after early buckets from Keyontae Johnson and Desi Sills, who would later be tagged with three personal fouls in the first half. Michigan State’s Joey Hauser…
Author: EMAW Online
by Alec Busse • EMAWOnline – Lead Reporter – @Alec_Busse NEW YORK — Jareem Dowling knows the pain. It’s a unique, never-ending pain. There’s no cure for this kind of pain. It lasts forever and it can be debilitating — and he experienced it to the most disastrous degree. About five or six years ago, Dowling’s brother committed suicide. He and his brother lived together in Northern Texas, Dowling was working as an assistant coach at North Texas when the tragedy occurred, “I never grieved it properly,” he says. Dowling was born in the Virgin Islands, but was adopted as a boy…
by Gabe Swartz • EMAWOnline – Staff Writer GREENSBORO, N.C. — There’s an inherent belief that the first weekend of March Madness is supposed to captivate an audience with belief in a David versus Goliath mentality. Two days after Fairleigh Dickinson — the shortest team in the tournament — knocked off 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey and No. 1 seeded Purdue, a matchup between Kansas State and Kentucky provided another chance. Yes, Kansas State was wearing white on Sunday and yes, first-year head coach Jerome Tang will tell you that his team had more dudes than 6th-seeded Kentucky. But the matchup featured a 5-foot-8 point guard and the reigning national player of the year, Oscar…
by Alec Busse • EMAWOnline – Lead Reporter – @Alec_Busse GREENSBORO, N.C. — Standing near the 3-point line, Jerome Tang and his boss Gene Taylor embraced in a hug. One of those hugs with such force on contact that your breath is taken away for a second. One of those hugs where neither person wants to let go. One of those hugs where the emotion of the moment makes time feel like it stopped. In the background of the hug, time on the scoreboard inside Greensboro Coliseum did stop with nothing but zeros on the clock. In bright LED lights the scoreboard read: Kansas State…
by Mason Voth • EMAWOnline – Managing Editor – @TheRealMasonV Here are my thoughts from K-State’s 75-69 win over Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament Second Round. STAR PLAY There are many ways to describe this sentiment. Jerome Tang always tells the story of being told that the “best coaches get the ball to their best players.” Others would say “big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.” I like to describe it efficiently as “you need your stars to be stars.” The Wildcats of K-State got that on Sunday against Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament win. Markquis Nowell is the clear and obvious…
by Alec Busse • EMAWOnline – Lead Reporter – @Alec_Busse GREENSBORO, NC — In arguably the best game of the NCAA Tournament so far, Kansas State repeatedly hit tough shots in the second half to beat No. 6 Kentucky ___-____. The two teams had a sloppy start in the first couple of minutes with the basketball acting as a hot potato more than the object designed to go through the rim. Neither team scored in the first minute, but a Jacob Toppin dunk with 17:16 left in the first half put Kentucky ahead 4-3, it was Toppin’s only made shot in the first half…
by Alec Busse • EMAWOnline – Lead Reporter – @Alec_Busse GREENSBORO, NC — On Friday night, Kansas State fans filed into Greensboro Coliseum to watch their team play vs. Montana State in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. But before seeing their Purple Wildcats play, they watched a Blue Wildcat from Kentucky record 25 rebounds — the second most in an NCAA Tournament game since 1973 — in No. 6 Kentucky’s victory over Providence. Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe is the best rebounder in college basketball. This season he averaged 13.5 rebounds a game and last year — when he was the National Player…
by Mason Voth • EMAWOnline – Managing Editor – @TheRealMasonV
by Alec Busse • EMAWOnline – Lead Reporter – @Alec_Busse GREENSBORO, NC. — About 11 months ago, Jerome Tang was approached by one of his most well-connected recruiting staffers, Jareem Dowling. Dowling had found a little-known player that he thought would potentially be an uber-impactful piece to Tang’s first team at Kansas State. Dowling showed Tang tape a thin 6-foot-10, skilled, athletic player who thrived at Chipola Junior college in 2021-22, but hadn’t played much-organized basketball. The raw tools the prospect played with on the screen made Tang ooohhhh and aaahhhh at the raw talent on his computer screen. The player was Nae’Qwan Tomlin. And on Friday night, Tomlin helped No. 3 Kansas…
by Mason Voth, Alec Busse & Gabe Swartz – EMAW Online Staff For more reading material in the lead up to the late, 9:40 local time tip-off in Greensboro, the EMAW Online crew put together some picks and superlatives for the East Region, which hosts K-State. A similar story to what was released prior to last week’s Big 12 Tournament. FIRST ROUND GAME YOU ARE MOST EXCITED FOR Mason: No. 2 Marquette vs No. 15 Vermont I love the Catamounts, mainly because they lost to K-State in the 2007 NIT and to this day that is still my favorite game…