Game 21: Kansas - Kansas State

Discussion in 'Men's College Basketball' started by BasX, Jan 30, 2008.

  1. BasX

    BasX I Win

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    #2 [​IMG] 20-0 Vs #22[​IMG] 14-4

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>It's been a long time since there's been a basketball game this big in Manhattan. Kansas, that is.

    When No. 2 Kansas and No. 22 Kansas State meet as ranked teams for the first time in nearly 50 years on Wednesday, at stake will be the Jayhawks' undefeated record, first place in the Big 12 and the validity of some strong words from the league's best player.

    Kansas State center Michael Beasley all but guaranteed a season sweep of Kansas before he had ever played a college basketball game, and Wildcats coach Frank Martin this week backed his freshman phenom.

    "We're going to beat Kansas at home. We're going to beat them in their house. We're going to beat them in Africa," Beasley said before the season. "Wherever we play, we're going to beat them."

    Martin likes the confidence Beasley is showing.

    "Mike said what he felt in his heart," Martin said Monday. "It's what he believes. He didn't come here to lose to Kansas."

    Beasley, the Big 12's leader in scoring (25.3 points per game) and rebounding (12.7), made his statement before knowing that the Jayhawks would be unbeaten in the last week of January. But he must have been aware that Kansas (20-0, 5-0) had beaten the Wildcats in 35 of their last 36 meetings, as well as 24 straight times in Manhattan.

    Kansas State (14-4, 4-0) last beat Kansas at home during the 1983-84 season, just one sign of how lopsided the rivalry has been. While Kansas has been ranked almost perennially, the teams haven't met while both were ranked since the No. 10 Jayhawks upset No. 1 Kansas State in Manhattan in March 1958.

    They're also the only two remaining unbeatens in Big 12 play.

    "This will certainly be the toughest test we've had to date, without question," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "It could be as hard a test as we have this year. Hopefully, we'll be prepared. We'll find out a lot more about ourselves from a poise standpoint."

    If their first five conference games were tests, the Jayhawks did more than pass. They won all five by an average of 23.2 points, including an 84-49 home blowout of Nebraska on Saturday. That was Kansas' 28th straight regular-season win dating to last season.

    The Jayhawks led the Cornhuskers 44-15 at the half, Brandon Rush shot 5-of-7 from 3-point range, Darrell Arthur scored 18 points and Darnell Jackson had 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

    Kansas hasn't opened a season with 21 consecutive wins since its 22-0 start in 1996-97, but the Jayhawks claim they aren't thinking about the streak.

    "I won't think about that until we have zero games left," Jackson said. "Before that, you don't even think about running the table. When it's over, we'll be satisfied."

    The Wildcats will be just the second ranked team Kansas has faced this season. The Jayhawks won 59-55 at Southern California -- which had also been No. 22 -- on Dec. 2.

    Kansas State, winner of five in a row and nine of its last 10, re-entered the poll this week for the first time since Nov. 26. The Wildcats beat Iowa State 82-57 on Saturday, winning their seventh straight at home and starting their Big 12 schedule with four consecutive wins for the first time since 1988.

    Beasley, a candidate for national player of the year, had 33 points and 15 rebounds on Saturday, his 16th double-double in 18 games this season. His 12.7 rebounds per game lead the nation and his 25.3 points a contest rank him fourth in the country.

    The Wildcats are outscoring opponents by 32.0 points per game during their home winning streak, including a 75-54 victory over then-No. 10 Texas A&M on Jan. 19. But they haven't beaten a team ranked as high as No. 2 since the 1993-94 season, when they won at then-No. 1 Kansas 68-64.

    "Either you are going to rise to the occasion or you're going to fall," Kansas State forward Bill Walker said. "We plan on rising."</div>

    http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/preview?gameId=280302306
     
  2. Dissonance19

    Dissonance19 Member

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    Really sucks this isn't on National TV. Unless that's been changed. Probably have to watch it on sopcast (if I can). Should be very interesting though.
     
  3. BasX

    BasX I Win

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    ill be missing the game, im out tonight from 8 to 11 [​IMG]
    im hoping KU can get beasley in foul trouble
     
  4. BasX

    BasX I Win

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    ahhh looks like we are gonna lose, still 20-0 start is still good
     
  5. BasX

    BasX I Win

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    [​IMG] 84
    [​IMG] 75

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Kansas State fans had come to call it The Streak, 24 years of home-court futility against Kansas.

