Wildcats Face Wake Forest in Dayton’s First Four

Despite the presence of Collins down low, Wake Forest struggled inside the paint on both the offensive and defensive ends early.

The NCAA added the “First Four” to the NCAA Tournament in 2011, expanding the tournament field from 64 to 68 by adding two play-in games in Dayton for the final four at-large teams to make the Big Dance. What were the key takeaways in this one?

Meanwhile, Kansas State was under.500 in conference play and likely wouldn’t have gotten into the field if it wasn’t for the fact that they won two games against Baylor.

What arguably gave KSU the momentum was a technical foul called on Wake Forest with less than two minutes left. By the time they did, they were fighting the shot clock and forced to take lower percentage shots.

Don’t forget that Kansas State, one of the last teams in the NCAA Tournament, lost to Oklahoma Sooners, the ninth-place team in the Big 12, by 30 just a few weeks ago. The fourth will host a first-round game in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The victor of that contest will play the victor of UCLA (29-4) vs. Kent State (22-13). Wake Forest, as they have all year, continued to show fight.

“Whenever you’re coaching at a program, you always want to play in the NCAA tournament and we feel very fortunate and blessed to be a part of it”, Manning said.

Manning knows Kansas State is a risky opponent. Kamau Stokes was confidently stepping into 3s, and buried five of his eight attempts. Senior forward Wesley Iwundu leads the team in scoring and rebounding (6.4), while sophomore guard Barry Brown averages 11.7 points and 2.4 steals – the second-best mark in the Big 12. He’s become the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, while Cartwright averages 6.7 assists per game.

Like many college basketball fans, Smith plans to fill out multiple brackets.

“I told him this is about his career”, Weber said. He damn near did, but fouled Kamaru Stokes in the process. They play at a relatively fast pace, and they shoot well from both the 3-point line and the free-throw line.

“We came close and then we let them build another lead”, said John Collins, who had 26 points and nine rebounds.

Percentages: FG.472, FT.906. Three-Point Goals: 9-27, .333 (Arians 4-5, Wilbekin 2-4, Childress 1-4, Mitoglou 1-4, Crawford 1-5, Woods 0-5). Unfortunately, not one else scored more than 7.

Congratulations to Kansas State for winning the game.

No. 11 Wake Forest is the first to play. “It was in the best interests of our team moving forward”.

The path to a more comfortable NCAA seed – and a later start to the tournament than Tuesday – is pretty easy to see.

The NBA scouts have been drooling over the 6-10 big man during the his explosion onto the scene this season. It has been a fun ride.

For the last month or so, Iwundu has been harping on his teammates to play like it was their last game.

The offense, which was much better in the second half than in the first, pulled the Deacons to within a single possession on seven instances in the second half.