How concerned should Bruce Weber be about K-State’s poor outside shooting?
The Kansas State Wildcats defeated the Denver Pioneers 64-56 on Monday at Bramlage Coliseum.
It was far from an impressive victory for the home team, but it was good enough to lift No. 12 K-State to a 2-0 start. Here are some thoughts from the game:
How concerned should K-State be about its cold shooting?
The Wildcats struggled mightily from 3-point range against Denver, making 6 of 27 shots from beyond the arc. Combine that with an even uglier 1 for 13 performance against Kennesaw State last week and they are off to a 7 for 40 start. That’s 17.5 percent.
Good defense, and quality all-around play from seniors Barry Brown and Dean Wade, has saved K-State so far. But it’s still concerning to see a team that entered the season with lofty expectations struggle to beat teams like this at home.
But how concerning?
On one hand, the Wildcats will need to be much sharper when the schedule toughens. On the other, they’ve only played two games. And they’re 2-0. It’s a small sample size.
“I’m not concerned about it,” Wade said after scoring 12 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. “We have got great shooters on the team. They are going to start falling here. We are going through a little rough stretch, but we will get back into the gym and get our confidence up. Everyone misses shots. It will come back. I’m not worried about it.”
The law of averages suggests K-State will improve at least slightly from 3-point range as it plays more games. The Wildcats made 34.1 percent of their 3-pointers last season, and they return the majority of the players from that team.
This can’t be the norm. But it’s hard, at least right now, to see this team lighting it up from the outside the way some hoped they would with Kamau Stokes and Wade both healthy.
Denver used a zone defense, and it was extremely effective.
K-State coach Bruce Weber wonders if he needs to reel things in on offense.
“In the second half at least we got some down, hopefully got a little confidence,” Weber said. “I think some of them were a little quick, a little rushed and we weren’t patient. We had some real good open ones. I think the thing we need to avoid is shooting the quick ones after we have missed two or three.
“We have got to get it inside. I think early in the game we had almost no touches in the paint, whether it was dribbles or passes and I have given them more freedom. I told them, ‘I am going to give you more freedom, but I don’t want to lose. If you can’t deal with freedom we are going to run tempo and plays and get it to where we need to get it. We have good basketball players, but they need to be smarter about some things.”
K-State is far from a finished product. It clearly has work to do as it departs for its next set of games at the Paradise Jam.
This win came with some warning signs. For now, they are reasons for concern. But it’s way too early to panic.
Brown to the rescue
Barry Brown was the hero of this game. While many of his teammates struggled to find the bottom of the net, like his backcourt pals Cartier Diarra (two points on 1 for 7 shooting) and Kamau Stokes (six points on 1 for 8 shooting), he erupted for a game-high 25 points.
He did much of his damage from the 3-point line, making 4 of 8 attempts, but also got inside for layups.
His biggest shot came in the final minutes. With K-State leading 56-53, he caught a pass on the baseline, dribbled by a defender and drained a mid-range jumper to extend the lead.
When his team needed him to make big shots, Brown did exactly that. He was clutch.
“I just wanted to help my teammates out,” Brown said. “We kind of had a little slump. I wasn’t really feeling the energy. I was wanting to just bring it so that we could get a spark, play more defense, get rebounds and keep it going.”
Crashing the boards
It seems like Wade was serious about improving his skills as a rebounder this season. The senior forward had one of his best games on that front, finishing with 12 points and 16 rebounds.
The last K-State player to have more in a game was Jordan Henriquez in 2012, when he snared 17 against Syracuse.
He could have done more on offense, and he passed up some open shots. But Wade delivered on the glass in a big way. He also had four assists. Don’t be surprised if he gets a triple-double or two at some point this season.
This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 11:38 PM.