Three takeaways from Kansas State’s exhibition basketball victory over Emporia State
The Kansas State men’s basketball team took care of business during its lone exhibition game by dismantling Emporia State 102-68 on Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
It was a good warm-up for the start of the regular season, which will begin for the Wildcats on Monday when they travel to Las Vegas for a neutral-court game against USC.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s action:
Jerome Tang’s new offense is certainly different
We were promised a new offense this season that that would look more spread out and eliminate the need for any of K-State’s basketball players to spend an exorbitant amount of time in the paint.
Well, that is exactly what fans saw from the Wildcats in this game.
K-State continually surrounded one big man, a rotation of Taj Manning, Jerrell Colbert, David N’Guessan and Will McNair, with four speedy wings or guards who took shots on the perimeter or took advantage of driving lanes by cutting to the basket.
On many plays, it felt like the Wildcats were playing without a single center as all five players who were on the court together operated well outside of the paint.
The results were hard to argue with.
K-State scored at an impressive rate against Emporia State and averaged 1.36 points per possession despite some cold shooting from the perimeter. The Wildcats only made 9 of 32 shots from the outside.
Cam Carter led the way with 20 points, Jerrell Colbert added 13 and Dai Dai Ames had 11.
The new offense allowed all 12 K-State players who saw action to score. The Wildcats got 56 points in the paint and 53 points from their bench.
Things won’t always come this easy when the competition improves, but this type of performance was encouraging all the same.
Cam Carter should have a much larger role this season
Last year, Carter took a backseat to Markquis Nowell, Keyonte Johnson and Desi Sills.
Sure, he had the occasional big game as a sophomore guard after transferring in from Mississippi State, but he was never a go-to guy for the Wildcats.
That may change this season.
Tang has made it clear that he wants Carter to be one of the leading scorers on this team. He also wants to see Carter play with much more consistency in that area and become the type of player he can count on night in and night out.
He lived up to those high expectations against Emporia State as he led the Wildcats with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Perhaps the most impressive thing about his strong outing was the fact that he only made two shots from 3-point range. It didn’t matter that the 3-ball wasn’t falling. He found plenty of other ways to score.
Carter showed off his skills as a slasher and a finisher around the basket. The junior made several nifty layups in traffic and continually blew by his defender off the dribble.
Tang will hope this was just the beginning for a new and improved version of Carter.
Tylor Perry quiet after foul trouble
It had to be disappointing for K-State fans to watch North Texas transfer Tylor Perry only score eight points in 19 minutes of action against Emporia State.
Perry committed a pair of early fouls and was relegated to the bench for most of the first half. That made it hard for him to get into a rhythm and drain 3-pointers at an impressive clip the way he did last year for the Mean Green.
He only made 2 of 9 3-pointers.
Fortunately, reserve guards such as Dorian Finister, Ques Glover, Dai Dai Ames and RJ Jones all came in and scored.
Expectations remain high for Perry, as he made plenty of 3s for K-State during its foreign trip over the summer. But this was a good example of how he needs to be careful of how he plays on defense.
The margin for error is small for K-State at the moment without Nae’Qwan Tomlin. The Wildcats will need their best playmakers on the floor for as long as they remain shorthanded.
This story was originally published November 1, 2023 at 9:10 PM.