Why things went so wrong for K-State in bad loss to Tulsa

Tulsa defeated Kansas State 61-54 on Saturday at Intrust Bank Arena.

Some takeaways from the game:

Cold as ice

It’s hard to imagine how things could have gone any worse for K-State on offense. Murphy’s Law was in effect against Tulsa, as the Wildcats made 4 of 31 shots (12.9 percent) from three-point range and made 18 of 56 shots (32.1 percent) from the field.

The Golden Hurricane went with a zone defense, switching from a 3-2 to a 2-3 throughout the game while occasionally sprinkling in man, and the Wildcats went cold.

Kamau Stokes entered the day as one of the nation’s top three-point shooters, but he went 1 for 8 from the outside. Barry Brown has been a consistent shooter all year, but he missed all seven of his looks from deep. Xavier Sneed made a pair of early threes and then missed his next six.

“Just a bad shooting night,” Stokes said. “I feel like everybody goes through it. Every team goes through it, and tonight was our night.”

What’s strange is that Tulsa dared K-State to shoot from the outside. It’s not like the Wildcats jacked up one horrible shot after another. K-State coach Bruce Weber said he liked his team’s shot selection until late in the second half when “we all panicked down the stretch.”

One thing is clear: The Wildcats need to improve their zone offense. They have struggled against packed defenses in several games this season, and it cost them against Tulsa.

Early on, when they had their most success, players moved the ball across the court like they were looking for assists more than points, and open shots followed in front of 7,180, the best crowd of the season. But once players began to doubt themselves, they started forcing shots and settling for corner threes instead of moving the ball into better position.

Weber didn’t seem all that discouraged afterward. He chalked this one up to missed shots more than poor play. He said the struggles that happened in this game are easy to correct. There is some truth to that. This should hold up as K-State’s worst offensive effort of the season.

Still, the more Stokes thought about it, he couldn’t sit back and blame this loss on bad shots. Had the Wildcats attacked the rim more aggressively and made crisp passes, the result could have been different.

“We should have found another way to win,” Stokes said, “and we didn’t do that.”

Bad loss

This was a bad loss.

Yes, Tulsa is one of the best nonconference opponents K-State will play this season. Yes, Tulsa will knock off another notable team or two this season in the American. No, that shouldn’t make fans feel any better about this result.

The Golden Hurricane are 5-4 with a pair of losses to Illinois State and a home defeat against Lamar.

K-State is 8-2, but that is a hollow record at the moment. The Wildcats’ best wins have come against George Washington (5-5) and Vanderbilt (3-6). Their remaining nonconference games are against Southeast Missouri State and Washington State.

The Wildcats will enter Big 12 play without a single quality victory and at least two losses. That might cost them come March.

Same old problems

Two problems continue to persist for K-State.

Say all you want about an ugly shooting night, but the Wildcats lost the rebounding battle 40-30 and got two points from their bench.

If not for a breakaway dunk from Amaad Wainright in the first half, K-State’s reserves would have gone scoreless.

K-State has four quality players in its starting lineup (Dean Wade, Brown, Sneed and Stokes) but the rest of the roster is wildly inconsistent. Makol Mawien is still trying to find his inside touch and the reserves are still trying to find their way.

Weber will need to find more balance before Big 12 games begin on Dec. 29. The Wildcats can’t rely on their best four players doing all the work in every game.

This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Why things went so wrong for K-State in bad loss to Tulsa."