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K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
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ctipton Offline
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Post: #1
K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
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Posted March 17, 2017 08:45 pm
By Ken Corbitt ken.corbitt@cjonline.com
K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
First-round NCAA Tournament loss concludes 21-14 season for Wildcats

[Image: 1685432_web1_AP17077016598829.jpg?itok=xYatTtp9]
Kansas State forward Xavier Sneed, right, dives for the ball against Cincinnati's Jarron Cumberland during the first half of a first round game of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Sacramento, Calif. March 17, 2017.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedrocelli)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kansas State was fighting an uphill battle all night.

Torrid shooting by Cincinnati and cold shooting by K-State early in the game created separation for the Bearcats and the Wildcats could never catch up in a 75-61 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament South Regional on Friday at Golden 1 Center.

The Wildcats’ inconsistent offense throughout the season was never more evident than in the final two games. They shot 66 percent and scored 95 points in the First Four win over Wake Forest on Tuesday, but Friday they connected on just 39 percent of their shots.

Both K-State and Cincinnati rely on defense. The Bearcats were better, as was their offense with a 63-percent night.

The loss concluded a 21-14 season for the Wildcats in their first NCAA appearance since 2014. K-State was the only one of the four regional No. 11 seeds that didn’t win over the No. 6 seed.

Cincinnati (30-5) made its first eight shots of the game, the first miss coming at the 10:25 mark when Isaiah Maurice blocked a Jacob Evans shot. The Bearcats had a 20-11 lead by that time with K-State unable to get good offensive looks and missing when it did get an open shot.

The Wildcats’ situation was compounded by foul trouble for Wesley Iwundu, who had two fouls just over eight minutes into the game and picked up his third with 6:56 left in the first half. The Cats also played most of the half with D.J. Johnson on the bench, although Maurice gave them some quality minutes. Both Iwundu and Johnson, who had no fouls, played nine minutes.

The Bearcats led by as many as 13 points and were up 39-28 at halftime, shooting 65 percent (16 of 23). The Wildcats shot 40 percent (10 of 25).

Johnson scored to open the second half and Iwundu knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to bring K-State within seven points. Barry Brown, scoreless the first half, sprang to life with a driving layup and a 3-pointer and the Cats were within 49-43 with 14:19 to play.

But the Bearcats wouldn’t let up, scoring inside and hitting mid-range jumpers to stay in front. The Wildcats couldn’t get stops or score enough to put a dent in their deficit.

Iwundu was the only Wildcat in double figures with 19 points with 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Point guard Troy Caupain had 23 points and seven rebounds for the Bearcats.

Contact Ken Corbitt at (785) 295-1123 or @KenCorbitt on Twitter.

http://cjonline.com/sports/catzone/2017-...75-61-loss
 
03-17-2017 09:06 PM
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ctipton Offline
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Post: #2
RE: K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
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UC jumps out early, seal deal over KState
Tom Groeschen , tgroeschen@enquirer.com 10:00 p.m. ET March 17, 2017

[Image: B9326739567Z.1_20170317211550_000_GUVHP4VK1.1-0.jpg]
Cincinnati Bearcats guard Kevin Johnson (25) goes up for a rebound in the first half during the first-round game of the men's NCAA college basketball tournament between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Kansas State Wildcats, Friday, March 17, 2017, at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
(Photo: The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Coach Mick Cronin had said he hoped Troy Caupain would get hot in the NCAA Tournament, and carry the University of Cincinnati basketball team on his back. That happened here Friday night.

Senior point guard Caupain scored a season-high 23 points to lead UC past Kansas State 75-61 in the 2017 tournament opener for both teams. Junior forward Kyle Washington had 16 points for UC, and junior forward Gary Clark had 15 points and seven rebounds.

Caupain also had seven rebounds, two assists and was 7-for-10 from the field. Caupain also was hitting his freebies, going 7-for-7 at the foul line. UC overall shot 62.8 percent from the floor, the Bearcats’ second highest percentage this season. K-State shot only 38.9 percent.

No. 6 South Regional seed UC (30-5) dispatched No. 11 seed K-State (21-14) at the Golden 1 Center. UC next is likely to play No. 3 South seed UCLA, which was to face No. 14 seed Kent State in Friday’s late game here.

