D
Derek Young
Guest
Basketball is the least of the storylines but here goes..
During basketball season at KSO, Grant Flanders and Logan Mantz make the customers feel like they were there, even if they weren’t. Thanks to them again, tonight, and all season for the fantastic photos and videos. Matt Hall coordinates it all and distributes all the pertinent information while also providing his insight throughout the game. Chris Nelson gives you the x’s and o’s perspective on what worked and what didn’t and Ksu_fan provides the team numbers and advanced metrics/stats on why the outcome was what it was.
Be sure to follow their work and consume it. They all work hard to bring you a great product and are super at what they deliver.
I’m more here to tell a story after each game. In Austin, it felt like a necessary butt-whooping that they could learn from, and at home against West Virginia, it seemed like they did to an extent and saw a flurry of confidence that revealed their ultimate potential when everything was clicking.
Tonight’s shellacking in Lawrence tells a different story. It tells a story of what happens with this team when they aren’t clicking. The next episode in a season that likely won’t finish with any postseason play really just showcased a team lacking in maturity.
They aren’t mature enough to perform to their capability each and every night. Most of that is because they aren’t mature enough to realize what winning intensity looks like and how it feels. They played with heart, passion, desire and the utmost intensity last Saturday in the win over the Mountaineers.
I know this team isn’t at the level to where they play that well every game. In this particular season, that’s just too much to ask. It sucks, but that’s the cold hard truth.
What you do hope carries over is how hard they played, how intense they were and the passion they showed. It’s easy to do all that when everything is going right. I understand that. The teams with maturity and leadership on their roster do it even when things aren’t going well.
And sometimes there’s an off year where a program has to re-learn a lot of that. This is very reminiscent to what Bob Huggins said of his team last year, in which turned into a putrid season for them. His team this year still shows signs of that, as indicated by their blowout loss in Manhattan. Growing up is hard to do.
Tonight, defensive rotations were late, time after time. That’s where all the open threes derived from on Tuesday evening. They lost faith early and often. Multiple Wildcats seemed scared to shoot in the first half, right from the jump. Xavier Sneed passed up shots. Cartier Diarra passed up shots. Makol Mawien repeatedly hesitated.
Don’t get me wrong, Sneed plays as hard as anyone in the country every contest. To that end, so do the true freshmen. The same can also be said for David Sloan who flashed positives in the second half.
However, those are the three players (Sneed, Diarra and Mawien) that were supposed to be your leaders. Those are the three that were supposed to be the best players. They were three of the four that represented Kansas State for Big 12 Media Day in Kansas City.
Maturity and leadership, typically, comes from experience. The experience did not provide them any favors on a night where it was probably needed the most.
They seemed shook in Allen Fieldhouse, right away. Before you know it, it was 26-9, Kansas. They never threatened again.
Maybe it is just exactly what I wrote after the win over WVU in Manhattan. It’s just going to be a fragile and streaky team. It will all depend on if things are going right. Confidence builds and then everything goes to plan.
The other side of the coin is also true. When it’s not going well, confidence fades, and it all snowballs into something worse. We’ve now seen the extremes of that in four consecutive games.
They lost to Texas by 14 in a game that felt worse, lost by 14 to Texas Tech, defeated the Mountaineers by 16 in a game that was far worse for WVU and then lost to KU by 21 in Lawrence.
With that kind of formula, you’ll know quick in contests if K-State is going to be competitive and give themselves a chance to win.
A team so dependent on things going right and unable to thwart negativity when it rolls downhill is one lacking in maturity. Let’s be honest, that isn’t unique to Kansas State. That’s going to be the case for teams all over America. However, that’s the difference for the Wildcats as they are currently configured.
Let’s also be honest in that it shouldn’t be all that surprising, either. They are playing four newcomers a lot. The best recruit of the four (DaJuan Gordon) has shown himself to be incredibly raw as a basketball player and one that is devoid of much defensive understanding at this point.
They play immature because they are immature in a basketball sense. The older players are playing like they are older. On most nights, that isn’t a recipe for a win. That is likely the perfect illustration of what this year’s Big 12 results will look like.
Growing up isn’t a fun process. Despite some older players in the program, that’s essentially what we’re watching.
