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Kansas State and UCF square off Wednesday evening in Orlando, Fla., carrying little hope of making the NCAA Tournament outside of winning the Big 12 Championship tournament. With both clubs likely having to win five games in six days to make that happen, the NIT is likely now the goal.

K-State (13-14, 7-9 Big 12) has lost three straight games after a six-game winning streak pushed them into the discussion for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. UCF (14-13, 5-11) won its last game against Utah, snapping a seven-game losing streak.

K-State defeated four ranked teams during its winning streak and appeared to be on the upswing. But the three straight losses to unranked teams send out a different message.

Coach Jerome Tang took the blame after the latest loss, a 66-54 home loss to Arizona State. The Wildcats played without Coleman Hawkins, who leads the team in multiple stats. His status for Wednesday’s game is uncertain.

“I’m so thankful for our guys and their effort,” Tang said. “I wish I had given them a better game plan today. This loss is on me, not them, and I’ll do better moving forward.

“I didn’t give them the best chance to win today. I want to give a lot of credit to Arizona State, too. They were missing a key player, but Coach (Bobby) Hurley and his staff did a much better job of giving their guys a game plan that led them to win tonight.”

Darius Johnson hit a layup with 2.8 seconds left to break a 72-72 tie against Utah to help the Knights snap their slide. UCF led 63-52 with just under six minutes left, but the Knights couldn’t pull away from Utah, who tied the game on a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left.

Now the Knights can turn their attention toward establishing a winning streak.

“It’s been a tough stretch for us,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “I thought our guys came out with a winning effort. Today we got rewarded; we won the game against a good Utah team.”

–Field Level Media