No. 3 seed Kansas State and No. 7 seed Michigan State played an instant classic Sweet 16 game at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, with a dramatic ending fitting for such a well played game. Kansas State beat the Spartans, 98-93, in overtime to advance to the Elite Eight and put the program on the doorstep of its first Final Four since 1964.
Markquis Nowell faked out Michigan State by arguing with coach before perfect alley-oop
Kansas State’s 5’8 point guard Markquis Nowell authored an unforgettable March Madness moment.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Wildcats point guard Markquis Nowell was the star of the game by authoring the most impressive performance of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament so far. Nowell broke a tournament record with 19 assists, and also added 20 points and five steals in the win.
With under a minute left in overtime and the score tied, Nowell threw a dime that will live on March Madness lore forever. Nowell and K-State coach Jerome Tang appeared to be yelling at each other with the ball in play. Suddenly, Nowell stopped the argument and fired an incredible alley-oop pass to teammate Keyontae Johnson for the dunk. Watch it here:
The close-up angle is even better. Both the point guard and the coach are extremely animated in their discussion before Nowell’s eyes snap to the basket and he throws a pin-point lob to Johnson.
Was this a fake argument designed to fake out Michigan State? That’s what it looks like.
This is the equivalent of a trick play in football. Kansas State lulled MSU to sleep by making them think they were draining the shot clock to set something up. Instead, they hit them with the go-ahead alley-oop.
Nowell’s quote on the alley-oop is just as good as the play itself:
Nowell goes by Mr. New York City on social media, and played an amazing Sweet 16 game at Madison Square Garden despite hurting his ankle midway through. He was just incredible.
Tang told friend Richard Johnson of Sports Illustrated that the argument was not intentional to fool MSU.
Nowell — who is listed at 5’8 and is probably shorter — now feels like a March Madness icon. With one more win, he’ll have K-State in the Final Four.
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