Kansas State's Markquis Nowell ready after ankle 'scare'

NEW YORK — Less than 24 hours after his historic Sweet 16 performance, Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell said his injured ankle is 85% to 90% healthy. However, he left zero doubt about his status for Saturday's Elite Eight game against Florida Atlantic.

«It's good,» Nowell said. «It will probably be [better] tomorrow.»

Nowell said that he was able to move around at practice on Friday.

«It was a scare,» Nowell said. «I tweaked it a little bit, but it feels good now. Just been icing it, elevating it, stuff you do with a rolled ankle.»

Nowell had one of the greatest individual performances in NCAA tournament history in Thursday's 98-93 overtime win over Michigan State, setting a tournament record with 19 assists while also contributing 20 points and 5 steals.

Much of that performance came after Nowell suffered a seemingly serious ankle injury early in the second half. He was on the floor for several minutes and needed to be helped off the floor by two Kansas State staffers.

After sitting at the end of the bench and getting his ankle retaped, Nowell checked himself back into the game two minutes later and propelled the Wildcats to a win.

The 5-foot-8 Harlem native woke up Friday morning to his face on the cover of his hometown paper, the New York Post, which declared him the «King of New York.» He received messages from a half-dozen current and former NBA stars, including Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell and Carmelo Anthony.

But Nowell is looking toward Saturday's game.

«Just keep focusing on things that's important. Going 1-0. Like we've been preaching the whole season,» Nowell said. «We had a great performance yesterday, celebrated last night and now today is the time to flip over the page and focus on Florida Atlantic.… We