Kansas State falters late in Big 12 game against Texas Tech. Here are the takeaways
For a few moments, basketball was fun again inside Bramlage Coliseum.
Jerome Tang excitedly stomped up and down the sideline, Kansas State players made impressive shots and fans filled the arena with noise. You couldn’t tell the Wildcats were on a losing streak.
But the good vibes didn’t last. K-State was unable to protect a second-half lead and lost to Texas Tech 61-57 on Tuesday. The Wildcats have now lost four straight games.
K-State can blame this loss on a dreadful finish. The score was all tied up at 57 with 5 minutes, 50 seconds remaining. It was anybody’s game. But the Wildcats couldn’t seize the moment. The Red Raiders only scored four points down the stretch. But that was enough for them to win by four.
With the outcome hanging in the balance, the Wildcats missed their final eight shots of the night, and went nearly 6 minutes without a bucket. They led by six early in the second half and had several opportunities to steal the game late. But they kept throwing up bricks with Dug McDaniel (one), Brendan Hausen (one), Coleman Hawkins (three) and David Castillo (three) all misfiring.
Much like a painful 63-62 loss against TCU at the start of this losing streak, K-State was the opposite of clutch.
That has become a troubling trend for the Wildcats, as they are only 1-4 in games decided by single digits this season.
Hausen led the Wildcats with 13 points, and three of his teammates reached double figures. But none of them were able to make winning plays.
For that reason, K-State (7-9, 1-4 Big 12) fell even further below .500 in this disappointing season. Texas Tech (12-4, 3-2 Big 12) left town with an important road win thanks in part to 16 points from Darrion Williams.
The Wildcats will next be in action on Saturday against rival Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse.
Until then, here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s action:
The Wildcats don’t know how to close out games
During his first two years in Manhattan, Tang had a reputation as an excellent late-game coach.
Under his guidance, the Wildcats won an astounding 12 overtime games and found plenty of ways to win exciting matchups at the buzzer. Fans got used to cheering for alley-oop dunks in the closing moments.
Tang runs a drill called “five to grind” in practice that simulates the clutch moments in a close game. It helped previous teams. Not this one.
“We haven’t embraced what ‘five to grind’ is about,” Tang said. “It’s been something that we’ve been trying to work on in practice, but everybody has to buy into it and how we win the last five minutes of games. We haven’t fully embraced that yet. So we are just going to keep plugging away and ... figure out the guys who are going to do it.”
Tang has been unable to guide the Wildcats to many close victories this season. They missed their final eight shots against Texas Tech. They failed to score in the final 4 minutes against TCU. They lost in overtime against Drake. They couldn’t find a way to beat Liberty.
K-State is 1-4 in games decided by single digits this season. The only win came by three against Cincinnati at the start of Big 12 play.
That result is starting to look like a fluke based on recent results.
Jerome Tang used inexperienced players in final moments
David Castillo and Mobi Ikegwuruka aren’t part of the K-State starting five, but Tang put his trust in both of them down the stretch of this game.
Castillo, a freshman point guard, played over both Dug McDaniel and CJ Jones at the end of the night. He subbed into the game with 12:33 remaining and never went back to the bench.
That was a curious decision from Tang, seeing as how Castillo finished with two points on seven shots. Ikegwuruka also got the nod late even though he only scored two points.
One could argue Tang didn’t put the Wildcats in the best position to close out the game with two inexperienced players on the floor. But he had his reasons.
“Their effort and energy and how they’ve practiced,” Tang said of his reasoning. “If you go mess up, I want you to mess up fast and hard and trying. I think they have big care factors. So that’s why I went there.”
Tang went on to say he is starting to prepare for the future with Castillo.
“If we’re going to have David Castillo be an experienced sophomore and junior, he’s got to go through the tough times as a freshman,” Tang said. “Sometimes we don’t want to experience that, because we would like a different result, but it’s what allows you to get to that other side.”
K-State flipped a switch on offense late in the first half
Here’s a weird stat that illustrates how much the Wildcats have struggled to get buckets over the past few weeks. The Wildcats scored exactly 24 points in each of their past three first halves.
It is hard to win a Big 12 game with that scoring output.
For a while, it seemed like the Wildcats were headed toward another fruitless first half against Texas Tech when they trailed 26-18 with 4:08 remaining before halftime. They had only made four field goals to that point.
But things changed in a hurry. K-State ended the first half with an explosion of offense that saw it drain seven straight shots, including a runner from Dug McDaniel at the buzzer that gave the Wildcats a 33-31 lead.
It was an exciting stretch for the home team. David N’Guessan made a corner 3, Brendan Hausen nailed a 3-pointer in transition and every other shot the Wildcats attempted went in. The crowd got behind the Wildcats and they picked up their play in other areas.
K-State showed what it was capable of during that offensive surge. Tang needs to find a way to make that type of run happen more often in the future.
Jerome Tang limited his rotation to eight K-State players
There hasn’t been much rhyme or reason to Tang’s recent substitution patterns. One game, he will rely heavily on Macaleab Rich and Ugonna Onyenso off the bench. The next he will play David Castillo and Mobi Ikegwuruka.
Tang has been hesitant at times to explain his reasoning when it comes to playing time.
But it was clear why he used certain players instead of others in this game.
He relied heavily on the players he can trust to exert maximum effort when they are on the floor. That meant he only turned to his bench for CJ Jones, Castillo and Ikegwuruka.
Castillo is a freshman guard who plays hard even though he doesn’t have much experience. Ikegwuruka is a junior-college transfer who fights for every loose ball. Jones is a balanced guard who is usually solid with the ball. None of them raised the team’s ceiling, but they did boost the team’s floor.
In a low-scoring game like this, those players were valuable for the Wildcats.
At least that’s the way it felt for most of the night.
Things did change at the end, though.
Tang probably relied on his bench too much in the closing moments, as he left Castillo and Ikegwuruka on the floor in the clutch. K-State finished with just seven points off the bench and none of them were able to lift K-State at the buzzer.
The crowd at Bramlage Coliseum was sparse
There are plenty of reasons why fans aren’t flocking to the Octagon of Doom.
K-State has lost four straight games and students aren’t on campus with the spring semester is still a week away. It’s also worth pointing out that even under ideal circumstances an 8 p.m. Tuesday game against Texas Tech can be a hard sell in Manhattan.
That being said, the crowd on Tuesday was shockingly small. The student section was almost entirely empty and so were the areas behind both baskets. K-State listed paid attendance at 8,019, but actual attendance was much lower.
The arena got loud when K-State surged ahead at halftime. Otherwise, the Wildcats didn’t benefit from much of a home-court advantage.
Was that a sign of dwindling fan support? Or will the crowds improve when students return to town? For now, that’s hard to predict.
This story was originally published January 14, 2025 at 10:24 PM.