K-State avoids disaster and beats North Alabama in overtime. Here are the takeaways
It might be time to start worrying about the Kansas State men’s basketball team.
The Wildcats struggled more than anyone expected during a 75-74 overtime victory against North Alabama on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats trailed 31-23 at halftime, fell behind by as many as 13 in the second half and appeared on their way to a humiliating loss until Tylor Perry drained a clutch 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation.
K-State (6-2) found a way to win, so it avoided disaster. But things aren’t supposed to be this difficult against an opponent like the Lions.
“For 39 minutes, they were better than we were,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said. “They played harder. We didn’t deserve to win that game. But our guys figured out a way in the last minute of regulation and then in overtime. That’s a credit to our guys, their grit, their toughness and their togetherness. I’m just thankful that we figured out a way.”
Before Saturday, North Alabama’s best win of the season had come against Alabama A&M, Jacksonville State or Tennessee Tech. This is a team that lost to Western Carolina and Tennessee-Martin. In its only other game against a power-conference foe it lost 81-54 at Mississippi State.
The Lions are not even one of the top 200 teams in the country. The Wildcats were understandably favored by 16. But this was anything but an easy game for them.
Making matters worse, K-State needed overtime to beat Oral Roberts earlier this week. Good teams shouldn’t have to sweat a pair of home games against mid-major opponents, but that is exactly what happened to the Wildcats over the past few days.
Win or lose, this was a poor effort from Tang’s team.
“We have to stop playing with fire,” Perry said, “or we are going to get burned.”
K-State will hope for a better showing in its next game against Villanova in the annual Big 12/Big East conference challenge on Tuesday.
Until then, here are some thoughts on Saturday’s action against North Alabama:
Tylor Perry to the rescue
K-State would have lost this game without its starting point guard.
There is no other way to put it after Perry zoomed down court and drained an incredibly clutch 3-pointer with 8 seconds remaining in regulation. His shot tied the game at 65-65 and forced overtime.
His big shot helped cover up what was otherwise a dreadful game for the Wildcats, especially on offense. They struggled to make shots for 45 straight minutes, but Perry came through with an important bucket when his team absolutely needed one.
“It felt pretty good when it left my hands,” Perry said. “I love those types of moments. I hate that it had to get to that point. Again, we have got to stop playing with fire, because I’ve been on the other side of those shots, too. Hopefully we don’t have to be in that position many more times until we get to the Big 12.”
Fittingly, that was Perry’s only 3-pointer of the day, on six attempts.
Perry led all K-State scorers with 16 points. He didn’t play particularly well. Neither did many of his teammates. But he made sure the Wildcats didn’t lose this game.
The K-State offense needs a makeover
The numbers in this game were ugly for the Wildcats.
K-State averaged 1.056 points per possession while missing way more shots than it attempted. Tang’s team went 19-of-54 from the field and needed to rely on North Alabama foul trouble to score the majority of its points.
The Wildcats went to the free-throw line a whopping 48 times and made 34 of those shots.
The charity stripe was by far their main source of offense. K-State only went 3-of-18 from beyond the arc. There was no flow when the Wildcats had the ball.
Arthur Kaluma finished 1-of-10. Cam Carter went 5-of-17. Nobody was efficient.
That is something that needs to change as K-State moves on to stronger opponents.
Fans got their first real look at Jerrell Colbert
Jerrell Colbert sat out last season with a redshirt and only played sparingly in most of K-State’s first seven games of this season. So no one was totally sure what he could do when given an opportunity to play an important role for the Wildcats.
That changed on Saturday.
Colbert, a 6-foot-10 transfer from LSU, saw 16 minutes of action and he got to show off his full arsenal of skills.
How did things go for him? Good. Colbert ended up with 10 points and eight rebounds. He didn’t finish all that well around the basket, and his shot was affected by North Alabama defenders. But he showed a good motor and played with energy. His size alone could provide the Wildcats with a boost this season.
“I’m so proud of Jerrell,” Tang said. “ His last couple of practices have been really good, and the opportunity was there for him. To play 16 minutes and get 10 points and eight rebounds, that’s one rebound every two minutes. That’s what he’s capable of doing.”
WIll McNair didn’t see any action
Tang doesn’t mind sending a message to his players with minute distribution.
Will McNair is a prime example.
McNair had started six straight games for the Wildcats and seemed to be hitting his stride for them at center. But he wasn’t even in the rotation against North Alabama. He didn’t log a single minute of playing time.
Why? Tang didn’t think he deserved to play after a few bad days of practice.
“He put it in my hands, so I made the decision,” Tang said. “We have this saying, ‘Tough people do the next right thing.’ Guys are going to mess up. They have to do the next right thing. Unfortunately, he didn’t. It’s not something that’s major. Like, y’all might think I was crazy, but I know he has to grow in some areas.”
Tang has been hard on McNair this season. But he took things to a different level on Saturday.
It will be interesting to see if that lights any kind of fire under McNair moving forward.
Perfect in overtime games
One thing you can’t criticize about K-State basketball is the way it plays in overtime.
The Wildcats have gone to overtime eight times since Tang took over as coach and they have won all eight of those games.
A switch seems to flip every time the extra period begins, and K-State starts playing at a high level. It happened again on Saturday when the Wildcats scored the first eight points of overtime.
Question is: Why can’t K-State play like that from the start?
“A lot of things go into that,” Perry said. “It’s a difficult question. I wish I could give you an answer to that, but that’s just something where we have got to look in the mirror and figure things out.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2023 at 4:03 PM.