You want to blame Frank Martin. Go ahead.
You want to blame the second-half defense. That’s fine.
You want to blame poor foul shooting. That works, too.
But remember this - it’s a collective effort. The loss at Missouri stings, but let’s not get carried away. Teams in the Big 12 should win at home, right? And the Wildcats had already won two on the road.
What I took from it - and I have to give credit to my dad, who calls me after every K-State game and has become a big Wildcats fan back home in Vermont, which is odd - is that this team isn’t able to apply the finishing blow yet. On the road, anyway.
On the road in conference, you must do whatever it takes to finish a team off - particulary if you have a 14-point lead with 14 minutes left in regulation or a nine-point cushion with 10 minutes to play. Everyone is sick of hearing about how young this team is, so I won’t bore anyone by repeating that. But inexperience was a considerable factor yesterday.
As for the other subplots, I truly believe Frank’s use of his roster is done for a reason. I also believe he coaches in a lot of instances on feel. When he was winning six games in a row, there weren’t many complaints about his coaching style.
But, man, that’s a win K-State should have left Columbia with.