    All they had to do was wait for one of the greatest players in school history to be born and come to their rescue.

    Michael Beasley, who wasn't even alive when the Jayhawks began their 24-game winning streak in the Little Apple, scored 25 points Wednesday night and led the Wildcats (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) to an 84-75 victory over previously unbeaten Kansas, touching off a mob scene on center court.

    I know it means a lot around the city, people at the school," said Beasley, who's become a candidate for player of the year as the nation's leading rebounder and No. 4 scorer. "But it's just a game to me."

    Freshman guard Jacob Pullen had 20 points and freshman forward Bill Walker had 22, making sure that Beasley, who had guaranteed a Kansas State victory, did not have to eat his words.

    "I knew my team was capable of beating anybody," Beasley said. "And we showed it tonight."

    Always double- and sometimes triple-teamed when he touched the ball inside, Beasley was held to only eight points in the first half but scored six in a row in the first few minutes after intermission and No. 2 Kansas (20-1, 5-1 Big 12) never caught up.

    Beasley was 4-for-4 from behind the 3-point arc as the Wildcats (15-4, 5-0) took over first place in a Big 12 conference they've never even competed in, let alone won.

    Kansas, two victories short of matching the best start in its basketball history, lost on its rival's homecourt for the first time since 1983. The 24-game streak in an opponent's gym came within one of tying the NCAA Division I record which UCLA set against California from 1961-85.

    "It doesn't sting because of The Streak," an obviously disappointed Kansas coach Bill Self said. "It stings because it's our rival. I could care less about The Streak. But I do care about beating our rivals. So, yeah, this one stings more than what most would sting."

    Kansas State's victory left No. 1 Memphis, an 89-77 winner Wednesday night over Houston, as the nation's lone unbeaten team.

    "We weren't going to run the table," Self said. "As much as I wish we could, that wasn't going to happen. So this could be a good thing for us in the long run. But certainly it stings."

    The capacity crowd of 12,528 in Bramlage Coliseum, where Kansas had been 19-0, sensed the victory with more than five minutes to go and security guards, worried about a near-riot, moved near the court.

    It didn't keep the floor from being flooded by delirious Wildcats fans, who jumped over the press table and sent reporters, computers and notebooks flying.

    Mario Chalmers had 19 points, Brandon Rush had 15 and Darrell Arthur 12 for Kansas, which had beaten Kansas State 35 of the last 36 overall.

    "People act like there's just one team in Kansas and we had a chance to show there isn't," Walker said. Then he paused, obviously exhausted. "It was a big win. I'm tired. I can't think right now."

    Arthur, the leading scorer in Kansas' well-balanced offense, drew his fourth foul with 13:33 left and went to the bench, weakening the Jayhawks offensively and defensively. After Sherron Collins hit a 3-pointer 30 seconds later to slice Kansas State's lead to 47-45, the Jayhawks went almost seven minutes without a field goal, missing six straight shots.

    Beasley, in the meantime, had become his nearly unstoppable self and Pullen was darting in and out and having his best game of the season.

    Walker hit a 3-pointer for a 52-45 lead, his first points since drawing his third foul and going to the bench in the first half after throwing a vicious elbow to the face of Chalmers.

    Then Pullen hit a 3-pointer, Beasley rebounded Chalmers' miss and put in a thunderous dunk on the other end off a nifty feed from Pullen that made it 57-45.

    Chalmers and Russell Robinson, who had combined to average almost six steals this season and rank 1-2 in the Big 12, figured prominently in a game plan that was supposed to have the Jayhawks' quicker, deeper back court dominate the Wildcat guards and create turnovers.

    But Kansas State's guards were more than up to the challenge. Pullen had four assists to go with 10-for-10 from the foul line. Clent Stewart, a senior guard, had 11 points and five rebounds. Together they outscored Chalmers and Robinson 31-25.

    "I'm tired of people calling our guards raggedy," Kansas State coach Frank Martin said. "It (bothers) me when I continue to hear people say our guards are inferior to other people's guards. They played like grown men today and we didn't turn it over and we made plays to win."

    Kansas, which averaged only 12 turnovers while winning its first 20 games, had 10 in the first half of the rough-and-tumble 263rd meeting of the Sunflower State rivals and wound up with 16.

    Sherron Collins had 12 points for the Jayhawks, who came into the game leading the nation with a scoring margin of 24.9 points.</div>

    http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280302306
     

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