On the eve of Friday’s game, Cronin spoke about how NCAA Tournament success sometimes rides on one player stepping up. Cronin mentioned Danny Manning and the underdog Kansas team of 1988, the “Danny and the Miracles” club that won the NCAA title.

“He’s been saving it for the tournament,” Cronin said of Caupain. “Let Troy just get on a massive roll and put us on his back.”

Caupain entered the night averaging 10.1 points per game. By halftime, Cauapin already had 14 points.

UC led by as many as 17 points, 67-50, with 5:29 left in the game.

In the early stages of the second half, a 7-2 KSU run brought the Wildcats within 49-43 of the Bearcats, with 14:15 left. UC answered with a 10-2 surge of its own, pushing the Bearcats’ lead to 59-45.

UC was doing most of its damage inside, getting several open looks and lay-ups. That included a couple of clear-out plays for Jacob Evans, who scored twice on lay-ins during that run. Evans finished with 9 points.

UC had 350-plus fans at the game, having used its maximum allotment of tickets from the NCAA, according to Bearcats athletic director Mike Bohn.

UC won an NCAA tourney game for the first time since a 2015 win over Purdue in their tourney opener. UC lost its first NCAA game last season, 78-76 to Saint Joseph’s.

Caupain had been averaging 8.3 points in his career NCAA tourney games,a nd Clark had been averaging only 4.3 points in NCAA games. They more than cleared those barriers Friday.

HE’S BACK: UC senior guard Kevin Johnson made a jumper 1:40 into the game. Johnson was scoreless in UC’s two previous games, but he finished Friday with just 2 points.

GAME RECAP: UC could not have dreamed of a better first half. The Bearcats led 39-28 at halftime, as they shot a crisp 65.2 percent from the field (15-for-23).

On the other end, the UC matchup zone defense was active and hustling. Aside from a few lapses underneath, the Bearcats were mostly good defensively in holding K-State to 40 percent shooting before halftime (10-for-25).

Caupain was magnificent for UC in the first half, with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists. Caupain was 5-for-5 from the field before halftime.

Caupain was helped by Clark, who had 10 points and five rebounds in the first half. Their production helped offset the prolonged absence of UC’s usual No. 2 scorer Washington. Washington sat the final 7:23 of the first half with two fouls, after scoring five points.

K-State also had foul trouble as its best player, senior forward Wesley Iwundu, drew his third foul with 6:56 left in the first half.

UC reached the 30-win mark for only the second time in program history. The 2001-02 Bearcats (31-4) set the school record for victories.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../99336306/
 
03-17-2017 09:15 PM
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ctipton Offline
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Post: #3
RE: K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
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Cincinnati takes control early to eliminate Kansas State 75-61

[Image: NCAA%20Kansas%20St%20Cincinnati%20Basketball]
Kansas State guard Kamau Stokes, right, leaps over Cincinnati guard Jacob Evans III as they scramble for the ball during the first half of a first-round game of the men's NCAA college basketball tournament in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, March 17, 2017.
(AP Photo/Bryan Patrick)

By Kellis Robinett krobinett@wichitaeagle.com


SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Bruce Weber faced a question every basketball coach dreads during a 75-61 loss to Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night.

What do you do when your best player picks up a pair of quick fouls?

It’s a dilemma Weber has had to solve countless times this season with various K-State players, but this was different. The man in foul trouble was Wesley Iwundu, the senior wing who upped his game over the past month to guide the Wildcats into the postseason and then erupted for 24 points, seven assists and six rebounds earlier this week in a victory over Wake Forest.

“In a game like this,” Iwundu said, “I want to be in there.”

He wasn’t, and the game felt in danger of slipping away when he was whistled for his second foul with 11:44 remaining in the first half. Weber had to take Iwundu out, but for how long? Cincinnati was ahead 17-11 at the time. The longer the Wildcats could keep it close, the longer Iwundu could remain on the bench. The quicker the Bearcats widened the gap, the quicker he had to go back in.

Well, Cincinnati surged ahead 27-14 behind some hot shooting, and Weber decided to gamble. He inserted Iwundu back into the game with 7:39 remaining with instructions to take it easy on defense and avoid further fouls before halftime. Leaving him on the bench, with his teammates missing one contested shot after another without him, felt like raising a white flag.

