Kansas State women’s basketball drops out of top 16 in latest NCAA committee reveal

MANHATTAN — Kansas State women’s basketball had been living on the edge, and the Wildcats’ recent struggles finally caught up with them.

The women’s basketball selection committee did the second reveal of its top 16 seeds for the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, and the Wildcats are no longer in line to be first-round hosts.

With back-to-back losses, and five in their last eight games, K-State fell off the No. 4 seed line it occupied after the committee’s first reveal two weeks ago. The Wildcats were No. 13 overall, but now have work to do if they hope to play the first two rounds at Bramlage Coliseum.

Oklahoma, which leads the Big 12, was one of two newcomers to the top 16.

K-State, which fell to Iowa State, 82-76, on Wednesday night for its first home loss, stands at 23-6 overall and is third in the conference at 12-5. The Wildcats can clinch a No. 3 seed in the Big 12 Tournament with a victory at 2 p.m. Saturday in the regular-season finale at Texas Tech (16-14, 5-12).

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The top four conference finishers receive double byes into the tournament quarterfinals next week in Kansas City.

“We’ve got to win some games. There’s not any doubt about it,” Mittie said of getting back to the No. 4 seed line for an NCAA home game. “There’s no secret formula to it.

“You look across the country, and that No. 4, 5, 6 seed line has lost games a lot here in the last week, and it’s kind of jumbled around here. But we can’t be concerned about that. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to be concerned with how we guard the ball better. All those things will take care of themselves, but ultimately we’ve got to win some games.”

Charlie Crème, the women’s bracketology expert for ESPN, updated his projections Thursday morning and had K-State going from a No. 4 seed to No. 5 in the Albany regional featuring top overall seed South Carolina. He matched the Wildcats against No. 12 South Dakota in Salt Lake City, with the winner facing No. 4 seed and host Utah, or No. 13 Toledo in the second round.

As for getting back to Bramlage, the Wildcats aren’t ready to throw in the towel.

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“There’s still a shot,” said senior guard Gabby Gregory said after Wednesday’s loss to Iowa State. “We’re tired of losing games. I’d love not to lose another game.

“But I think we just have to take our motivation to the next level here these next few weeks and just get it done. We just didn’t get it done tonight. This one hurts, and we should use that motivation to push us these next few weeks.”

The NCAA committee’s No. 1 seeds as of Thursday were South Carolina, Ohio State, Stanford and UCLA, which replaced Colorado on the top line. The No. 2 seeds are Virginia Tech, Southern California, Iowa and Texas.

The only teams that dropped out of the top 16 from the first reveal on Feb. 15 were K-State and Louisville, with Oklahoma and Gonzaga taking their place.

The selection committee will announce the official 68-team field on March 17.

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.