K-State Q&A: Keyontae Johnson, David N’Guessan, the Big 12/SEC Challenge and more
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
We have lots of great basketball and football topics to cover this week, so let’s dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
Strengths: There are two big ones — Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson.
Some will disagree with me, but I think Johnson might be the best player in the entire Big 12. He scores, he rebounds, he plays good defense and he never (and I mean never) has a bad game.
Johnson is like pizza. Even when he’s bad, he’s still good. He is averaging 18.3 points and 7.5 rebounds. He has scored at least 12 points in all 20 of his games with the Wildcats. He has topped 20 points in six different games.
He doesn’t have any smash games where he goes for 30-plus like Jalen Wilson, which will likely hurt him in the race for Big 12 POY, but I think he absolutely belongs in the conversation.
Nowell is the best point guard in the conference.
K-State’s bench has also surprisingly turned into a strength. When you are bringing in Desi Sills and Ismael Massoud as reserves, your offense is doing all right.
I would also argue that Cam Carter is underrated.
There really isn’t much to complain about K-State on that side of the court, which makes offense a big strength.
On defense, the Wildcats have been extremely effective at the three-point line. Teams are only shooting 29% against them this season.
Weaknesses: The Wildcats can be turnover prone and very average on defense, especially in the paint. They also lack a traditional five man who can protect the rim.
Pretty much all of K-State’s losses play out the same way. They give the ball away too many times on offense and let the other team score way too much on the inside.
In conference play, the Wildcats rank eighth in two-point percentage defense and ninth in blocked shots.
Teams don’t necessarily need to make three-pointers to beat them.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin has also been unimpressive of late. I wonder if he is hitting the juco transfer equivalent of the freshman wall right now.
One more thing: There is no good time for Jerome Tang to rest Johnson and Nowell. He tried to give them both a breather against Iowa State earlier this week and the Cyclones responded by scoring seven straight points before Tang could get them back in.
Give me 40 minutes of playing time against any team and I’m confident I could luck my way into one rebound.
I would probably turn the ball over immediately afterward or waste a timeout in a panic after seeing a bunch of opposing players coming my way. But that one rebound would show up on the stat sheet all the same.
This question is in reference to some of the unusual numbers that K-State’s front court put up against Iowa State on Tuesday.
Abayomi Iyiola, Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Ismael Massoud combined for 72 minutes of playing time against the Cyclones and yet failed to grab a single rebound.
Performances like that make me think that K-State needs to prioritize getting five man David N’Guessan back in the lineup. He is healthy and ready to play, but he is rusty. He could have seen action against Iowa State; Tang simply didn’t want to use him without first easing him back into things.
Well, that needs to happen on Saturday against Florida. I don’t see how K-State can reach its full potential without a consistent rebounder at center.
Watching K-State get out-rebounded at Iowa State also made me wonder if Tang regrets using a redshirt on Jerrell Colbert. The 6-foot-10 sophomore will no doubt benefit from a year of development on the scout team. But his size and ability to rebound/block shots is something that this team is missing right now.
Soon.
Tang has taken a cautious approach with N’Guessan while he has recovered from an injury to his right foot/ankle, but it is time to be more aggressive.
Massoud is one of the best shooters on the entire roster, but he doesn’t play much defense. Iyiola is solid on defense but doesn’t bring much to the table on offense. N’Guessan is the only guy the Wildcats can put at the five who plays both ways.
With that in mind, I bet we see him against Florida. Then we will see him play a little more against Kansas and then he will be back to full go in February.
Who says Tang needs to recruit a better frontcourt?
Maybe the Wildcats already have up-and-coming players already on the roster.
I am expecting Jerrell Colbert and Taj Manning to be solid post players next season after they complete their redshirt training this year. Colbert is a former four-star recruit who started his college career at LSU. Manning has a great body for the position and showed lots of promise in preseason practices.
They aren’t playing this season because K-State brought in Iyiola and N’Guessan as transfers and Tang loves redshirting players. That is something Baylor did very successfully when he was an assistant coach there.
