Play of Walker is concern to Floyd

Michael Beasley can have his points.

The Kansas State freshman forward has scored at least 30 points in 13 games and at least 20 points in 23 games this season, so it’s almost a given that he will come up big Thursday in Omaha when the 11th-seeded Wildcats play sixth-seeded USC in an NCAA tournament first-round game.

The Kansas State player USC Coach Tim Floyd on Tuesday said he was most intent on containing was freshman forward Bill Walker, who averages 15.8 points and has scored as many as 31 in a game.

“He’s the guy that is our biggest concern going into this game,” Floyd said. “We know who Beasley is, but Walker is a guy with dominant talent who is capable of having a 35-point game.”

Beasley, who set a single-season school record for points while averaging 26.5 a game, has been Kansas State’s leading scorer in 25 of 31 games and reached at least 40 points in three games.

“Beasley’s going to have a great night. Nobody’s been able to hold him down,” Floyd said. “We’ll try to do our best, but Walker appears to be a real key to their team when you look at his stats and numbers. When he elevates and plays big, then they become unbeatable.”

Walker’s numbers actually haven’t deviated that much between Kansas State’s wins and losses.

He averaged 16.5 points during the Wildcats’ 20 victories and 14.6 points during their 11 losses, and he actually shot for a higher percentage during defeats (47.1%) than victories (44.7%).

Both of Walker’s top scoring outbursts -- 31-point games against Xavier and Baylor -- came in losses. He scored 27 points during a loss against Texas Tech.

One way for the Trojans to fluster Walker might be to have sophomore guard Daniel Hackett defend him. The players are old travel-ball circuit rivals who got into several scraps while in high school.

“I had run-ins with him all the time,” Hackett said. “We’re both combative players and we both play tough out there and it got ugly a couple of times. . . . He’s tough. He’ll push you and he’s a real physical player.

“It was close to a couple of flagrant [fouls] called, but no fights.”

------

It might be difficult at times to determine which team is seeded higher at the Qwest Center if an expected home-court advantage materializes for Kansas State, whose campus is about 140 miles from Omaha.

“It appears to be that they may have 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 people who can drive 147 miles,” Floyd said. “We’d like to think, though, that a sixth seed would maybe garner that advantage versus an 11 seed. [But] as hard as it was to get here, we’re not going to complain.”

Kansas State fans appeared to outnumber USC fans by a roughly 5-1 margin in December 2006 when the teams played in Las Vegas and the Wildcats won, 68-55.

------

The Trojans held a morning practice at the Galen Center before departing for Omaha via a chartered jet.

--

ben.bolch@latimes.com