“He was the one that gave us athleticism,” Weber said. “He got the ball in the paint, making the plays and playing at a high level. You can look at the box score. We really didn’t have anybody else step up tonight, so we needed him.”

The strategy looked like it might pay off when he quickly got to the free-throw line for two points, but it backfired when he picked up a cheap foul trying to defend Jacob Evans. Understanding the situation, Evans drove at Iwundu and made contact with Iwundu as he held his arms in the air.

Iwundu was hoping for a charge or a no-call from the officials, but they whistled him for a block.

“They seen some things that I didn’t agree with, the refs,” Iwundu said. “But it is what it is.”

Iwundu went back to the bench, logging just four points on three attempts in nine minutes of action in the first half, exactly what Bearcats coach Mick Cronin desired.

“We tried to get the third (foul) and then we tried to go at him to get the fourth,” Cronin said. “... No doubt, those were very big plays for us, and I give our guys credit.”

Fellow senior D.J. Johnson also only saw nine minutes before the break, telling Weber early on, “I just don’t have it today.” It was a bizarre start.

Cincinnati took advantage and built a 39-28 halftime lead. The way it was playing, that was enough to advance to the round of the 32.

No. 11-seed K-State ended its season 21-14. Not bad considering the Big 12 coaches picked it to finish ninth. The Wildcats made it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. But some expected more when they started 15-4.

No. 6-seed Cincinnati (30-5) will face the winner of UCLA and Kent State on Sunday.

“Cincinnati brought their A-game and they played at a high level,” Weber said. “We didn’t play our best game.”

Iwundu tried to lead K-State on a second-half run by making some three-pointers early in the second half and attacking the basket on his way to a team-high 19 points, but the Wildcats couldn’t sustain anything against the Bearcats and their stingy defense.

K-State is at its best when it has multiple scorers reach double figures. This is a versatile group, and it needs all hands on deck to win games against top competition. But no one else delivered. Dean Wade had nine points on nine attempts, Johnson had eight points in 22 minutes, Barry Brown went 3 for 10, Kamau Stokes went 2 for 10. Overall, they made 38.9 percent of their shots.

Cincinnati was one of the top defensive teams in the nation, and it proved why in this game, forcing K-State to score in the half court rather than find cheap points in transition or on offensive rebounds.

“They played a real compact defense,” Wade said. “They just packed the lane and then they did a lot of fly switching. They switched everything and that threw us off a bit. It made it really hard to reverse the ball.”

It was able to hunker down defensively thanks to a red-hot start on offense.

The first half had to feel like a nightmare for K-State.

Some thought Cincinnati, a team that won 29 games in the regular season, was under-seeded in this tournament, and the Bearcats played that way early, looking like a bonafide Sweet 16 contender.

They made their first eight shots to take a 20-12 lead. They were so hot that K-State fans let out a sigh of relief when they finally saw Jacob Evans clank a shot off the rim with 10:28 remaining in the first half. But not even that did the Wildcats much good. Cincinnati grabbed an offensive rebound and got the ball to Troy Caupain, who hit an open jumper.

Caupain went on to lead all scorers with 23 points, while Kyle Washington added 16.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Wade said. “We were playing pretty good defense but they were just knocking down shots. They were hitting shots and we couldn’t catch a break. It happens. It’s basketball. They just played better than us today.”

Iwundu never let K-State give up, but the deficit was too large to mount a serious comeback attempt.

K-State’s best chance to get back in the game came with 14:10 remaining when Brown followed a transition layup with a three-pointer to pull K-State within 49-43. But the Wildcats couldn’t get any closer.

Cincinnati pulled ahead by as many as 17 and advanced to the next round.

“They are a good team and they have good players,” Brown said. “I just feel like they were the tougher team. That was the biggest thing. They just got us today. We just have to come out and be tougher and do the little things that help us win. I guess that’s something we will have to try and do next year.”

Kellis Robinett: @kellisrobinett

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college...09308.html
 
03-17-2017 10:36 PM
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Post: #4
RE: K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
post game feature:




post game press:




Johnson & Clark:


 
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03-17-2017 11:03 PM
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ctipton Offline
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RE: K-State can’t keep pace with Cincinnati in 75-61 loss
Doc: Bring on the next moment for UC
Paul Daugherty , pdaugherty@enquirer.com Published 10:03 p.m. ET March 17, 2017 | Updated 7 hours ago

[Image: 636253875047956233-031717-UC-KSTATE-1736.jpg]
Cincinnati Bearcats guard Troy Caupain (10) reacts after the 75-61 against the Kansas State Wildcats during the first-round game of the men's NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 17, 2017, at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. Cincinnati won 75-61.
The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar

SACRAMENTO, Cal. – Nothing gets a basketball player’s mind right like one-and-done. All that matters in March is the next possession, the next defensive stop, the next game. It’s basketball at its most essential.

