K-Stated

Frank Martin didn’t take the full-on Pat Knight approach following a 65-61 loss to Iowa State on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum. But he didn’t hold back criticism when asked about his players, either.

The Kansas State coach said he did everything he could to prepare his team for the Cyclones and so did his assistants. But when the game started, he thought the Wildcats weren’t playing with enough enthusiasm to win. He thought they were still in “celebratory mode” following two huge road wins against Baylor and Missouri and had a let down.

Translation: This loss, the team’s fourth at home, was on them.

No one argued with him. Angel Rodriguez waited until the second half to get the offense moving at a high rate, Will Spradling didn’t make a three-pointer, Jamar Samuels hardly impacted the game and it took Rodney McGruder 13 shots to score 13 points. And no one could defend Scott Christopherson. Outside of Jordan Henriquez, who played the best game of his collegiate career, the Wildcats didn’t play the way they have recently.

You can point to several reasons for why it happened. And Martin did. He made one point that stood out.

Rodriguez doesn’t know what Samuels is supposed to do on every play. Spradling can’t switch roles with McGruder and end up in the right spot at the right time. Those are things Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente could the past two years.

Pullen understood the game so well he could coach on the floor and critique the play of Luis Colon in real time. That knowledge and connection with other players helped the Wildcats win even when they weren’t on top of their game.

That’s what this team needs to discover.

“I could put Denis Clemente at the 5 spot in practice and he would run whatever set I asked him to run better than our centers,” Martin said. “I don’t have a guy on my team who can do that right now. They know what they do. They don’t know what anyone else does. Until we grow past that moment we are going to continue to have moments like the ones we have had the last few days.”
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Anyone who focuses in on Frank Martin’s stares, screams and often over-the-top sideline demeanor would have been surprised by the way he coached during a 57-56 victory over Baylor on Saturday at the Ferrell Center.

Not only was he calmer than usual, he often didn’t pay attention to whether Kansas State players made their shots. There were several times that Martin called out a play, watched his players execute it and then turned his back and started clapping when he saw the ball go up in the air.

The Wildcats have been in a scoring slump lately. They haven’t scored 70 points in a game all month and haven’t even reached the 60-point mark in their last two outings. Players haven’t been shooting the ball well with consistency. But Martin says that’s not a huge concern for him. He knows he has good shooters, and is more interested in them taking good shots, and running good offense than the final point total.

He proved that on Saturday with his sideline demeanor, and K-State played solid on offense despite not putting up a lot of points. It also came through with a big road win.

“Someone said to me the other day, ‘You don’t seem as animated on the sideline,’” Martin said. “What should I be animated about? These guys are trying their hearts out.

“Just because the ball doesn’t go in the basket sometimes doesn’t make us a bad team. These guys are trying to do what we ask them to do, and when you’re disciplined and take care of your responsibilities, what is there to stomp around about? They come to practice every day, they take it seriously, and they’ve been great.”
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It’s safe to say the Kansas State basketball team is in an offensive slump.

The slump started in the second half against Texas, when the Wildcats failed to match the Longhorns’ aggression and scored just 24 points after taking a 40-27 lead. Then came an 18-point first half against Kansas in which it turned the ball over more times (eight) than it made field goals (seven). Combined with a better-but-still-disappointing 35-point effort in the second half last night, K-State has averaged 1.28 points per minute in its last 60 minutes.

That’s not enough for K-State to compete with the teams in the upper half of the Big 12.

Wildcats basketball coach Frank Martin realizes that as well as anyone, and is simply telling his players: “When you have an open shot, you need to make it.”

Despite an atrocious start, K-State made enough shots to get back into the game late. Jamar Samuels kept his team in the game by scoring 20 points. But when K-State really needed to find the bottom of the net, it misfired. Will Spradling, Jordan Henriquez and Angel Rodriguez all missed shots with Kansas leading 55-51 in the final minute. Overall, K-State made 20 of 65 shots from the field.

Of course, K-State might not have needed to make more shots had it committed fewer turnovers.

“Our turnovers is our weakest link,” Martin said. “That continues to be a problem. People are going to look at that and say, ‘They only turned it over 16 times, what’s he talking about?’ Well, eight of the 11 leads to breakaway dunks, that’s 16 points that you can’t defend. That’s the problem with our team. We make boneheaded plays and mistakes that lead to easy baskets.”
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Much of the attention following Kansas State’s 75-64 loss at Texas on Saturday was directed at Mike Stuart, David Hall and Rodrick Dixon, the officiating crew that worked the game.

Before opening tip, they apparently told both teams they were going to call a tight game and Texas decided to try and take advantage of that by attacking the rim every chance it got. The Longhorns ended up at the free-throw line 48 times. Compared to just 12 free throw attempts for K-State (zero in the second half), that is a whopping number.

There’s no way any game should have that kind of difference in free throws. Had Frank Martin not criticized officials two weeks earlier for allowing Iowa State to shoot 26 free throws while K-State shot 11, I’ve got a feeling he would have ripped them in Austin. But the Wildcats coach didn’t want to pick up a possible punishment from the Big 12 heading into Monday’s game against Kansas. So all he said about the topic was: “I didn’t officiate. You would have to ask them.”

Probably the right move. As questionable as some of the calls were, I’m not sure you can say the officials gave Texas the game. The Longhorns got to the foul line by being aggressive. Much more aggressive than K-State.

After falling behind by 15 points, Texas picked up its defensive effort and made it extremely difficult for K-State to run offense. Rodney McGruder couldn’t do much against constant double teams, and the Wildcats turned the ball over too often. There were several possessions late where simply getting a shot off seemed like a success.

That turned into good offensive chances for Texas, and the Longhorns took advantage by making 68 percent of their shots from the field in the second half and scoring 35 points from the free-throw line.

The officials may have helped them do so, but there is no disputing that the Longhorns outplayed the Wildcats. K-State was firmly in control with a 15-point lead and let a winnable game slip away. It will need to do better in upcoming games against Kansas, Baylor and Missouri.
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Kansas State looked about as bad as a basketball team can look while winning a conference game by 19 points on Tuesday at Bramlage Colisuem.

The Wildcats shot a lousy 30 percent from the field, played with low energy on both ends of the floor and looked completely befuddled trying to score against a zone defense.

For those reasons, no one walked away happy. Frank Martin pondered how his players could show up for a game in February with so little enthusiasm, Shane Southwell said K-State’s inconsistencies are becoming truly frustrating and one fan told me he felt like he had just finished watching paint dry on his way to the parking lot.

None of those are good signs for a team preparing to play its most important stretch of the season. Up next is a tough game at Texas, then comes Kansas, Baylor, Missouri and Iowa State. How the Wildcats perform in those games will determine whether they advance to the NCAA Tournament. At 17-6 overall and 6-5 in Big 12 play, they are in good shape to earn an invitation. The bubble is soft this year. A .500 conference record is all it should take.

The question is, can K-State shake off its disappointing game against Texas Tech and play up to its potential over the next two weeks? One could certainly argue it can. It’s hard to blame players for not getting excited about facing the Red Raiders. They are by far the worst team in the Big 12, and possibly the worst team the conference has ever seen. No matter how badly the Wildcats played on Tuesday, everyone knew they were going to win.

That won’t be the case the rest of the way, and that will fire them up. Motivation shouldn’t be a problem from here on out. Still, it’s disappointing that it was on Tuesday.
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