Dean Wade confident he will play vs. Kentucky in Sweet 16, if only on a limited basis

Kansas State forward Dean Wade took an obvious step toward returning to the Wildcats' playing rotation on Wednesday.

Wade participated fully during open-viewing periods of practice at Philips Arena as K-State made final preparations for its Sweet 16 game against Kentucky, which will tip at approximately 8:37 p.m. on Thursday.

He jogged up and down the court, worked on his shot, jumped for rebounds and made cuts to the lane after setting screens. It was significantly more activity than he flashed last week in Charlotte, when he did little more than walk and shoot while sitting out the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament with a foot injury.

"I am feeling good," Wade said. "I am feeling positive about it. It's getting better every day. Today I felt great about it, doing a little more than usual."

It seems like Wade has been upgraded from questionable to probable. But there are no guarantees.

"We will have to see," K-State coach Bruce Weber said. "This is the most he did today. He got involved with practice a little bit. Now we have got to see how it feels after. His mindset ... I know he wants to play, but now after going we will see how much pain he has. We had gotten the pain down manageable."

Wade has been K-State's best player this season, averaging 16.5 points and 6.3 rebounds. The Big 12 coaches named him to the all-conference first team.

The Wildcats got by without him against Creighton and UMBC last week, but those teams both featured small lineups.

K-State will need him against Kentucky, a much larger opponent.

"He would be a nice boost for our guys," Weber said. "With their size, it definitely would help."

If he plays, Weber said he will be on a minute count and get in for "two minutes here, two minutes there."

Wade was close to playing last week, but the Wildcats left him on the bench.

"I couldn't really move around that well," Wade said. "I would have been hurting the team more than I would have been helping."

Wade appears on the verge of helping K-State again.

"I feel confident that I am going to play," Wade said.

Sweet 15

Several news outlets ranked the 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament earlier this week, and they didn't think much of K-State.

ESPN ranked it last, saying K-State will "lose by 20 points" to Kentucky if it continues to play the way it did last week. Sporting News also ranked K-State last, saying its "not going to the Final Four." NCAA.com writer Andy Katz had K-State in the same spot, writing "the Wildcats knocked off the weakest opponent and scored the fewest points."

K-State players are using those descriptions as motivation.

"It motivated us a lot," K-State junior Amaad Wainright said. "The coaches were showing us that while we were watching film. Everybody just said, 'Damn.' I saw some people say it was the Sweet 15, plus Kansas State and that we have no chance against Kentucky. That makes us want to play harder. We've got something to prove."

Colossal Cats

Kentucky will be a unique matchup for K-State.

John Calipari's Wildcats are bigger at nearly every position, especially inside where they start 6-foot-7 wing P.J. Washington, 6-9 forward Kevin Knox and 6-11 forward Nick Richards.

K-State has only played two teams with similar makeups all season, Baylor and Georgia. But neither of those teams are nearly as talented as Kentucky.

"Georgia was pretty big. Their three was 6-8 but their point guard wasn't 6-5 like Kentucky's," Wade said. "I don't think we have played anyone this long or athletic. We just need to be in position on defense and battle them inside."

That could be difficult if Wade is limited. Starting center Makol Mawien has struggled with foul trouble against bigger forwards this season, and K-State doesn't have much proven depth in the post.

"I need to play with a lot of focus," Mawien said. "I know I need to do whatever I can to avoid fouls and stay in the game."

Cat fight

K-State can make some history by beating Kentucky on Thursday. K-State is 0-9 in the series going back to 1940 when they played for the first time.

Their most famous meeting came in the 1951 national championship game, which Kentucky won 68-58.

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Dean Wade confident he will play vs. Kentucky in Sweet 16, if only on a limited basis."