My parents are bummed. You probably are, too.
Me? I’m not surprised.
I didn’t anticipate the run ending so abruptly, but in some ways, it was deserved. The Wildcats are a mess right now. Have a theory as to what’s wrong? Good – because I’ve run out of theories.
Is K-State standing around and watching Mike too much? No idea. Have the Wildcats lost their confidence? No clue.
All I know is, in times like these, it’s usually a matter of will. Is the will there right now? It wasn’t last night. Coaches – Bob Huggins used to always say this last year – tell their players that while they may miss shots, only they can control effort. And effort affects rebounding and defense, right? And isn’t that what seems to be plaguing K-State right now?
Perhaps that’s too simplistic. I don’t know. Seriously – I’m seeking answers. I know you all want to vent, so give me some explanations.
29 Comments
Rebounding doomed K-State last night. If Martin had inserted Ron Anderson earlier possibly the outcome would have been different. He brought some energy to pounding the glass that K-State lacked the majority of the game. Chalk that up to a rookie coach.
My theory is that we shot our load on January 30th. Save the Missouri blowout at Bramlage, and this team has just looked out of sorts. Painful to watch at time…..most times.
Well…it definitely looked like Mike Beasley vs. Texas A&M, i don’t know if anyone else showed up? Mike had the chance to put KSU up by one in the waning seconds, but missed an easy lay in. Depressing for sure.
i do agree with slumpbuster. we haven’t looked the same since then. its hard to believe that on february first we had all sort of people talking about running the table in the conference and possibly making a run to the final four. now we can’t be 100% confident going into selection sunday. i think there’s a huge chance of an 8 or 9 seed and having to play a number 1 in the second round (if we can get past a first round).
the problem has to be mental. the talent is there, but the consistency is not. did frank lose control of this team once they got a taste of the big time… and even more so when the wheels began to fall off?
as high as the hopes have been, and as much as it hurts to watch them fall, i have to remind myself… i’ve been a loyal fan for a long time, and i’ve watched the real tourney in march without my cats for 12 years. it is some consolation to come back to reality and know that we’re more than likely in and the program is (hopefully) moving forward.
but more than anything else, it has been a privilege this year to be in the same gym as mike and watching him do his thing. i don’t anticipate i’ll ever see anything like it again.
Just as we are all wondering if Coach Prince has the right stuff, so, it is appropriate to wonder if Coach Martin has the right stuff….I’m not saying he doesn’t. I’m just saying he hasn’t shown it, so far. Like Prince, he may be a good recruiter and that is more than half the job, way more, but in the end, really well coached teams win all the games they are supposed to win and some they aren’t. Poorly coached teams sometimes lose games they are supposed to win. That’s were we are right now. The other issue, is obviously, maturity. We ain’t got none….I’m just saying…
Gug
Not sure I ever heard anyone other than the typical K-State fan say that a final four was possible. The fact is the schedule got tougher as the season progressed and the young guys couldn’t handle the pressure.
It’s all three point shooting.
There’s not much else to it.
i thought ksu played as well as they have all year in the 2nd half. just missed 3s (1-11 in the 2nd). i thought it was a pretty encouraging performance to be honest.
jb – after the ku game there were national media people saying we were a dark horse team that could make a run. no one with any sense (including kstate fans) thought they were a favorite. i didn’t mean to infer that.
Kirk’s 3-point bank shot
The offense is way to stale…anyone with a brain could see that a zone would be a nightmare for us. No dribble penetration by the guards.
As for defense and rebounding, at times it seems like we are working hard but there is always one person (Bill Walker mostly) that is not giving full effort and that costs the rest of the team (4 is not 5!).
As for last night, Texas A and M will be in the tourney and as bad as we played, we were still in the game. We need to get everyone to play well (or almost everyone) to have a shot in the tourney. 9 or 10 seed here we come.
Pray that we dont get stuck in the Raleigh bracket as a 9 seed. Although we might not beat the first round opponent, I dont want to be dismantled by UNC in the second round in an a seemingly home game for them.
I hope we get a 10 or 11 seed.
Like JMart said, this team is in disarray. There is no one outside of Beasley that is a threat, and even Mike is showing he’s human. Walker is such a head case, that I can’t see him pulling it back together for next week, if we’re in. Also, I have to wonder whether the pressure is getting to Mike, physically and mentally. POY of the year made a shot at the end of the game today to help his team win. Runner up to the POY couldn’t do that last night.
Frank is a rookie coach and that is showing right now. It is still too soon to tell whether is the SLTH or not.
I think we’re in next week, but even if we’re not, there will only be one game left to see Mike in a K-State jersey.
i presume teaching a bunch of freshman to play defense is tough. huggins even talked last year about hard it was teaching those seniors and juniors how to play defense. i think our youth hurts us. hey, syracuse is as young as we are and they are struggling worse…and they have a HOF coach.
my only beef w/ martin is his bizarre sub patterns. i mean, why is sutton not in the game at a crucial time? he plays hansborough-hard, is a great defender, and is the best athlete on the team. an offensive threat? no, but we need defensive help. also, you gotta play pullen more. he’s up and down but when he’s on, this team produces.
I am convinced it is the extreme youth of this team. Yes I know they are no longer really Freshman but I believe their first Big XII season turned out to be longer and harder than any of them expected and with Clent not being around to help them most of February (mentally for good reason as well as missing some games)the wear and tear has gotten to them. No amount of talent or coaching could overcome the lack of consistent 4 year Senior leadership on this team.
1. Support cast.
2. Playing minutes for Mike – Roby plays 40 minutes and helps his team win their first game. Mike sits too much for a team that is dependent on him.
3. Support cast.
4. Bill.
5. Zac hit the nail on the head. How many times this year (besides the OK game where he stood inches from the basket) has the game determining shot been missed?
