UC Irvine Basketball: Can Anteaters take advantage of no Dean Wade for Kansas State?

The news broke Tuesday that Kansas State’s Dean Wade would be doubtful to play Friday against UC Irvine. Does this injury make the Anteaters a likely upset pick heading into their First Round game?

Every year, basketball fans fill out their brackets looking to make the perfect upset predictions. The 12 over 5 upset is usually the most common pick, while the 13 over 4 upset hasn’t be as popular, and for good reason. Since 2010, only seven 13-seeds have won their First Round game; however, this has not stopped many this season from picking UC Irvine over Kansas State based on presumed loss of Dean Wade.

While this may make sense on the surface, there may be a reason to hesitate on making this pick simply based on Wade’s injury. First, the Kansas State Wildcats have a winning record over the last two seasons in games where Wade did not start; going 8-5 with wins over some solid competition. Second, Kansas State’s strength in their defense, and their offense was slightly better than Irvine’s before the Wade news. Wade’s injury with certainly hurt their defense, but not to the degree that it would have hurt if they were an offensively reliant team.

What does this all mean? Kansas State will not take the catastrophic fall that many are predicting simply because of Dean Wade’s absence. This became clear in the Big 12 Tournament where they held both TCU and Iowa St to under 65 points without their star.

This doesn’t not mean that UC Irvine doesn’t have a shot. Even with Dean Wade, the Anteaters had the size to match up with Kansas St, and their defense is as stout as many of the nation’s top teams. Max Hazzard has the ability to score in chunks, and Jonathan Galloway is one of the best big men that nobody knows about. Their offense leaves a little to be desired, but Kansas State’s offense didn’t burn down building either, so this matchup was a defensive fight from the start.

The difference in this game, for many analysts, was the location. San Jose is just a 5-hour drive from Irvine, while Kansas State fans would have to fly in to watch their team play. This isn’t to say that Irvine would have a clear crowd advantage, but they wouldn’t have to play in the same hostile environment that many lower seeded teams face. With a strong defense and a few solid scoring options Irvine had the makeup of an upset bid regardless of Kansas State’s health.

All this leads to one conclusion. Don’t let Dean Wade’s injury sway your opinion.

If you liked UC Irvine’s chances before the injury, you should like them even more now. However, if you thought Kansas State would win this game easily, your rationale should remain the same after the news. UC Irvine is good, they can win this game, but the lack of Dean Wade will not be the reason.