Why one K-State player thinks Wildcats lacked ‘toughness’ and ‘heart’ in latest loss
Mike McGuirl is tired of losing.
The Kansas State junior guard hopes his teammates are too, but just in case they need a reminder that the Wildcats are not currently living up to the high standard they set for themselves coming off a pair of memorable seasons he challenged them following a 67-61 loss to Mississippi State on Saturday at the Never Forget Tribute Classic inside Prudential Center.
“We didn’t have toughness, we didn’t have heart,” McGuirl said. “We had the game in our hands and let it go. There wasn’t anything else to it. We weren’t tough enough, and that can never happen.”
This was certainly an attention-grabbing result for the Wildcats, who are now 6-4 and without a single quality victory on their resume. It’s going to be hard to make the NCAA Tournament from here.
Unlike previous losses to Pittsburgh, Bradley and Marquette, no one inside the K-State locker room referred to this game as a learning experience that could benefit them somewhere down the road.
“We have got to be better, point blank,” McGuirl said after scoring 14 points and grabbing three rebounds. “We have got to be tougher, we have got to get rebounds, we have got to get stops when we need to. We have got to take care of the ball, we have got to finish layups and we have got to execute on offense.”
K-State did a lot of those things and was in position to beat Mississippi State as the second half reached its midway point, but then everything fell apart. The Wildcats led by six with 9:50 remaining and looked like the better team until crunch time arrived and they completely unraveled, allowing the Bulldogs take over.
For everything good K-State accomplished in this game there was a corresponding negative. Cartier Diarra scored a game-high 20 points but didn’t have a single assist. McGuirl played a tremendous half but committed a needless second foul and Mississippi State went on a run while he was on the bench. David Sloan helped the Wildcats outscore the Bulldogs by 11 points when he was on the floor, but he only saw 11 minutes of action.
The bad outweighed the good and K-State suffered its fourth loss in six games.
“We are not far off, but our record puts us in a big bind right now,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We are going to have to figure some things out pretty quickly.”
This is uncharted territory for this group of Wildcats. This is the earliest they have lost four games since the 2014-15 season when they began the year 4-4 and only won 15 games.
Not wanting to repeat that experience, Diarra and McGuirl showed some leadership following the loss on Saturday. Diarra stood up in front of the team and gave a passionate speech to his teammates when it was over.
“We don’t like it,” Diarra said. “I’m used to winning here and we aren’t winning like I know we are capable of. What makes it even worse is it’s not even big things. Everything is coming down to small things. Those are things that are easily correctable. We need to handle that and make sure we come out with wins because right now we don’t have any wins against quality teams and we need that.”
McGuirl was quiet in the locker room, but decided to speak up in a postgame interview after listening to his teammate.
“We are not handling it well, but we shouldn’t be,” McGuirl said. “We shouldn’t be happy with this. We don’t play just to play. We play to win and we aren’t winning. We have got to be better and we have got to find a way to pick it up.”
There are no easy answers.
Though K-State is beginning to show a shooting touch from three-point range, it still struggles on offense. And with usual starter Montavious Murphy sidelined indefinitely with a knee injury, it’s also tough for the Wildcats to go up against big teams like Mississippi State, which featured a 6-7 wing Robert Woodard, 6-10 forward Reggie Perry and 6-11 center Abdul Ado.
Getting Murphy back healthy will help. But the Wildcats could still benefit form other adjustments, like playing Sloan more at point guard and letting DaJuan Gordon do more off the bench. Weber was kicking himself for not playing Sloan more on Saturday.
“There’s no doubt, as a coach you question it, you know?” Weber said. “It’s the first thing I told the guys. Maybe I have to do a better job, too.”
The Wildcats don’t have much time to find solutions. They next play Saint Louis on Dec. 21 at Sprint Center, followed by Tulsa at home and then Big 12 games begin.
K-State had opportunities to beat Pittsburgh, Marquette and Mississippi State in its first 10 games but faltered down the stretch of all three games.
Now it’s gut-check time.
“That’s exactly what it is,” McGuirl said. “We have got to learn from this. There are no more wake-up calls. It is now or never.”