Kansas State Basketball: Mike McGuirl leads the charge off the bench

CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 16: Mike McGuirl #00 of the Kansas State Wildcats reacts against the Creighton Bluejays during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Spectrum Center on March 16, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Kansas State basketball notched a first round victory in the NCAA Tournament, knocking off the Creighton Blue Jays by a score of 69-59. Mike McGuirl had a huge night off the bench.

If you had told a Kansas State basketball fan that freshman Mike McGuirl would be the second highest scorer in the first game of March Madness, they’d probably have thought you were kidding. McGuirl was indeed K-State’s second highest scorer, putting up 17 points on the evening.

Kansas State is a nine-seed in the tournament and drew the South Region, where their first opponent would be the eighth-seeded Creighton Blue Jays. The eight vs nine games are essentially a coin flip when it comes to who will win, but Kansas State won convincingly against the Jays.

The Marcus Foster Revenge Game was not meant to be, as Foster recorded just five points against his former team. He did have a nice moment where he shook hands with Bruce Weber after getting pulled in the last minute, so that was a cool thing to see.

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Kansas State played one of their best games they’ve played all season, never allowing the Blue Jays to lead. They did all of this without Dean Wade in the lineup, which is the most impressive factor.

Barry Brown led the Cats in scoring with 18 points while McGuirl came off the bench and scored 17, including an insane 12 points in the second half. The defense was tremendous and did an exceptional job at limiting Foster from having a big game.

Next up for the Wildcats will more than likely be Virginia, who is the number one seed in the tournament. Virginia is more than deserving of their top seed, but their best player won’t be playing in the tournament, so that part bodes well for Kansas State.

Hopefully Dean Wade will be healthy enough to play in that game, but Wildcat fans have to feel a little bit better after seeing how well the team played without him. Brown and McGuirl were on fire and if KSU continues to shoot as well as they did and defend at a high level, they could probably beat just about anyone in this tournament.

This is Kansas State’s first victory in March Madness since the 2010 season (unless you count the play in game a year ago) and now they’ll look to knock off the top overall seed in the Round of 32. Winning a game in the tournament, at least in my eyes, makes this a successful season. Let’s see what happens next.

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