The 2016-17 Cincinnati Bearcats had a lot to validate Friday night, more than any UC team since Bob Huggins stomped the sidelines. Was Mick Cronin’s view of the NCAA and how it conducts its basketball tournament correct?

Would the 29-win pre-Madness record have big meaning, or would it be a product of a lean league schedule? You could say that 29 wins is a great season, regardless. That’s true, as far as it goes. The Bearcats have won more than 29 in a year just once. But college basketball success has been distilled to its March essence. You are defined by how you do in the national tournament. “In this day and age, it’s all about this tournament,’’ Cronin said.

A big weekend here would validate everything nice said about these Bearcats. How might Cronin’s best team in his 11 years in Clifton handle its great expectations?

So far, so good. The Bearcats handled Kansas State, 75-61. We’d say they did it with relative ease, except almost nothing is easy in the Madness. Ask SMU about that today.

But UC played from the jump as if it knew it would win. Confidence and poise count for a lot in this event. “We had a sense of calm,’’ Kyle Washington said. Who wouldn’t want that in a national festival of hoop that calls itself “Madness’’?

UC rolled out to an eight-point lead in the first seven-plus minutes and was never ahead by fewer than six the rest of the way. Fittingly, Jarron Cumberland – fearless, icy, stone-cold freshman assassin – applied the finishing touch. As the shot clock seconds disappeared, he took a nice drive-and-dish pass from Jacob Evans and calmly buried a three from the right wing.

That made it 67-50 with 5:31 left. Thank you for coming, please drive safely.

It was a nails performance in prime time. Now all the Bearcats have to do is do it again. That’d be on Sunday, against 3rd-seeded UCLA. No one thinks the Bearcats can beat the Bruins.

If they can repeat what they showed Friday, well. . . that’s why it’s called Madness.

UC basically did everything well. Troy Caupain played like a solid senior point guard should, Gary Clark was beastly close to the basket. When he stayed in the game and out of foul trouble, Kyle Washington’s jump-hook was lethal, especially when he was allowed a clean catch in the paint.

Meantime, the defense was typical. Kansas State had three starters shooting at least 36 percent from three-point range, including 6-foot-10 Dean Wade, at 40 percent. The Bearcats extended their D while keeping Wildcats ballhandlers in front of them. In a tournament that has quickly become wholly 3-centric, K-State was just 2-for-8 in the first half. The Bearcats made the Wildcats work for everything.

The Bearcats led 39-28 at halftime, even as Washington missed 11 minutes with foul trouble.

UC played a no-complaints first half. Caupain especially played inspired senior-ball. When he is driving and creating, the Bearcats offense is worth your applause. Caupain showed he was around for the evening on UC’s first possession, when he split the lane for a dish to Gary Clark, who laid it in. It wasn’t an accident the Bearcats made 15 of 23 shots in the first half. Caupain also helped himself, scoring 14 points in the half.

“He played with great pace’’ was how Cronin put it.

The first-half consistency continued after intermission. Balanced scoring, smart decision-making, poise. The whole March package. When the Wildcats closed to 43-36 with 17:07 left, Washington assaulted the lane and made two free throws. Caupain went 90 feet with a layup and Jacob Evans scored from the lane. Problem solved, at least for one night.

On to UCLA and the opportunity to seize the biggest UC basketball day in, oh, two decades. Can Mick Cronin’s players keep cashing the checks he’s written with his candor?

“We’ve won 30 games. We ought to be confident,’’ the coach said. And oh, by the way, “To clarify, I love the West Coast. Two of my best friends live here.’’

What set this team apart this year was its ability to both bang and shoot. To the traditional UC choreography of elbows and sweat ethic was added some subtlety, some touch, some ability to put the ball in the basket from outside the lane. On Friday, they had all of that. And a reassuring calmness to boot.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../99336194/
 
03-18-2017 05:14 AM
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