NEW YORK– Kansas State All-America guard Markquis Nowell threw his own Garden party.
The 5-8 dynamo exploded for 20 points and set an NCAA tournament record with 19 assists while racking up five steals as the Big 12 Wildcats defeated Michigan State,98-93 in overtime classic in the Sweet 16 here. K-State will
play Florida Atlantic Saturday for the right to go to the Final Four in Houston.
Forget about his size for a second.
I haven’t seen a small guard take over a game like this since Calvin Murphy dropped 35 on Penn during a 1970 NCAA tournament game at the Palestra. Look NBA scouts were watching.
Nowell is the exception to every rule.
They say you can’t take your eyes off the great ones. I saw that with Bill /Bradley of Princeton, Calvin and Kenny Durrett of La Salle when I was growing up in the Palestra. I saw it from Pearl Washington of Syracuse and Kemba
Walker of Connecticut at the Big East tournament and Bill Walton and Carmelo Anthony in the Final Four.
This kid is right out of Harlem and Catholic League power Bishop Loughlin, and he used his Homecoming to carve his niche in Garden history.
“This one was special, in front of my hometown, in front of the city that loves me,” he said. “I can’t even put into words how blessed and grateful I am.”
Don’t take your eyes off him. You might miss something.
For a second, I thought we might be robbed of his greatness. K State opened up a nine-point lead at the start of the second half, but Nowell landed awkwardly on a shot with 1531 left in the second half. He was down for several minutes, grabbing his ankle and needed help from two staffers to get to the bench. He couldn’t put any weight on his right leg, but he got his ankle retaped on the bench. .
I saw him come back from an ankle injury and make a three-point jumper while falling to beat the shot clock buzzer, knock the ball away from Malik Hall on a dunk attempt and assisting on an easy basketball at the other end,
for Cam Carter during one sequence. I watched him make a step back jumper over Hall with 1:04 left in regulation, after while he jogged back on defense, yelling “This is my city.”
Then I saw a play I had never seen before. Nowell made an alley oop pass to Keynotae Johnson, who finished with a reverse dunk to give the Cats a 94-92 lead they wouldn’t give up. As Nowell brought the ball up the floor, he looked over to the crowd and yelled, “Watch this,’ before appearing to fake an argument with Tang about a play call.
Then, he spotted Johnson free underneath and launched a pass for the ages.
End of discussion.
“Dang, I got to watch what I say,” Nowell said, smiling.
“It was just a basketball play between me and Keyontae. We knew how Michigan State plays defense. They play high up. We got eye contact, he was like “lob, lob”. I just threw it up and he made a great play.”
Nowell took advantage of MSU’s inability to locate the cutters all game. But this was pure Rucker League magic. Nowell must have been the king of the playground growing up, when it was win or go home in pickup games.
“I determine how the game is going to go,” he said.
Nowell put the game away when he stole ball away from Michigan State guard Tyson Walker, another CHSAA alum from Christ the King, on Sparty’s final possession and broke down the floor for a layup at the buzzer.
This was great stuff.
‘It was like a Rocky fight,’ Nowell said. There were 16 lead changes and 14 ties. No team ever led by double figures.
K-State had two great players in Nowell and Johnson, but Michigan State Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo got the most out of this flawed Big Ten team to make the game competitive.
Izzo is known as Mr. March for his consistent greatness in March.
“When guys make miracle shots like that, you know it’s just not your night.” he said.
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