‘Not an anomaly’: K-State basketball guards live up to preseason hype in Game 1
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- K-State backcourt dominance overcame an early deficit and produced a 93-64 rout.
- Coach Tang shifted to a four-guard lineup that ignited offense and tightened defense.
- Guards Haggerty, Johnson, Bashir and Kostic delivered scoring, playmaking and rebounds.
Jerome Tang was one of the few people inside Bramlage Coliseum who wasn’t worried about the Kansas State men’s basketball team when it fell behind UNC Greensboro by double digits midway through the first half on Tuesday.
Sure, he wasn’t thrilled about how the Wildcats opened the season. Nobody was. They weren’t moving the ball on offense, and they were a step slow on defense. But Tang was confident that would change.
So the K-State head coach called a timeout, shared a few words with his players and then the Wildcats went on to win 93-64 just like he assumed they would. Falling behind 19-9 at the 9:52 mark of the first half was reduced to a footnote.
“I don’t know if there’s anything that I said as much as I just got them to relax,” Tang said afterward. “I just thought we were tight, and we were pressing.”
Even though that timeout served as a turning point in the game, it didn’t feature a stirring speech from Tang.
Just a reminder that K-State’s newly remodeled roster is capable of playing at a high level.
“We just had a little adversity,” K-State point guard PJ Haggerty said. “We always speak about how we handle adversity in practice and through our exhibitions. I think we handled it well. In the second half, we saw the mistakes that we made and then we overcame them.”
“We came together and rallied together,” added K-State guard Nate Johnson. “There were some first-game jitters. For some people, this is a different scene for them. We’ve got guys that came in from overseas. But we have got veterans that have been here before. So we just overcame it.”
That change in mindset allowed K-State fans to see the best and worst of their team on opening night.
When Tang deploys a big rotation and the Wildcats aren’t making shots, they can suffer through long stretches of ugly basketball. But when Tang tightens up his rotation, K-State players lock in on defense and the Wildcats connect on shots from the perimeter, they have a high ceiling.
That’s how a team can fall behind against a mid-major opponent at home and then end the game on an 84-45 rampage.
Tang learned something else about his team in Game 1: This team will go as far as its backcourt can take it.
The Wildcats went with a starting lineup that featured Mobi Ikegwuruka and Khamari McGriff in the frontcourt. Then forwards Elias Rapieque and Dorin Buca were the first substitutes.
Those four players combined to score 12 points and grab 12 rebounds.
K-State’s big lineup didn’t produce. But the Wildcats were off and running once Tang shifted to a four-guard look that featured Andrej Kostic (nine points), Abdi Bashir (16 points), Johnson (22 points) and Haggerty (27 points) at the same time with McGriff or Rapieque manning the paint.
Johnson, in particular, thrived in the smaller lineup. The Akron transfer didn’t make more than three 3-pointers in a game last season. But he drained six against UNC Greensboro on his way to 22 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
“He was hooping,” Haggerty said of Johnson. “He almost had a triple-double. I expect nothing less. We’ve been playing since the summer, and you can tell he has a feel for the game on defense and offense. He had a great game. He’s just going to keep capitalizing.”
With Bashir and Kostic also making outside shots, that left plenty of room for Haggerty to drive to the basket and create off the dribble.
“When you can play four guards and still rebound and defend,” Tang said, “that makes you really hard to guard.”
Perhaps the Wildcats will start that lineup when they return to action against Bellarmine on Saturday.
It could save Tang from using a timeout midway through the first half.
“We have one of the best backcourts in the country,” Tang said. “I think we have got six (guards) who can play anywhere. Now we have just got to help them play together better. What we did in the second half was not an anomaly. We could play like that all the time.”