Kansas State Athletics
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State was rewarded for a successful season on Sunday, as the Wildcats earned their 29th overall bid to the NCAA Tournament, including the third in five seasons under Bruce Weber.
K-State (20-13, 8-10 Big 12) was selected as a No. 11 seed in the South Regional and will travel to Dayton, Ohio, to play in the First Four to play fellow No. 11 seed Wake Forest (19-13, 9-9 ACC) on Tuesday, March 14 at the University of Dayton Arena. The winner will advance to play No. 6 seed Cincinnati (29-4, 16-2 AAC) on Friday, March 17 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
The Wildcats will be joined at the venue by fellow No. 11 seeds Providence and USC and No. 16 seeds Mount St. Mary’s and New Orleans of the East Regional and No. 16 seeds North Carolina Central and UC Davis of the East Regional. The top seeds in the South Regional are No. 1 seed North Carolina, No. 2 seed Kentucky, No. 3 seed UCLA, No. 4 seed Butler and No. 5 seed Minnesota.
K-State and Wake Forest will tip off at 8:10 p.m. CT or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game of the evening session between No. 16 seeds Mount Saint Mary’s and New Orleans on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast nationally on TruTV with Brian Anderson, Clark Kellogg and Lewis Johnson.
Tickets may be requested by current Ahearn Fund members, men’s basketball season ticket holders, faculty/staff, students and alumni. Ahearn Fund members and season ticket holders received an email and can now order online. Faculty/staff, students and alumni should call the K-State Ticket Office at (800) 221.CATS on Monday between 8:30 a.m. and noon. Tickets are priced at $65 for the First Four match-up.
Fans can also pre-order tickets for the 1st and 2nd rounds in Sacramento. Tickets are priced at $100, and the deadline to request is 5:30 p.m. Monday. Orders placed for Friday will automatically be rolled over to Sunday should K-State advance. All seats will be assigned in order of K-State Athletics priority points following the noon and 5:30 p.m. deadlines. Any first and second round tickets remaining on Tuesday, March 14 will be made open to the public at 8:30 a.m., while tickets for the game in Dayton will be made available to public beginning at 1:00 p.m. Monday. All tickets are will call only.
Kansas State is making its 36th postseason appearance, which includes 29 in the NCAA Tournament and seven in the Postseason NIT. The Wildcats advance to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in 11 seasons, including their first since a second-round appearance in 2014. The program has now advanced to the postseason nine times in the last 11 seasons (seven trips to NCAA Tournament and two to the NIT). The 29 overall bids ties for 23rd nationally (along with Utah and BYU), including fourth among Big 12 schools.
In its last appearance, the ninth-seeded Wildcats fell to No. 8 seed Kentucky, 56-49, in the NCAA Midwest Regional second round at the Scotttrade Center in St. Louis. The team shot just 35.8 percent (19-of-53), including 23.8 percent (5-of-21) from 3-point range, as then freshman Marcus Foster led three players in double figures with 15 points. Two current players – seniors Wesley Iwundu and D.J. Johnson – played in the game with Iwundu scoring 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting with 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in 31 minutes while Johnson played just 4 minutes before breaking his foot in the first half. K-State has a 6-6 NCAA Tournament mark in its last six appearances.
The program has posted a 33-32 all-time record in NCAA Tournament play, including 10-4 in the first round. The school will be making its second appearance in the South Regional with its other trip coming in 1993 and is 0-1 all-time in the region. K-State will be making its third appearance as a No. 11 seed and the first since the 2008 NCAA Tournament, in which, the Wildcats defeated No. 6 USC, 80-67 before falling to No. 3 seed Wisconsin in Omaha, Nebraska. Overall, the school is 1-2 as a No. 11 seed.
In K-State’s 29 previous NCAA Tournament appearances, the Wildcats have advanced to the Sweet 16 a total of 16 times. The program has also reached the Elite Eight 11 times, made four Final Four appearances and played in one National Championship game (1951).
Weber becomes fifth different coach to lead K-State to at least three NCAA Tournament appearances and joins Jack Hartman (1978-82), Lon Kruger (1986-90) and Frank Martin (2007-12) as the only coaches to accomplish it three times in a five-year period. Overall, Weber advances to his 11th NCAA Tournament, which includes six at Illinois and two at Southern Illinois. He is 41st head coach in NCAA history to take three different schools to the tournament, including the 21st active coach. He has an 11-10 record in the NCAA Tournament with three trips to the Sweet 16 and the 2005 Final Four.
The Wildcats earned their third 20-win season under head coach Bruce Weber and finished sixth in the Big 12. Overall, the team has four of five starters averaging in double figures led by by Third Team All-Big 12 selection Wesley Iwundu (12.5 ppg., 6.4 rpg.) and All-Big 12 Honorable Mention pick D.J. Johnson (11.2 ppg., 5.8 rpg.).
Wake Forest enters Tuesday’s game with a 19-13 overall record, which includes a 10th-place finish in the rugged Atlantic Coast Conference with a 9-9 mark. The Demon Deacons are led by sophomore forward John Collins, First Team All-ACC performer and the league’s Most Improved Player, who is averaging a team-best 18.9 points on 62 percent shooting to go with 9.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Two others average in double figures, including sophomore guards Bryant Crawford (16.1 ppg., 5.4 apg.) and Keyshawn Woods (12.8 ppg., 3.5 apg.), while four others average between 6.6 and 9.0 points per game.
Wake Forest is led by Kansas legend and former assistant coach Danny Manning, who led the Jayhawks to a 71-58 victory over the Wildcats in the Midwest Regional Final en route to the national championship in 1988. He has an 81-81 overall record in 5 years as head coach, including a 43-52 mark in this third season at Winston-Salem. He was the head coach at Tulsa from 2012-14, leading the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA Tournament in 2013-14. He spent nine seasons at Kansas from 2003-12, including the last five seasons as an assistant coach.
This will be the first-ever meeting between K-State and Wake Forest on the hardwood.
The winner of Tuesday’s First Four matchup will face No. 6 seed Cincinnati (29-5, 16-2 AAC) on Friday. The Bearcats, which finished second in the American Athletic Conference with a 16-2 mark, has a balanced attack with six players averaging 8 or more points, including four in double figures. Sophomore guard Jacob Evans III leads the way with 13.7 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting, including a team-high 66 3-pointers, while second team All-AAC selection junior forward Kyle Washington averages 13.1 points on 51.3 percent shooting to go with 6.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. Junior forward Gary Clark averages a team-best 7.9 rebounds per game to go with 10.7 points per game, while senior guard Troy Caupain dishes out 4.6 assists per contest.
Cincinnati is coached by 1997 alum Mick Cronin, who has a 305-158 overall record in his 14th season as a head coach, including a 236-134 mark in his 11th season at the helm of the Bearcats.
A meeting with Cincinnati would be the eighth in school history, including the fourth in the NCAA Tournament.
K-State was one of six Big 12 teams to earn berths in NCAA Tournament, joining No. 1 seed Kansas (Midwest), No. 3 seed Baylor (East), No. 4 seed West Virginia (West), No. 5 seed Iowa State (Midwest) and No. 10 seed Oklahoma State (Midwest) in the field.
In addition, all three Division I programs in the state of Kansas (Kansas, Kansas State and Wichita State) all advanced to the NCAA Tournament for fourth time in six seasons.