Mayo's NCAA Tournament prediction comes true
USC's star freshman called the team's first round opponent and location a day before they were revealed Sunday.
Peter Simones
USC's freshman guard predicted not only that the Trojans would draw Kansas State in the first round, but that they would be playing in Omaha, Neb.
Mayo called his best friend and longtime teammate, KSU's Bill Walker, yesterday to tell him his thoughts.
"I said, 'I think we'll be drawing you guys,'" said Mayo, who added that his reasoning included the Wildcats' early exit from the Big XII Tournament and Omaha's relative proximity to both schools.
Mayo and Walker have known each other since Mayo was three years old, and the two were teammates at North College Hill High School near Cincinnati where they won back-to-back state championships.
Immediately after the team saw both itself and the Wildcats pop up on the Galen Center jumbotron as the Nos. 6 and 11 seeds in the Midwest regional, Mayo reached for his cell phone to call Walker.
"He was happy they made it - he was scared they weren't even going to make it," Mayo said. "We're competitors - we both want our teams to win."
Along with Walker, a redshirt freshman forward who averages 15.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, Kansas State boasts arguably the best player in the nation in forward Michael Beasley.
Beasley will enter the NCAA Tournament averaging 26.5 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward also shoots nearly 40 percent from 3-point range.
USC coach Tim Floyd's plan to contain Beasley will surely be looked at closely, as he was credited with devising the strategy that shut down former Texas forward Kevin Durant in the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament.
"He's gonna have some scheme up his sleeve," forward Davon Jefferson said of Floyd.
Kansas State finished the season 20-11 and third in the Big XII behind Kansas and Texas. The Wildcats were one of three teams to beat the Jayhawks, however, winning 84-75 on Jan. 30.

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