I think Mike wants to win so bad that he pushes that final shot too hard. It must be tough putting all the weight on his shoulders. I get chills thinking about the damage he could do in the NCAA with more time under his belt.
I love this team though. No matter the stakes before every game I still feel like we are a number 1 contender. Something about that Purple blood runnning through my veins… “one more year, one more year, one more year…” as I fall asleep to cover the pain.
i agree with “slumpbuster”… regardless of what was said, this team was built to do one thing, and they accomplished it on 30jan2008
pretty much the only player to have anything near a consistent effort and will to give what it takes to win since then is beasley… everybody else is a mess
next year we turn into baylor… we will have shooting guards and no inside play per se’… if anderson continues to work hard and jamar pans out we could surprise people, but more off second chance putbacks rather than post option play… i fear the three or four times kent tried to create off the dribble last night shows us a hint of next years offense
go ‘cats!
I am not satisfied at all by our performances of late. We seem to cave at the end of games and do not make plays at crucial times. I love Frank, but his substitutions border on perplexing. We rarely see the best five guys on the court. No way should Gilbert, Stewart and Young be on the court at the same time. Our best five are Beas, Walker, Pullen, Anderson and Young/Stewart. Having said that Sutton needs to be in on the other teams best perimeter player at the beginning of games and in crucial stretches. Downtown Freddy Brown should not be on the court.
And Walker, what the hell happened to Bill Walker. I mean, did anyone see the moves he put on Darrell Arthur. When is the last time he took a guy one on one and consistently scored. He cannot shoot the three, yet still tries too. This guy has me stumped because there is no way he shouldnt score more. He has Lebron James girth. He should be able to out muscle guys on the way to the rim. I just dont get it.
WildcatLegend— thanks for the pero vasiljevic answer from another blog.
Walker scored pretty much saved the CU game by being one-on-one.
Most of these comments are over-the-top dramatic.
Maturity. I know it’s an old excuse, but the guys do give effort, and then they get called for fouls, fouls don’t get called the other way like they’d like, and they whine and cry like school girls. Then they start yelling at each other. Then they give up. Composure in tough times is an experience and maturity issue. With it we win @MU, @NU, and maybe vs. Oregon and @TTU.
In the end, basketball comes down to making shots. We aren’t making them and that’s the only real difference between January and now. We played decent basketball for the most part against A&M. The team is just lacking confidence right now and that shows when you’re throwing up brick after brick. Prime example: Bill Walker 0-6 3pt.
If we aren’t hitting, we’ve got to commit to pounding the ball inside and quit settling for 3-pointers. The inside post game and penetration to draw fouls is where we should be going in times like this. That’s our bread and butter anyway.
In looking at the larger picture for this year, I’m pleased we took 3rd and made it to the dance. That’s forward movement. Next year will be a supreme challenge. Enjoy this while we can. We’ll never see another Beasley in a KSU uniform in our life time.
I’m going to chalk it up to a long hard season. These freshmen are not used to being beaten on like this every night out. In high school they were stars and refs would protect them most of the time. They just were not ready for the grind that it takes to play a full big 12 schedule. They have the components put into place and next year should be interesting and the next year will be even more so provided the commitments for 09 will really be here. By the Way is there any word of Whitherspoon?
Blake and Clent are terrible offensive players. They essentially leave our team with zero margin of error every night.
Because we have a bunch of freshman who aren’t used to playing such a long season.
Because on offense all we do is stand around and watch Mike and wait for him to do something.
Because Bill is settling for 3’s trying to show off for NBA Scouts instead of driving to the basket and using his god given athleticism. We would be a much different team if Bill was spending more time around the basket.
9 seed in the west (anaheim) or east (raleigh) setting up a possible second round game against UCLA or UNC in a seemingly home game for that team.
Hope we win our first round game.
1) The guards need to penetrate and fininsh or dish. Pullen has great ability to finish, but settles for the 3 too much. Think back to what won at OU…that is the type of plays our guards need to make.
2) Not sure what to make of Sutton. He is good for 2-3 steals and layups a game, but HAS to be on the court. There is a huge difference IMO between Gilbert and Sutton…at least Sutton is giving you defense.
3) Fred Brown should only be in when facing a zone. Anderson needs to get at least 20 minutes a game.
4) Too late for this now, but think to last year about Cartier. He was extremely effective coming off the bench…maybe that should be Walker’s role. Give him a chance to settle down.
5) Finally, it is all about defense and rebounding. We aren’t good about talking something away from our opponents. We let them do whatever they want, rather then force outside shots, or take away dribble penetration, etc.
Huggins said many times last year, “the guys don’t play hard enough, they think they are playing hard, but they don’t know what playing hard is.” To play the smothering D that aggressive guard overplaying requires, there has to be supreme effort and good rotations…we have neither. The guards don’t penetrate effectively and also don’t shoot the ball consistently (well, that is). Walker needs to be posted on the other side of Mike and the ball rotations need to be quicker to exploit both sides of the lane instead of just posting either. Walker needs to use his good midrange game. When Mike gets 2 and 3 defenders, we need Bill to step into the lane and post on the opposite side, or clear and let Sutton and some other guys cut down the lane to the hoop ie. use Mike to create other inside shots for others, not just 3’s they can’t hit. Substitution patterns…A&M, Mike starts to feel it and hits a couple and puts A&M on their heels around 11:30 left, Martin puts him on the bench, and follows with Walker. Both should never be on the bench together…except with fouls. 1:30 left, puts Pullen on the bench after he had been doing a good job on the A&M point, and inserts Young, who gets beat into the lane. Last play, Stewart brings the ball up??? Pullen should bring it up and create for Walker, Beasley, and lastly Stewart.