How Kansas State’s final play went wrong in 73-72 loss at KU

The lasting image of Kansas State’s 73-72 loss to Kansas on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse has to be Barry Brown slowly walking the ball up court with the game on the line.

Kansas led by a single point when K-State inbounded the ball with 15.2 seconds remaining. If executed quickly, the Wildcats could have crossed midcourt, taken a shot and had time leftover for a second chance if they missed. This was a moment to pick up the pace.

Instead, Brown dribbled up court without urgency and waited 7 seconds before running any kind of offense.

“I don’t know why I did that,” Brown said later.

The result was predictable. K-State coach Bruce Weber called for a play designed to go to Dean Wade, similar to what the Wildcats ran at the end of another last-second loss last year in this building when Wade came off a screen and missed an open three from the wing.

Back then, they did everything right. Wade just missed. This time, they did everything wrong. Brown barely got off a shot.

Here’s what happened: Wade slipped through a screen and put his hands up to catch a pass at the top of the key while Brown dribbled on the left wing. Wade’s defender, Udoka Azubuike, was slow to rotate over and Wade was open, but Brown kept the ball. Once Azubuike closed on Wade he set another screen for Brown, which Brown used to find space on the right wing. Wade looked back for a pass, but it never came. With time running out, Brown hoisted a fadeaway three from well beyond the arc that clanged off the left side of the rim.

“It was a pop play,” Brown said. “I don’t know why, but I kind of got confused when he popped the other way. I kind of got confused, I looked at the time and tried to make a play.”

K-State players walked off the court with dazed looks. Weber was furious. Things were supposed to be different this time. They played so well at KU last season and gave themselves a chance to win, only to lose on a controversial no-call. Wade learned from the late miss and entered Saturday’s game hoping for redemption.

It wasn’t to be.

“Pretty frustrated, pretty disappointed,” Wade said after leading K-State with 22 points. “We just have to move on. We have got a lot more big games to play. We have to move on and make the most of the rest of the season.”

How did this game slip away? That was a difficult question for Weber and the Wildcats to answer, but it starts with poor late execution.

“I thought Barry went a little slow,” Weber said. “I didn’t want to wait that long, to be honest.”

Still, it was hard for Weber to put this loss on K-State’s leading scorer. Brown was coming off a 38-point effort against Oklahoma State.

“He has been unbelievable,” Weber said. “He has been our leader, he wants to win. He cares so much. But this time he just … We talk about making the right play, the easy play. Whether Dean makes it or not, he missed it last year, get the best shot.”

Brown, to his credit, accepted blame and showed leadership during the postgame news conference.

“We are going to be fine,” Brown said. “It’s just a tough loss. We are going to bounce back after this, like we did our last loss, get in the gym, focus on the next game. We have dealt with some tough losses and we have bounced back. This isn’t going to be anything different.”

It felt more painful, though.

Weber even criticized the officiating.

He was most upset about a technical foul that went against point guard Cartier Diarra for taunting, which led to a pair of free throws for the Jayhawks. The foul came after a block by Makol Mawien. Diarra said he congratulated his teammate for the play, and the officials deemed his words worthy of a foul.

Diarra, who scored 18 points and had his second straight fantastic game in relief of injured Kamau Stokes, wasn’t sure why.

“Our guys played their hearts out,” Weber said. “I am really disappointed with some of the calls, but we were all here last year and same thing. A technical shouldn’t make a difference in the game.”

The Wildcats also lost a late possession on an officiating review, which Weber didn’t realize until the end of a timeout he spent drawing up an offensive play.

Bad luck on both situations, but K-State had opportunities to overcome them. The Wildcats fell behind early and fought back to take a 34-28 lead. They fell behind 49-38 early in the second half and answered back immediately behind huge shots from Diarra and Wade.

They were resilient for more than 39 minutes, but they couldn’t finish.

K-State would have won with better execution, and more urgency, on the final play.

This story was originally published January 13, 2018 at 3:19 PM with the headline "How Kansas State’s final play went wrong in 73-72 loss at KU."