K-State takeaways: Wildcats need more minutes, fewer fouls from Makol Mawien
The Kansas State basketball team lost to the Pittsburgh Panthers 63-59 on Monday in the opening game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
Here are some takeaways from the game before the Wildcats (4-1) return to the floor at 5 p.m. Wednesday against Bradley in the third-place game (FS1):
More from Mak
If this game proved anything aside from the importance of free throws, it’s that Makol Mawien is every bit as valuable to K-State as higher profile teammates like Xavier Sneed and Cartier Diarra.
When he is at his best, so are the Wildcats.
They were much better than the Panthers when Mawien was on the floor, outscoring them by 16 points.
Bruce Weber’s team played inspired basketball when his starting lineup was intact. Example: K-State raced to a 9-0 lead with Mawien patrolling the paint. Another: K-State pulled ahead late with eight straight points in the second half when Mawien was also on the floor.
Problem is, he spent the majority of the game on the bench in foul trouble. The senior forward finished with four points, one rebound and a block ... in 11 minutes. He picked up two quick fouls and was done for the first half. He got his third whistle 1:36 into the second half. His fourth foul came away from the basket. Then he fouled out trying to create off the dribble with 2 minutes remaining.
“We have got to keep Makol in the game,” Weber said. “He’s the top guy on the plus/minus chart at plus 16, and he only plays 11 minutes.”
Mawien’s primary replacement, Levi Stockard, was on the other end of the spectrum. The junior forward struggled against Pitt, finishing with three points, five rebounds and five turnovers in 29 minutes of action. The Panthers outscored the Wildcats by 13 when he was on the floor.
That disparity wouldn’t usually be quite so big, but with Montavious Murphy unable to play while recovering from a knee injury, K-State was light on depth in the frontcourt.
Weber had to use a lot of different lineups, and few of them looked crisp.
“That was regular,” Diarra insisted. “We do that in practice all the time. We switch it up daily and get everyone comfortable with each other. I just felt like it really came down to free throws.”
That hurt, no doubt. But Weber said Murphy is unlikely to play again until at least Dec. 7, when K-State takes on Marquette at home. So the Wildcats will have to rely on Stockard in an expanded role for at least a few more games.
They would rather use Mawien, who entered Monday averaging 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds, and bring Stockard off the bench for spot minutes. But that’s only possible if Mawien can learn to avoid foul trouble. It’s always been an issue for him. He has fouled out of games before after just five minutes.
But he appeared to be growing out of that until this game. It’s something he will need to conquer for K-State to reach its potential moving forward.
Freshman walls
A pair of K-State freshmen stole the show in the first half.
Antonio Gordon made his first start at forward in place of Murphy and scored seven of the game’s first nine points. Then DaJuan Gordon came off the bench at guard and led all scorers with 12 points, draining two three-pointers and hitting a nifty up-and-under layup along the way.
They combined for 19 of K-State’s 30 points at halftime.
“I just played my game and took what the defense gave me,” DaJuan Gordon said. “If I wasn’t open I passed it. But i was open, so I shot it.”
Things changed as the game went on. Neither freshman found the bottom of the net in the second half.
DaJuan Gordon couldn’t convert a pair of layups that you would normally expect him to make and Antonio Gordon made some ill-advised decisions in crunch time. The shots they took and made with confidence in the first half were clanging off the rim.
Chalk it up to being freshmen, playing in their first tournament setting.
“They each missed some easy ones,” Weber said, “But, heck, they were the ones that helped us be in the game and gave us a chance.”
Gut-check time
No one took this loss harder than Xavier Sneed.
This was his first loss as a senior, and he played a game to forget. The 6-foot-5 wing made 3 of 13 shots and didn’t score his first point until the 15:40 mark of the second half on a free throw. He tried to rally the Wildcats with some important buckets in the late going, including a three-pointer, but it wasn’t enough.
He finished with eight points and three rebounds, well below his average of 16 points and 5.8 rebounds. The Wildcats probably would have won had he delivered an average game.
“I just didn’t have a couple shots go down,” Sneed said. “I saw a couple go in and out. I just have to do better next time.”
Indeed, there’s no time for him to dwell on this game. K-State has been here before. Sneed has been a part of many painful early nonconference losses and then bounced back to have quality seasons.
This time K-State is looking to him to play better on the court and help his teammates bounce back in the locker room.
Weber wrote two words on the board before the start of Monday’s game: “toughness” and “experience.” He didn’t think he got much of either.
“Our experience has to be a little better than that,” Weber said. “We need more poise and discipline.”
A better effort from Sneed can solve both problems.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 10:11 PM.