Wisconsin vs. K-State, Round 2 of the NCAA Tournament

Game 34: AP Ranked #16 Wisconsin Badgers (24-8 overall, 13-5 Conference record) vs. AP Ranked #21 Kansas State Wildcats (23-10 overall, 10-6 Conference record)

The Kansas State Wildcats will go into the round of 32 of this year's NCAA Tournament in hopes of reaching the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. K-State, who's the #5 seed in the Southeast Region, will take on the Wisconsin Badgers, who is the #4 seed in the Southeast Region while in the AP Poll, they're ranked #16 in the nation. While the Cats have Jacob Pullen, Rodney McGruger and Curtis Kelly, Wisconsin has a few very good players as well. The Badgers include such players as John Lewer who averages 19 points and 7 rebounds a game and also Jordan Taylor who averages 18 points, five assists and four rebounds per game. This is the second time the Badgers and Wildcats will square off in the NCAA Tournament to decide who one of the teams will be in the Sweet 16. K-State is looking to get revenge on their loss three years ago against Wisconsin, especially after what happened in their last match-up.

K-State vs. Wisconsin, Second Round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament
During the '08 NCAA Tournament, K-State was the #11 seed and one of the last teams to make it in. However, K-State had a lot of momentum going into their second round game against Wisconsin due to upsetting the #6 seed in the region, USC, 80-57. But when the Cats ran into Wisconsin, who was a #3 seed in the region that year, they ran into two things: Trevon Hughes and a streaking Wisconsin team. Trevon Hughes matched his career high that day with 25 points, leading Wisconsin to their 25th victory in their last 27 games and also 12 straight wins at the time. Not even having Michael Beasley was enough that day, scoring 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in his last game as a Wildcat before declaring for the NBA Draft. This time around, the Cats hope they can change the outcome, and in their last game, the Cats meant business.

Southwest Region: #5 K-State vs. #12 Utah State
Going into this game, there were a lot of experts who was thinking that Utah State would pull the upset against Kansas State. I thought the same thing, especially since Utah State had a lot of players with size that may have wound up effecting K-State's interior depth since the Cats only have Curits Kelly, Jamar Samuels and Jordan Henriquez-Roberts. At the end of the day, this wasn't too big of a factor as the Cats ended up winning 73-68 to move on to the round of 32. A big factor of why K-State won was because of their free-throw shooting. During the season they were a 64% free-throw shooting team but in this game they shot 24 of 28 from the foul line, good for 86%. Utah State was kept at bay during most of the game, with the Cats maintaining a double-digit lead for most of it. The closest Utah State got to K-State was 56-50 in the second half, but shooting 11-14 from the free throw line iced the game. Jacob Pullen led all scorers with 22 points and also had five assists while Curtis Kelly scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. For Utah State, Tai Wesley had 18 points and six rebounds, Brockeith Pane scored 17 poinds and Pooh Williams scored 16 points. Wisconsin only scored 33 points in their Big-10 Tournament loss to Penn State, but they took care of business in their second round game vs. Belmont.

Southwest Region: #13Belmont vs. #4 Wisconsin
In their game before the NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin's total output of points was a typical output for K-State.....in the first half. They only scored 16 points in the first half, and 17 in the second to only total 33. Penn State on the other hand, only scored 36 so they weren't that much better. Two reasons this could have happened was because Wisconsin shot that bad from the field, or, Penn State's defense was that good. Either way, Wisconsin wanted to prove their low point output was a fluke, and they easily did that. Wisconsin hit 12 out of 22 three point shots, shot 65% from the field and made 20 out of 25 free throws on their way to a 72-58 win over Belmont. Jon Leuer scored 22 points for Wisconsin, with 17 of those coming in the second half. Also, Jordan Taylor scored 21 with 14 of those coming in the first half. Mike Hedgepeth scored 17 and Kerron Johnson had 13 for Belmont. Here are the keys to victory for both teams.

K-State
Pace! Wisconsin beat K-State three years ago by controlling the tempo of the game to their style, which is a slow, methodical Big 10 type of game. K-State needs the tempo in their pace, which is a much faster and up and down kind of game. This way it tires out the Wisconsin players and makes K-State's attack that much harder to stop.
Curtis Kelly. Kelly has continued to be a force in the paint and needs to keep this up if the Cats want to make a return trip to the sweet 16. His length and quickness has been key in getting rebounds, getting put-backs and causing mismatches, and will certainly still be a key in this game.
Perimeter defense. Wisconsin's big 12 for 22 day from the three point line can't go unnoticed. The Cats need to slow their three-point shooting weapons and play tight defense so the Cats won't fall into an early hole they might not be able to climb out of.

Wisconsin
Keep up the hot shooting! The Badgers can't afford to go ice-cold like they did against Penn State again. Instead, they need to be as efficient or even more efficient with their shooting as a whole (field goals made, three-point shots made, free throws made). Otherwise, if the Cats catch any kind of fire, Wisconsin's going to be routed out of the gym.
NCAA Tournament Experience vs. K-State in the past. With Wisconsin's win in 2008 to advance to the sweet 16, the Badgers played suffocating defense and took Michael Beasley, one of the greatest players to ever play college basketball, out of the game in the second half. They just need to take the experience gained from there and apply it to this game and see what happens.
Make other players beat you instead of Jacob Pullen and/or Curtis Kelly. It'll be important for Wisconsin to take one of two players out of the game, rather that's Jacob Pullen or Curtis Kelly. That way, Curtis Kelly or Jacob Pullen has to feel like they have to carry the team by themselves, thus, wearing them out and giving Wisconsin a better chance to win.

Prediction: K-State wins, 68-62.

-Paul Payton, Wildcat 91.9 Sports Staff