During basketball season at KSO, Grant Flanders and Logan Mantz make the customers feel like they were there, even if they weren’t. Thanks to them again, tonight, and all season for the fantastic photos and videos. Matt Hall coordinates it all and distributes all the pertinent information while also providing his insight throughout the game. Chris Nelson gives you the x’s and o’s perspective on what worked and what didn’t and Ksu_fan provides the team numbers and advanced metrics/stats on why the outcome was what it was.
Be sure to follow their work and consume it. They all work hard to bring you a great product and are super at what they deliver.
I’m more here to tell a story after each game. In Austin, it felt like a necessary butt-whooping that they could learn from, and at home against West Virginia, it seemed like they did to an extent and saw a flurry of confidence that revealed their ultimate potential when everything was clicking.
Tonight’s shellacking in Lawrence tells a different story. It tells a story of what happens with this team when they aren’t clicking. The next episode in a season that likely won’t finish with any postseason play really just showcased a team lacking in maturity.
They aren’t mature enough to perform to their capability each and every night. Most of that is because they aren’t mature enough to realize what winning intensity looks like and how it feels. They played with heart, passion, desire and the utmost intensity last Saturday in the win over the Mountaineers.
I know this team isn’t at the level to where they play that well every game. In this particular season, that’s just too much to ask. It sucks, but that’s the cold hard truth.
What you do hope carries over is how hard they played, how intense they were and the passion they showed. It’s easy to do all that when everything is going right. I understand that. The teams with maturity and leadership on their roster do it even when things aren’t going well.
And sometimes there’s an off year where a program has to re-learn a lot of that. This is very reminiscent to what Bob Huggins said of his team last year, in which turned into a putrid season for them. His team this year still shows signs of that, as indicated by their blowout loss in Manhattan. Growing up is hard to do.
Tonight, defensive rotations were late, time after time. That’s where all the open threes derived from on Tuesday evening. They lost faith early and often. Multiple Wildcats seemed scared to shoot in the first half, right from the jump. Xavier Sneed passed up shots. Cartier Diarra passed up shots. Makol Mawien repeatedly hesitated.
Don’t get me wrong, Sneed plays as hard as anyone in the country every contest. To that end, so do the true freshmen. The same can also be said for David Sloan who flashed positives in the second half.
However, those are the three players (Sneed, Diarra and Mawien) that were supposed to be your leaders. Those are the three that were supposed to be the best players. They were three of the four that represented Kansas State for Big 12 Media Day in Kansas City.
Maturity and leadership, typically, comes from experience. The experience did not provide them any favors on a night where it was probably needed the most.
They seemed shook in Allen Fieldhouse, right away. Before you know it, it was 26-9, Kansas. They never threatened again.
Maybe it is just exactly what I wrote after the win over WVU in Manhattan. It’s just going to be a fragile and streaky team. It will all depend on if things are going right. Confidence builds and then everything goes to plan.
The other side of the coin is also true. When it’s not going well, confidence fades, and it all snowballs into something worse. We’ve now seen the extremes of that in four consecutive games.
They lost to Texas by 14 in a game that felt worse, lost by 14 to Texas Tech, defeated the Mountaineers by 16 in a game that was far worse for WVU and then lost to KU by 21 in Lawrence.
With that kind of formula, you’ll know quick in contests if K-State is going to be competitive and give themselves a chance to win.
A team so dependent on things going right and unable to thwart negativity when it rolls downhill is one lacking in maturity. Let’s be honest, that isn’t unique to Kansas State. That’s going to be the case for teams all over America. However, that’s the difference for the Wildcats as they are currently configured.
Let’s also be honest in that it shouldn’t be all that surprising, either. They are playing four newcomers a lot. The best recruit of the four (DaJuan Gordon) has shown himself to be incredibly raw as a basketball player and one that is devoid of much defensive understanding at this point.
They play immature because they are immature in a basketball sense. The older players are playing like they are older. On most nights, that isn’t a recipe for a win. That is likely the perfect illustration of what this year’s Big 12 results will look like.
Growing up isn’t a fun process. Despite some older players in the program, that’s essentially what we’re watching.
