K-State takeaways: Makol Mawien lifts Wildcats past Washburn in final exhibition
The Kansas State Wildcats defeated the Washburn Ichabods 66-56 in their second and final exhibition game on Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Here are some observations from the game, which served as K-State’s final tune up for its season opener against North Dakota State next week.
Close call
The Wildcats had a much harder time with the Division II Ichabods than most imagined they would. Washburn led at various moments and threw a genuine scare into the home crowd when Tyler Geiman drained a three-pointer that gave Washburn a 36-35 advantage with 16:23 remaining.
K-State eventually pulled away, but Bruce Weber was hoping for a much better performance from his team.
“We had no rhythm,” Weber said. “They were packing it in and we didn’t move the basketball. You have got to move the basketball and we didn’t do a good job of that. It wasn’t pretty. It was disappointing. Hopefully it’s a learning experience for the guys.”
The Wildcats revealed some serious flaws in the form of turnovers (21) and three-point defense (Washburn made 14 outside shots), but it’s hard to know what that means.
They weren’t fired up for this game.
That was somewhat expected. A year ago, Weber said he scheduled a neutral-site scrimmage with Oregon to avoid playing multiple exhibition games because K-State players tend to sleepwalk through the second one. There was definitely some of that here.
K-State looked much better and intense last week in its first exhibition game against Emporia State.
The Wildcats have some issues to clean up before the season-opener, but intensity shouldn’t be a problem moving forward.
“This was a good experience for the new guys and the new team that we have got,” senior forward Makol Mawien said. “We brought the intensity, we just have to touch up some things and then we will get rolling.”
Return of the Mak
This game was a step in the right direction for Mawien.
He had a disappointing showing against Emporia State and was thoroughly outplayed by freshmen big men Montavious Murphy and Antonio Gordon, but he made a big impact against Washburn.
Mawien scored a team-high 16 points and also grabbed nine rebounds against a defense that focused on stopping him.
“Going to score the ball, they were coming to double and making steals and making some good plays and I just saw him being aggressive,” senior wing Xavier Sneed. “I hope he can continue to do that throughout the season.”
He also avoided fouls, which allowed him to stay on the floor for 30 minutes.
“My teammates did a great job getting me the ball,” Mawien said. “Whenever I scored I credited them. I got going early and stayed with it. I played strong in the post and let the game come to me. It worked out well.”
One thing he will need to take care of moving forward: turnovers. Mawien lost six of them against Washburn.
Weber has placed a lot of trust in Mawien as the leader of K-State’s frontcourt. The Wildcats will be looking for more efforts like this from him when the games begin to matter.
“I still didn’t think he was great,” Weber said, “but I was glad he played a little better and played with a good motor.”
On the plus side
DaJuan Gordon didn’t light up the stat sheet, but the freshman guard did a lot of good things that clearly helped K-State survive a inspired effort from Washburn.
For starters, he brought energy on both ends of the court. He didn’t take any plays off on defense and crashed the glass every time his teammates put up a shot.
Gordon finished with six points and four rebounds, but the Wildcats outscored the Ichabods by 17 points when he was on the court. That was by far the best number of any K-State player. The next closest was Antonio Gordon, who logged a nine on the plus/minus chart.
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 9:02 PM.