Southern Miss coach Larry Eustachy stands near his bench during the second half of an East Regional NCAA tournament second-round college basketball game against Kansas State in Pittsburgh today. Kansas State won 70-64. ( AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)PITTSBURGH - Larry Eustachy's long-awaited return to the NCAA tournament was short-lived, as Southern Mississippi fell to Kansas State. 70-64, in a second-round game at Consol Energy Center on Thursday.
Eustachy, who spent much of his news conference Wednesday discussing the recovery from alcoholism that followed his ouster at Iowa State nine years ago, looked disappointed. He watched the Wildcats shoot the clinching free throws with his hands on his knees. When the buzzer sounded, he walked slowly to shake hands with Kansas State coach Frank Martin, whose team advances to play the winner between No. 1 Syracuse and No. 16 North Carolina-Asheville in the next round Saturday.
Rodney McGruder, a junior guard, scored 30 points for the Wildcats, going 11 of 16 from the field and 6 of 8 from the foul line. Forward Jordan Henriquez added 15 points, and freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez scored 13 points to go with four assists.
Martin had spoken at length about Rodriguez a day earlier, admitting that he understands the risks of having a freshman handling the responsibility as a starting point guard but said he is willing to take the good with the bad. Rodriguez displayed those ups and downs against Southern Miss too, first giving up a sloppy turnover with just more than two minutes remaining that led to a Darnell Dodson dunk and cut the Kansas State lead to three, but then coming back on the next possession with an acrobatic twisting drive and lay-up that pushed the advantage back to five.
Southern Miss was led by point guard Neil Watson, who scored 16 points and had four assists but also turned the ball over five times. Guard LaShay Page played all 40 minutes and scored 15 points, while Dodson contributed 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
The game tipped off in front of a tiny crowd here - West Virginia's game in Thursday night's session was expected to draw the biggest crowd - and the play was sloppy in the first half, with both offenses looking stilted as the players struggled to find rhythm. Kansas State was in front for most of the opening period (courtesy of McGruder's 18 first-half points), but the Golden Eagles went on a 13-2 run to take their first lead with about four minutes remaining.