‘He has got to play better’: Bruce Weber wants more from K-State forward Austin Trice
It’s been harder than expected for Austin Trice to carve out a role with the Kansas State basketball team.
When the 6-foot-7 forward left junior college and enrolled at K-State last spring, Trice seemed like the missing piece for a roster that returned all five starters from an Elite Eight run. He excelled at the one thing Bruce Weber’s team struggled to do last season — rebound.
Trice was supposed to be the answer to K-State’s rebounding problems after he grabbed 12.1 boards per game at the junior-college level. And he looked like the real deal when he logged six points and 12 rebounds in his first game wearing a K-State uniform.
But he’s been anything but a plug-and-play rebounder since. He’s barely made it on the floor in K-State’s past six games. Weber opted not to play him at all last week against Georgia State.
“He has got to play better,” Weber said earlier this week.
Trice is averaging 2.6 points and 4.4 rebounds. He was one of the first players off the bench when the season began, but he has recently fallen behind Levi Stockard in the frontcourt rotation.
Xavier Sneed was the team’s leading rebounder last game with an impressive 14 boards.
Weber said he benched Trice against Georgia State, because the Panthers used a zone defense and Trice has problems against that look. Then the Wildcats wanted to play him more against Southern Mississippi, but the Golden Eagles used a small lineup and Trice struggles on defense against guards.
His job, it seems, isn’t as simple as crashing the glass.
But he may get an opportunity to show off his skills against Vanderbilt on Saturay at Sprint Center. Unlike previous opponents, the Commodores feature a big lineup and prefer to play man defense.
“He does do some good things,” Weber said. “But the things we have told him from the start about playing smart and being strong and finishing layups and all that stuff, he thought that would be easy.”
Still, K-State has improved in the rebounding department this season. Last year, it ranked last in the Big 12 in both offensive rebounds (8.2) and defensive rebounds (22.5) per game and ranked 340th nationally in overall boards (30.7). This year, all three numbers are up. The Wildcats are averaging 10 offensive rebounds, 27.2 defensive rebounds and 37.2 overall rebounds.
They rank in the middle of the Big 12 in all three categories.
Weber is hoping Trice can help push those numbers even higher when he acclimates to K-State’s system. It hasn’t happened yet, but he’s confident it will.
“He will be fine,” Weber said. “He can do more on Saturday. They are going to be bigger and it will allow us to play a little big and give us some different looks with him and maybe Levi and some other guys.”