Three K-State takeaways from the Wildcats’ 90-78 basketball loss against KU Jayhawks
The Kansas State men’s basketball team was unable to keep up with the KU Jayhawks during a 90-78 loss on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
K-State battled hard until the end of the game, but KU was simply the better team in Round 2 of the Sunflower Showdown this season.
Jalen Wilson led the Jayhawks with 20 points and DaJuan Harris added 18. Markquis Nowell had 23 points for the Wildcats and Keyontae Johnson scored 22.
The Wildcats (18-4, 6-3 Big 12) have lost three straight road games in conference play and are now in a tie for second place in the league standings along with the Jayhawks (18-4, 6-3 Big 12).
K-State has not defeated KU on the road since 2005.
The Wildcats will try bounce back in its next game on Saturday against Texas at Bramlage Coliseum. Until then, here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s action:
Jerome Tang wisely picked up an early technical foul
It is rare for Kansas State’s basketball coach to get so heated during a basketball game that he gets called for a technical foul, but that is exactly what happened midway through the first half inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Shortly after junior forward Ismael Massoud was whistled for a foul while trying to defend KU guard DaJuan Harris, Tang had some words for John Higgins on the sideline. The Big 12 official didn’t like what Tang was saying or how he was saying it and quickly assessed the K-State coach with a technical.
That meant KU could send Gradey Dick to the foul line for a pair of free throws in addition to the shots Harris was about to get. The Jayhawks capitilized by going on a quick 6-0 run that featured three free throws and a three-pointer on a subsequent trip down court. All of a sudden, KU was leading 22-13 and the crowd was getting loud behind the hot start.
But it was worth it. The technical seemed to send a message to K-State players that they were to compete, despite not getting a friendly whistle in the opening minutes.
K-State players responded accordingly, and so did the Big 12 refs. The Wildcats seemed to get better calls the rest of the half, and K-State fought back quickly with 10 straight points when the Jayhawks took a 32-19 lead and threatened to run away with the game.
Many other K-State teams would have faded immediately when faced with that adversity inside this building. There’s a reason the Wildcats have lost 17 straight in Lawrence dating back to 2005. But this squad fought until the end. Tang’s energy on the sideline was a big reason why.
Tang made some coaching errors, such as waiting too long to call a timeout while KU was on a run late in the first half and failing to match Bill Self’s adjustments from the first game in this series, but no one can question his passion.
Encouraging game from Nae’Qwan Tomlin
Nae’Qwan Tomlin may be busting out of the mini slump he was trapped in at the start of Big 12 play.
It had been a while since junior-college transfer Tomlin made a big impact in any of K-State’s games. But that has changed over the past few days. First, he delivered 11 points and six rebounds during a blowout win over Florida. Then he followed that up with 11 points and eight rebounds against the Jayhawks.
He was far from perfect on the night, especially on defense, but it was undoubtedly another step in the right direction for the forward after he suffered through some down performances.
K-State will need someone other than Markquis Nowell and Keyontae Johnson to shoulder the scoring load if it hopes to stay in the mix for a Big 12 championship. Tomlin is the best candidate to do that. More games like the last two will eventually pay dividends for the Wildcats.
Bill Self won his coaching rematch with Tang
The Jayhawks entered this game with a much different strategy than they used during the first go-around of the Sunflower Showdown earlier this season at Bramlage Coliseum.
K-State won that game in overtime because it made life miserable for every KU player outside of Jalen Wilson on offense. Wilson scored an incredible 38 points in that game, but it might as well have been him vs. the world.
Three KU players fouled out, and the Jayhawks were the opposite of versatile during the closing few minutes.
It was a much different story in the rematch. This time, Self used nine different players, and they all scored. Only one of them scored fewer than five points. DaJuan Harris was particularly strong on his way to 18 points.
Tang couldn’t scheme up a way to slow down the balanced KU attack. Wilson led all scorers with 20 points and the Jayhawks flirted with triple digits. K-State needed to play much better on the defensive end to have a chance in this game. Tang won Round 1. Self won Round 2.
This story was originally published January 31, 2023 at 9:37 PM.