‘It’s all on me’: Why Markquis Nowell blamed himself for K-State’s loss at Texas Tech
The Kansas State men’s basketball team is heading in the wrong direction, and Markquis Nowell thinks he knows why.
After getting off to a blistering hot start this season the Wildcats have lost four of their past six games, including a 71-63 defeat against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena. The Wildcats are no longer in serious contention for a Big 12 championship, and their hopes of landing a high seed in the NCAA Tournament might be fading.
K-State began on this downward trajectory at about the same time when Nowell stopped playing at an All-American level. Over his past six games, the senior point guard has made 36 shots on 91 attempts (39.6%) from the field; he has made 13 three-pointers on 42 attempts (30.9%) from beyond the arc, and he has sent out 35 assists while turning the ball over 33 times.
Those aren’t the numbers of an all-conference player, let alone something more.
Nowell knows this better than anyone. He isn’t hiding from it. In fact, he is man enough to admit that he is the person to blame for many of K-State’s recent struggles, particularly the errors that surfaced on Saturday.
“It’s all on me,” Nowell said. “I’m trying to make the home-run play, and I have to be better. This is not a team that can turn the ball over and get stops in transition and make up for mistakes. I have probably had about 20 or 30 turnovers now in these last four to five games. I’m really going to work on that. Today, it was a tough loss. Put it all on me. I had seven turnovers. I will be better.”
K-State fans can probably appreciate a player who takes that much accountability after a loss in which the Wildcats didn’t do much of anything particularly well.
They shot 35% from the field, made six three-pointers, turned the ball over 23 times and missed every key shot that could have allowed them to steal a win on a night when few things went right. Keyontae Johnson scored a measly nine points, the first time all season he failed to reach double digits.
But Nowell was not sharp. Forget for a moment that he scored a team-high 18 points. He shot 5 of 19 from the field, 1 of 10 from three-point range and gave the ball away seven times. Had he played better in any of those areas, the Wildcats easily could have won.
Nevertheless, the result was a road loss against one of the worst teams in the Big 12 that leaves K-State head coach Jerome Tang searching for answers.
“They were the tougher team tonight,” Tang said, “and did a better job of executing down the stretch.”
K-State (19-6, 7-5 Big 12) will try to bounce back in its next game on Tuesday against Oklahoma.
Nowell will push himself between now and then to return to the form he flashed earlier in the season when he dropped 36 points on Texas and 32 points on Baylor in back-to-back road games. Or the time he nearly posted a triple-double against Florida.
Cutting down on turnovers is his top priority.
Right now, though, he thinks he needs to be better at everything.
“I need to be more cautious,” Nowell said. “Teams are doing everything in their power to stop me and Keyontae. They trap me, and they throw different looks at me. So credit to me for all my hard work, but this is a tough league. When you want to get on a roll you can’t turn the ball over seven times or 23 times as a team. I have got to get back in the film room and see how to get back to being myself.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 9:52 PM.