K-State will need more from Cartier Diarra, bench if injured Kamau Stokes remains out

For Kansas State, the worst thing about a 74-58 loss at Texas Tech on Saturday was playing the entire second half without Kamau Stokes.

The junior point guard limped off the floor after playing 15 minutes and never returned. While his teammates charged onto the floor and tried to mount a comeback over the final 20 minutes at United Supermarkets Arena, Stokes remained in the locker room with a foot injury of unknown severity.

But it doesn’t sound good.

“We just hope and pray he is all right,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We will see what happens.”

Weber and K-State players all admitted there is a chance they will have to play without Stokes in future games.

“The big thing, if we don’t have Kamau, is replacing 15 points a game, right?” Weber said. “That is not going to be easy. We are going to have to find other ways, and that is where the bench is going to be important.”

What could life look like for the Wildcats without Stokes? We got a glimpse in this game.

Redshirt freshman Cartier Diarra took over at point guard in the second half, and K-State responded favorably, at least compared to an ugly first half in which Texas Tech raced to a 40-22 lead.

Diarra was a big reason for that turnaround. He scored 11 points, sent out two assists and grabbed a rebound. With him and backup forward Mawdo Sallah in the lineup, the Wildcats fought back and pulled within seven early in the second half on an and-one layup from Barry Brown.

They didn’t have it in them to get any closer, but it provided some reason to hope.

“It was just determination,” Diarra said. “We didn’t like being down that much. We just kept fighting and got stops and made the simple plays, the easy plays. We fed it to Dean (Wade), drove it in and kicked it out.”

Still, the Wildcats don’t have the type of roster that can easily overcome the loss of a veteran starter.

This team was built around four key players – Barry Brown, Xavier Sneed, Dean Wade and Stokes. All four of them are good enough to make runs at All-Big 12 honors this season. The rest of the roster? Not so much.

Starting center Makol Mawien is playing himself out of the rotation, Amaad Wainright struggles to score, Mawdo Sallah is wildly inconsistent, Levi Stockard is a freshman and this is Diarra’s first year on the floor.

When K-State is at its best, it gets major contributions from its top players and solid play from its glue guys. Sneed (9), Brown (21), Stokes (23) and Wade (34) combined for 87 points against Iowa State, and the Wildcats won easily. But the rest of the team combined to score four points.

On Saturday, 10 Texas Tech players scored and K-State had no chance. Brown had 24, Wade added 14 and Diarra scored 11. No one else scored more than three.

“You look at our bench and our scoring, we didn’t get much done,” Weber said. “Amaad had 21 minutes and I don’t think he got a basket. They have got to find a way to get something done.”

That won’t be easy without Stokes. Diarra will face the biggest challenge of all.

He hopes Stokes can continue starting at point guard.

“Kamau is strong,” Diarra said. “We just keep praying for him and hope he is OK.”

But he will begin preparing to take over the role as K-State shifts its focus to its next game against Oklahoma State on Wednesday.

“I was never scared,” Diarra said. “I don’t think anything out there is too much for me. It would be more conditioning (if I start), just getting ready to play more minutes and stuff like that. I have just got to get in the gym and run and condition myself more.”

What can Brown do for you?

There weren’t many positives for K-State to take away from this blowout loss, but Brown’s play was one of them.

This was his best performance. Brown scored a team-high 24 points and he stayed on the floor for a game-high 39 minutes. It was nice to see the junior guard attack the basket and get to the free-throw line 13 times.

K-State will need more scorers if Stokes misses future games, and Brown is among the best candidates to increase his production.

No shame in losing to Texas Tech

The Red Raiders led from start to finish on the road against Kansas. They also beat Baylor by 24. Unlike previous years, this team looks like the real deal at 14-1 and 3-0 in the Big 12.

Keenan Evans, who had 27 points against K-State, is one of the nation’s top point guards, and Chris Beard has this team playing at unexpected levels. There is no shame in losing to Texas Tech, especially on the road.

Still, K-State can’t feel good about the way it defended the paint. Texas Tech made 12 of 13 two-point attempts in the first half kept pounding away inside in the second half. It finished 18 of 24 within the arc. That’s way too easy.

“We weren’t in the right position all the time and weren’t focused on the defensive end,” Wade said. “We just got to stay focused and play together.”

Added Brown: “They are a good team, but we beat ourselves at times. We have got to get better.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 7:09 PM with the headline "K-State will need more from Cartier Diarra, bench if injured Kamau Stokes remains out."