Don’t forget about Colbert and Manning.
They could upgrade K-State’s frontcourt next season no matter who Tang brings in on the recruiting front.
I will miss the Big 12/SEC Challenge because it took me to some college towns that I otherwise never would have visited like Knoxville, Tennessee and Oxford, Mississippi.
The event also had a nice way of standing out from the rest of college basketball when it was played in January.
ESPN always gave it top billing. All the games were on a network instead of ESPN+. And it has served as a nice break from the grueling Big 12 schedule.
But I won’t cry about the challenge going extinct. Both conferences needed to do a better job of creating better matchups or at least rotating them. K-State fans were thrilled to get Florida this season because that meant they didn’t have to see Mississippi or Georgia for the millionth time.
You mean to tell me Frank Martin was at South Carolina for all those years and we couldn’t get one Wildcats/Gamecocks on the schedule? Preposterous!
My advice would have been to designate home teams and road teams each year and then set the matchups a few weeks in advance. That way we would get better games than Alabama at Oklahoma.
Keyontae Johnson downplayed the significance of going against his former team when I asked him about it earlier this week.
Coming off a loss at Iowa State, all he is focused on is winning this game.
He still knows a few Florida players, but his former coach is no longer there and rosters turn over like crazy in college basketball. I don’t think he has any bad feelings against the Gators.
Why would he? Things have worked out for him at K-State.
There is nothing special about Valentine’s Day.
After you get past the age of about 17 you should realize it is nothing more than a “holiday” that companies came up with out of the blue to sell candy and greeting cards.
It’s a big deal when you’re in elementary school, because you get to spend half your day making Valentine’s boxes and eating candy. Maybe you laugh at a card that says “Bee Mine” and there’s a picture of a bee on it or “Choo-Choo-Choose Me” and there is a train.
Are those Simpsons references doing anything for ya? No? Just me?
For a married adult, Valentine’s Day should be no different than any other day.
Spend your money and your time celebrating your anniversary instead.
If you want to watch K-State play Oklahoma on Valentine’s Day I say go for it. Maybe buy your wife flowers ahead of time to help your cause.
Fun fact about me: I don’t drink coffee. Hate the stuff.
I also don’t care for energy drinks.
Not the best question for me, in all honesty. But if you want me to choose between craft beers or bourbons then I am your guy.
Interesting question.
Phased out is probably a bit too strong for my taste, but I am all for the K-State men’s basketball team using alternate logos from time to time or maybe trying something new with its basketball court.
K-State fans love the Powercat because it represents winning football. For decades, the Wildcats were hapless on the football field while wearing an assortment of different old-school logos. Then Bill Snyder arrived, changed K-State’s football logo to look like a purple Iowa Hawkeye and the team started winning ... and kept winning ... and won some more.
They’re still winning today.
Some people just can’t quit the Powercat because wearing anything else means losing.
Still, I like the idea of basketball and football having different looks. The basketball team seems to have struck a gold mine by embracing lavender as an alternate color. There is no reason why they can’t play games with an old-school mascot on their chests or at midcourt inside Bramlage Coliseum.
Personally, I would love it if we see the word “Cats” in script over a basketball again.
But I’m fine with most changes. K-State basketball doesn’t have to be married to any one logo.
I wouldn’t say there is a delay.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor has more or less publicly promised new contracts for Chris Klieman and all of his assistant coaches coming off a Big 12 championship season that ended at the Sugar Bowl. He is a man of his word and there is no reason to rush into a new contract just to get it done as fast as possible.
The Wildcats are going to have to dedicate more money than ever before to football moving forward, so Taylor may be looking to raise funds before he inks any deals.
Klieman and all of his assistant coaches are still working under their old contracts. I put in a records request this week just to be sure. But I would not worry about this. Klieman will have a new deal at some point in the coming months.
What will it look like? I won’t be surprised if Klieman’s salary is around $6 million next season. He was set to earn $4 million.
All I can say for sure is that he will be making more than Lance Leipold, who is currently at $5 million.