KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The wrong team was wearing white.
Kansas State looked nothing like an underdog seed as it pummeled TCU, 71-50, in the first game of the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday at T-Mobile Center.
The Wildcats entered the event as its No. 9 seed, and therefore had to wear their purple road uniforms against the favored No. 8 seed Horned Frogs. But those colors were decided well before K-State ended the regular season on an impressive tear that featured three wins in their final four games.
Bruce Weber’s team kept its hot streak going and delivered its finest performance of the year.
This was K-State’s largest victory margin of the season since a 70-64 home win over Jacksonville in December. It was also the Wildcats’ first 20-point victory over a conference opponent since the 2018-19 season when it shared the regular-season league title with Texas Tech.
K-State began this Big 12 tournament the same way it ended last season’s shortened championship, as winners.
It’s fair to say the Wildcats are peaking at the right time — during the postseason.
K-State will try to keep that momentum going against No. 1 seed Baylor in a quarterfinal game at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
Freshman guard Nijel Pack led K-State by draining five 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 23 points. Senior guard Mike McGuirl also delivered an impressive game with 17 points.
But defense was once again the star for the Wildcats. They held the Horned Frogs to 50 points on 37% shooting.
The game was close for most of the first half until Pack closed out the period by draining 3-pointers on K-State’s final two possessions.
McGuirl opened up the second half with six straight points and the Wildcats never looked back. They scored 16 straight points at one point and led by as many as 27.
It’s been rare to see K-State leading big this season, but the Wildcats are playing better than they did at any point before March.
