The Kansas State Wildcats walked into Texas on Monday night sporting a record that would probably get them into the NCAA tournament but no guarantee. They walk out with a 75-70 victory over the No. 7 Longhorns and nearly assured themselves of a spot in the tourney.
What I found interesting about this game was that Kansas State never really let up. They were right there with Texas throughout the first half and, though I wasn't too confident K-State would win after watching the first half, I thought they would keep it close.
However, K-State started the second half down two points, went on an 8-0 run and hung onto that lead for the rest of the game. Jacob Pullen says the Wildcats now understand not to panic at halftime and to play a complete game.
We just understand the game now. We were a young team at the beginning of the season and now we understand that it's two halves of basketball. We didn't panic at halftime. We came out and we knew where we wanted to get our shots. We started out with Curtis (Kelly) and Rod (McGruder) got some shots in and I just tried to fit my way into the game. I just tried to stay aggressive at certain points of the game when I knew we needed some buckets.
In the first half, it was more Curtis Kelly stepping up and the second half it was Pullen. McGruder was also timely from beyond the arc. It was a nice complementary, team effort for K-State.
Check out Bring On The Cats and Burnt Orange Nation for more on the game.