Kansas State stuns Arizona in Big 12 upset: 4 takeaways
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The No. 13 Arizona Wildcats ran into a buzzsaw on Tuesday.
Winners of five straight games coming into the night, Kansas State bullied Arizona from start to finish in a 73-70 upset at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas.
Kansas State (13-11, 7-6) has now won six consecutive games — four of which were against top 25 teams — and is back in the NCAA tournament conversation. The loss drops Arizona (17-7, 11-2) out of first place in the Big 12, one game behind No. 6 Houston (20-4, 12-1). The Cougars visit Tucson on Saturday for the only matchup of the regular season between Houston and Arizona.
Caleb Love Goes Ice Cold
Neither team could throw it into the ocean from behind the 3-point line. Arizona finished 2-of-23 from downtown, with Caleb Love going 0-of-8. Kansas State finished 1-of-19 from the 3-point line. That's a combined 7%, in case anyone enjoys math.
Love, Arizona's leading scorer, finished with just 6 points on 3-of-16 shooting. He missed a 60-foot desperation shot at the buzzer that would have tied the game. The six points put Love over 2,500 for his career.
Freshman Carter Bryant went 1-of-6 from downtown and was benched to start the second half in favor of redshirt sophomore 7-footer Henri Veesaar.
Arizona Turnovers Still An Issue
Arizona has struggled with turnovers at various points this season, and it happened again vs. a scrappy Kansas State team. Kansas State went after the basketball all game, stripping the ball and getting deflections on soft passes.
Arizona finished with 17 turnovers, including five from point guard Jaden Bradley. Four of Bradley's turnovers came in the final 3:30 of the game, including a questionable baseball pass to halfcourt on a baseline out of bounds play with just over 6 seconds left and Arizona trailing by three points. Instead of throwing the ball into the backcourt, Bradley tried to throw it deep with plenty of time on the clock.
Kansas State only turned the ball over 10 times, and they finished with 13 steals. Junior point guard Dug McDaniel, a Michigan transfer, racked up 5 steals and a game-high 24 points.
Arizona turned the ball over in similar fashion in its 57-54 loss to UCLA on Dec. 14. The Bruins forced 22 turnovers with their physical, scrappy defense.
Lloyd Goes With Double-Big Lineup
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd inserted Veesaar into the starting lineup in the second half, to pair alongside Tobe Awaka. Veesaar did a good job crashing the offensive boards, picking up four. But he was limited to six shots and finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds.
Kansas State did a great job boxing out Awaka, who was limited to 5 rebounds. Bryant crashed the boards hard in the second half and finished with 11 rebounds to lead the Wildcats.
Arizona outrebounded Kansas State 45-33, but couldn't overcome bad turnovers and even worse outside shooting.
KJ Lewis Is A Warrior
Playing through an injured right wrist, sophomore guard KJ Lewis kept Arizona in the game with his tough play.
Lewis finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists. He was 6-of-12 from the field and drained his only 3-pointer with 4:59 left to tie the game at 60-60. Lewis followed with a jumper on the next possession to give Arizona a 62-60 advantage — its last lead of the game.
More Arizona & Big 12 Analysis
-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.