Why Bruce Weber thinks K-State basketball lacks leadership after Marquette loss
The more Kansas State basketball coach Bruce Weber talked about what went wrong for the Wildcats during a 73-65 loss to Marquette Saturday night at Bramlage Coliseum, the more he talked about what has been going wrong for them all season.
“They all thought it was going to be easier than it was,” Weber said. “I used the words consistency, dependable and efficiency, and that was back in August. Right now, we are not consistent, we are not dependable, and we are not efficient.
“That has got to come over the course of time. They are new. This is all new. It’s a new team, new positions, new roles. I wish it was easier, but it isn’t. It hasn’t come as easy as we all hoped.”
Indeed, K-State is 5-3 following its first home loss of the season. The Wildcats were hoping to bounce back from a miserable showing at the Fort Myers Tip-Off with a quality victory over the Golden Eagles, but it didn’t happen.
Marquette raced to a 39-26 halftime lead and never trailed in the second half, despite K-State mounting a comeback attempt behind some hot shooting from Cartier Diarra, who finished with a team-high 14 points.
The Wildcats are off to their worst start in five years and are still in search of their first victory over a prominent opponent. Many of their struggles were evident against Marquette, including inconsistent defense and an abysmal shooting effort of 32.3 percent. The Golden Eagles led for all but the opening moments behind the play of star guard Markus Howard, who finished with 19 points.
Still, none of that upset Weber as much as this: he thinks the Wildcats lack leadership.
That comes as a surprise considering Xavier Sneed, Makol Mawien, Mike McGuirl and Diarra all return with starting experience from teams that played in the Elite Eight and shared a Big 12 championship.
He can tell Sneed wants to be a leader, but says he needs help in that department.
“Somebody else has to have a voice,” Weber said. “Emotion, we have got to have some emotion. It has got to come from someone besides me. If me and the coaches have to bring the emotion every day in practice, we are in trouble. It is going to be a long season. That’s got to come. That’s got to come over the course of time.”
That’s something the Wildcats don’t have an abundance of, at the moment. Their hopes of returning to the NCAA Tournament for a fourth straight year are fading fast, and they need to close out the month of December with some victories to give themselves a shot at the postseason with a winning Big 12 record.
Diarra is struggling to adjust to his new role as K-State’s primary point guard, Sneed hasn’t upgraded his game as a senior and the Wildcats are relying too much on freshmen like Antonio Gordon and DaJuan Gordon.
Weber thought both newcomers played well against Marquette, but he wishes the Wildcats didn’t have to rely on them as much as they did.
“We shouldn’t have to depend on them,” Weber said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
He would much rather lean on his returning starters.
Until he can count on them as consistent, dependable and efficient leaders, the Wildcats will continue to have trouble beating teams like Marquette.
This story was originally published December 8, 2019 at 12:26 AM.