How reserve point guard David Sloan can take advantage of extra minutes for K-State
Maybe a roster shakeup was exactly what David Sloan needed.
Hours after sophomore point guard Shaun Williams announced that he was transferring from the Kansas State basketball team, Sloan saw his most action of the season and played his best game in a Wildcats uniform during an 86-41 victory over Alabama State on Wednesday.
Sloan, a junior point guard, had seven points and four assists while losing just one turnover. Best of all, he helped K-State share the ball at an impressive rate and finish the night with 29 assists, the highest single-game total of the Bruce Weber era. That led to a season-high 86 points.
If Sloan continues to score and distribute that efficiently off the bench, or improves as the season goes along, the Wildcats might not require multiple reserves at his position.
“With Shaun gone now maybe it will help him a little bit and he can relax knowing that he is going in,” Weber said. “It’s a big jump ... He does push it and he can create. He sees the court. I feel like he was too unselfish. He had an open three in the second half and didn’t shoot it. He’s a good shooter.
“One of the things we have struggled with is playmaking with each other. It’s one of the things I have talked about and brought up on film. If we can continue to do that it is going to help our shooting percentage, there is no doubt.”
The Wildcats could benefit with Sloan taking on a bigger role. His pass-first style seems to suit K-State’s offensive system. Xavier Sneed, Mike McGuirl, Makol Mawien and Antonio Gordon are all capable scorers, but they all struggle to create off the dribble. They are far better when they can slip into open space, catch a pass and shoot.
Sloan came to K-State from junior college to get the ball in their hands. The former touted high school recruit from Louisville, Kentucky, averaged 9.8 assists before transferring to Manhattan this season. He is the type of player who would much rather create for his teammates than for himself.
Williams, a shoot-first player, was not that type of point guard.
“I feel like David sees the floor well and makes the passes that we want,” Gordon said. “He knows how to run a fast break, so I feel like he helps us a lot.”
Sloan began his debut season with the Wildcats in a positive way by totaling 10 points and three assists in K-State’s first three games. But he was Diarra’s main backup in all of those games while Williams served a suspension. When Williams joined the rotation for the next five games, Sloan’s production dropped.
He barely played during K-State’s two losses at the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
Weber attributed Sloan’s backslide to “growing pains” more than sharing the court with Williams, saying that as a new player it simply took him a while to find his place. Freshman forward Montavious Murphy went through a similar experience, playing so poorly during preseason practices that Weber thought he might need to redshirt, but then suddenly figured things out and earned a spot in the starting lineup before he missed time because of a knee injury.
Sloan followed the same path. But he seems ready to bounce back as the Wildcats have not choice but to turn to him for extra minutes at point guard.
Weber could tell Sloan was ready for more responsibility when he rose his voice in practice earlier this week. That’s the first time he’s done that since he arrived on campus over the summer.
“We know David likes to attack and he likes to pass the ball as well,” Sneed said. “He is still getting into the flow and our team chemistry, finding where guys like the ball at. But I think he is doing a terrific job of just pushing the pace and getting the ball down the court. He’s doing a great job of that and being a leader.”