Where Kansas State basketball's March Madness résumé stands for 2024 NCAA Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There is no question in Kansas State basketball coach Jerome Tang's mind that his Wildcats belong in the NCAA Tournament.
He made an impassioned case Thursday night following a lopsided 76-57 loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals for just why the Wildcats should be in the 68-team field when the bracket is revealed Sunday. Their record currently stands at 19-14.
CBS will broadcast its Selection Show at 5 p.m.
While Tang spoke eloquently, touching on all the high points of the Wildcats' résumé, they remain the longest of longshots to hear their names called according to most bracketology experts.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi had the Wildcats at No. 5 on the top teams out as of Saturday evening, and it is unlikely that they will jump Seton Hall, Indiana State, Pittsburgh or Providence in line, much less the last four in of Oklahoma, St. John's, Virginia and New Mexico. Jerry Palm of CBS had K-State on the bubble, but not among his first four out.
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If the Wildcats don't get in, the biggest number working against them was their NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking of 70. The only other team among Lunardi and Palm's last four in and first four out that even dropped into the 60s was Seton Hall at 66, but the Pirates matched K-State's five Quadrant 1 and 2 victories with a 20-12 overall record.
The fact that K-State was 7-0 in overtime games was not viewed as a positive by the NET, especially since two of them came against lowly North Alabama and Oral Roberts.
"Because we didn't win by 30 or 40 against Quad 4 teams, that's being held against us in the numbers and what the NET shows," Tang said. "I was told a long time ago, just win the game, right?"
Working in the Wildcats' favor is their five Quad 1 victories against Iowa State, Kansas, Baylor, BYU and Texas, all of which rank higher than 30 in the NET. Of the teams ahead of them in the bracketology bubble, only Providence has more with six, and K-State beat the Friars head-to-head.
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"We have elite Quad 1 wins," Tang said. "We have no bad losses."
The Wildcats went into the season with higher expectations. But that was before senior forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin, their top returning player from last year, was dismissed from the team, and Samford transfer guard Ques Glover was sidelined by a knee injury.
K-State does boast three of the Big 12's top 15 scorers in No. 8 Tylor Perry with 15.5 points per game, Arthur Kaluma in 11th with 14.7 and Cam Carter 12th at 14.7. Kaluma also is fifth in rebounding at 7.1 and David N'Guessan seventh at 6.8.
The Wildcats are still holding out hope that they somehow slip into the tournament tonight, but a more likely scenario is that they must wait until the NIT announces its picks at 8:30 p.m.
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State March Madness bracket predictions 2024 NCAA Tournament
