Missouri has no answer for Beasley

By Mike Bushnell
Feb. 19, 2008

MANHATTAN, Kan. —Assuming Kansas State freshman forward Michael Beasley does what many believe he will do and enters the NBA Draft this summer, he will likely go in the top three of the class. And his performance Saturday will probably be the first thing on his highlight reel.

Beasley, who came into Saturday’s 100-63 win over MU averaging 25 points per game, had the best game of his short college career. He scored 40 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in just 27 minutes. The game well in hand with six minutes remaining, Beasley and Walker left the court to standing ovations.

The point and rebounding totals were his best in Big 12 play, and he was just three points shy of tying MU’s Clarence Gilbert’s conference single game scoring record, set in 2001. Yet he still took a somewhat critical view of his performance.

“I missed ten shots,” he said. “I could have done better, but it was a good game. I’m not complaining.”

Neither was anyone else on his team when Beasley and fellow freshman phenomenon Bill Walker scored 20 of K-State’s first 22 points in just eight minutes. Beasley had six rebounds in the first three minutes. Wildcats coach Frank Martin said Beasley and Walker had extra motivation coming off their loss last Wednesday at Texas Tech.

Beasley said he had even more motivation against Missouri, who held him to a season-low 17 points in the Tigers’ 77-74 win in Columbia on Feb. 2. He said that “people in Columbia” had been criticizing him and that he wanted to prove them wrong.

“I took the loss in Columbia personally,” he said. “There were a lot of things said that I didn’t like. So I made it my business to help the team win.”

MU coach Mike Anderson said he saw a major change in Beasley from the last meeting to the game on Feb. 16.

“No question about it, he came a lot more focused in this particular game,” Anderson said of Beasley. “I thought we didn’t box him out and that got him going, but you could tell how motivated he was. Obviously he’s just a really talented basketball player.”

MU freshman forward Justin Safford said it was hard to defend Beasley because he was so adept at drawing fouls and making his free throws.

“It seemed like everything we did we couldn’t stop him,” Safford said. “He only missed one free throw, so there was really just no way to keep him from scoring.”

Junior swingman Matt Lawrence said he had never played against someone with Beasley’s skill.

“He’s probably the toughest player I’ve ever seen play,” Lawrence said. “He was just the man out there.”

And against an undersized team like the Tigers, Beasley had a field day with rebounds. K-State out rebounded MU 47 to 25 and Beasley and Walker had 26 boards between themselves.

Martin said he hoped Saturday’s game put a rest to the questions about whether Beasley is as good as promised at the start of the season.

“When you guys asked me back in September, I said that he was very good,” Martin said. “And when I went out and told people that in high school I thought he was a better player than Kevin Durant in high school, everyone thought I was nuts. "

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Missouri has no answer for Beasley

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