Bruce Weber praises freshmen, challenges older players as K-State prepares for TCU
Kansas State basketball coach Bruce Weber was talking about the encouraging play of the Wildcats’ three youngest players when his train of thought suddenly changed.
That’s happened a few times this season, most recently following a 66-61 loss at Oklahoma in which freshmen DaJuan Gordon, Montavious Murphy and Antonio Gordon all made solid contributions. Weber was happy about the way they played, but the positives they brought to the court revealed some glaring negatives elsewhere on the K-State roster.
And Weber’s focus eventually ended up there.
“We need a little more out of Levi (Stockard), a little more out of David Sloan to help us out,” Weber said. “Those guys are juniors. If you are depending on freshmen all the time that makes it tough.”
Difficult or not, it seems like Weber has little choice but to rely more on K-State’s trio of freshmen as the Wildcats look to stay above .500. Murphy is a dependable force inside, Antonio Gordon provides shooting and rebounding off the bench, and DaJuan Gordon is starting to figure out how to consistently produce at the college level.
“I feel like they did some good things out there,” senior wing Xavier Sneed said. “Definitely calmed them down, because all of the talk. We’ve been talking about Big 12. They did some good things on the offensive and defensive end. Just got to keep them rolling, keep them getting some more open shots.”
DaJuan Gordon, a 6-foot-4 guard from Chicago, made the biggest impact against Oklahoma. That didn’t come as a surprise after he delivered an important put-back layup that helped K-State defeat Tulsa last week. It was encouraging to see him follow that up with eight big points against Oklahoma in the Wildcats’ first Big 12 game.
After a slow start to his freshman campaign, Weber is now showing trust in Gordon, who was on the court for 27 minutes against the Sooners.
“He cares, he plays his butt off and made some plays,” Weber said. “I thought he played a really good first half. He needs to learn when to go and when not to. I don’t want to hold him back.”
Weber was not as kind while speaking about some of K-State’s older players following the Oklahoma loss.
Sloan, who had previously seemed worthy of increased playing time, had two points, no assists and three turnovers. Stockard grabbed six rebounds but went scoreless. His 17-point effort against Saint Louis before Christmas is starting to look more like a fluke than a momentum-building game.
Senior forward Makol Mawien has also struggled this season, as his numbers (7.8 points and 4.9 rebounds) have not improved from last year.
“We need him more active,” Weber said. “He’s got to get a couple of those rebounds to change the game for us. Levi has six. I’d like (Stockard) to score a little more, have a little better motor.”
The Wildcats (7-6, 0-1 Big 12) will take more from both their veterans and their freshmen when they face TCU (10-3, 1-0) at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Bramlage Coliseum.
But Weber is only challenging one of those groups at the moment.