K-State needs more from its seniors ... and other thoughts from 47-46 loss at Tulsa

The Tulsa Hurricane defeated the Kansas State Wildcats 47-46 on Saturday at Reynolds Center.

It was Tulsa’s second straight victory over a Big 12 team and K-State’s second straight loss after a 6-0 start.

Here are some thoughts from the basketball game:

K-State needs more from its seniors

Avert your eyes K-State basketball fans. The following statistics are ugly.

Dean Wade, the Big 12 preseason player of the year, scored four points on 1-of-6 shooting.

Barry Brown, a veteran all-Big 12 guard, finished with six points on 3-of-12 shooting.

Kamau Stokes, a four-year starter, had four points on 1-of-12 shooting.

Add it all up, and the Wildcats got 14 points on 30 shots from their three seniors. That’s not good enough to win any game, let alone a road test against an opponent like Tulsa that defeated K-State in similar fashion last season.

Everyone knew Tulsa was going to come out in a zone defense. K-State simply had no answers for it, again.

The cold shooting is enough to make even the most optimistic supporter wonder what is going wrong at the moment. Not long ago, the Wildcats were 6-0 and off to their best start in years. They were threatening to crack the top 10. Now they have lost back-to-back games and are in danger of slipping out of the national polls when those rankings are released next week.

Suddenly, even K-State coach Bruce Weber is talking like the Wildcats were overrated.

“It’s a new season, new team. We have still got to learn and figure some things out,” Weber said. “I wish it was a little bit smoother, but sometimes you have to go through some of this to take steps forward.”

That may be true, but K-State appeared above this kind of loss a few weeks ago. This is a team that returns its entire starting five from a roster that won 25 games and reached the Elite Eight last season. And yet, they only scored 46 points against a team they knew from last season.

Take away 13 points from Xavier Sneed, the only K-State player to reach double figures, and the Wildcats only had 33 points. Yikes.

Brown couldn’t draw iron on an open three, Stokes missed an open layup, Wade seemed afraid to shoot. Everything that could go wrong on offense did go wrong.

“We were not being aggressive,” Stokes said. “We weren’t taking open shots and were overly passive at times. When we scored we had good looks. Even a lot of shots we missed we had good looks off of ball movement. We just have to get in the gym and be able to make shots. We have got to learn when the pass and when to shoot.”

Wade had the most disappointing game of all. It felt like he reverted back to his freshman form and seemed tentative with the ball in his hands.

“We need more out of him,” Weber said. “He’s not aggressive enough. He was the biggest guy on the court most of the time and didn’t use his strength and length to finish around the hoop. But he will be fine. I know he is a good player and will battle through this.”

Still, these two losses are concerning. The luster of last year’s success is starting to fade.

“You’re disappointed,” Weber said. “I said last week we could have easily just played home games and probably won, but this is good, this is how you learn and grow as a team and figure things out. Obviously we have got to be better. They have all got to be better.”

Bad timeout

With K-State trailing 47-46 in the final minute, Barry Brown crossed mid-court and called timeout with 14.3 seconds remaining. That is normally an acceptable strategy, but it backfired against the Wildcats on Saturday.

Tulsa had several fouls to give, and Frank Haith reminded his players of that during the timeout.

As soon as K-State sent the ball inbounds, Tulsa fouled. The Wildcats sent the ball in again, and Tulsa followed with another foul. That drained nearly 10 seconds off the clock, and all of a sudden K-State had to scramble just to get a shot off.

Things did not go well. Brown drove to the left and missed a floater. Kamau Stokes grabbed a rebound and missed a put-back attempt. The game ended, and Tulsa fans rushed the court to celebrate.

“I wanted some organization, at least,” Weber said. “They fouled. On that last one we put Xavier in the corner hoping they would screw up on the play. Or we told Barry as soon as he got it to drive it. If they foul you just get the shot up. That is what he tried to do … Sometimes bounce your way. Other times they don’t.”

In hindsight, the Wildcats would have been better off playing without the timeout.

Lone positive

Xavier Sneed nearly carried K-State to a win in the second half. If there is any positive for the Wildcats to take away from this game it is that he played well.

The junior wing hit three three-pointers on his way to 13 points. He also grabbed 10 rebounds. If he continues to contribute in all areas, the Wildcats will get back to winning games when his teammates regain their shooting groove.

This story was originally published December 8, 2018 at 7:29 PM.