Why Kansas State’s blowout loss at KU was a ‘soul searching’ moment for Wildcats
Bruce Weber has emphasized a special number with the Kansas State men’s basketball team before the start of recent games.
The number: 60.
It’s significance: That is the maximum number of points Weber thinks the Wildcats can allow in order to beat most opponents given the state of their struggling offense.
Even that low number turned out to be wishful thinking on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse, where the Kansas Jayhawks defeated the Wildcats 74-51. It was appropriate that the Sunflower Showdown was played on Groundhog Day. It was more of the same from K-State (5-14, 1-9 Big 12), which has now lost four straight conference games by at least 20 points for what is believed to be the first time in program history.
“I don’t know what the biggest thing is that is holding us back right now,” senior K-State guard Mike McGuirl said after scoring 10 points. “We have got some soul searching to do, myself included.”
Improving on offense seems like a good place to start.
“When we struggle offensively,” Weber said, “it breaks our spirit.”
No kidding. The Wildcats fell behind 9-0 in the early moments of this game and were never able to pull any closer than five. Their comeback attempt was stymied by mediocre shooting from the field (18 of 53) and poor shooting from three-point range (5 of 21).
Surprisingly, the only place the Wildcats found success was at the free-throw line. For the first time in ages, they made and attempted more free throws (10 of 14) than the Jayhawks inside Allen Fieldhouse (seven of eight).
But they needed more.
That was another familiar story for K-State, which has only averaged 55.6 points over its past seven games.
“We aren’t putting points up on the board,” McGuirl said. “So, no, our offense is not what it needs to be. I don’t know what the issue is, but we need to figure it out, learn from it and get better.”
Weber credited No. 23 Kansas (12-6, 6-4 Big 12) for making things difficult for K-State, particularly the way Marcus Garrett defended freshman guard Nijel Pack.
There is some truth to that statement. Still, the curious thing about this ugly shooting performance was that it came a few days after the Wildcats seemed to find an offensive identity with Pack draining eight three-pointers against Texas A&M.
That type of hot game obviously isn’t sustainable, but it was worth revisiting. Instead, Pack came out looking to facilitate and didn’t attempt his first shot until midway through the first half.
“I just wanted to make the right decisions to make my team better,” Pack said. “I didn’t want to force anything. That’s not the type of player that I am. They were definitively cheating on me. I knew they would do that coming into the game. I was trying to get my teammates going. I felt like if they got going then the defense would focus on them, because they were starting to score. Then lanes would open up for me and it would be a whole gang attack.”
That never happened.
Pack ended up attempting 10 shots, with five of them coming from beyond the arc. But by then it was too late. He only scored 10 points.
Weber says he wants the Wildcats to look inside when Pack isn’t open from the perimeter, but they didn’t do much of that against the Jayhawks. The only open look K-State players can regularly get is from three-point range, and that is not their forte.
K-State has tried many different strategies over the past month to get its offense going, but nothing has seemed to work consistently.
It has gotten to the point where Weber is urging his team to win in other ways, like holding the opponent below 60, and now maybe even 50, points.
“Our offense is kind of what it is,” Weber said. “We have to defend, we have to play tough and we have to rebound if we want to have any kind of chance. And we have to play hard.”