D
Derek Young
Guest
Growth. At this point, that’s what this year is about. If you’re still paying attention and letting the wins and losses determine your feelings about this team, you’re probably going to come away sorely disappointed several more times this year.
That’s hard to swallow. Nobody should be happy about it, but the way this season is approached has to change for everyone, coaches and fans.
And the growth that we need to see needs to come from some of the players that will certainly return next season. Most of those that will return are the ones with little experience and making some of the bonehead plays right now. Taking the good with the bad from some of those guys is going to have to be a part of the process.
However, you’d like to see all of them take a step forward as the year moves along. They won’t be great every game. Older veterans even aren’t. But you want them to be far better and have the game slow down for them by the time the year comes to a close.
We saw a positive night from Monte Murphy. He scored in double figures. He was active. The freshman hustles, plays hard, is aggressive and has good hands and expects the ball in the paint. That allowed him to corral pass after pass in the paint and draw contact.
Not only that, he followed it up with a perfect night at the free throw line. From the charity stripe, Murphy was perfect on nine attempts.
That type of offensive performance is perfect for a Kansas State big. He doesn’t try to do too much. He does what is asked of him. He doesn’t turn it over and he’s efficient and makes all of his free throws. That will play each and every night.
Murphy still had three turnovers, but that had more to do with his passing and inexperience there than anything he was doing close to the rim. That is the next step for him on the offensive end, though. More minutes should be pushed his way in the future.
Another aspect of his game that will be such a tool moving forward is his defensive versatility. Murphy can essentially guard four spots on the floor. Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t one of those. His on-ball defense versus the Red Raiders on the perimeter was pretty imperfect.
So, in a night where he still made freshman mistakes and wasn’t at his best as a rebounder or as a defender, he still found ways to positively impact the game throughout and in critical moments. If he keeps that arrow pointed upward in regard to his trajectory, that’s a fun player to think about and consider for years to come.
That’s how it can still feel pretty good, even after a loss.
The hope is that everyone can feel that way about multiple young guys, regardless of the game outcome. A key moving forward for K-State is to keep Murphy on that plane and having exciting flashes out of DaJuan Gordon and Antonio Gordon, too.
DaJuan Gordon logged 32 minutes but left little to no mark on the game, while still committing several mental errors on the defensive end. Antonio Gordon only played 15 minutes and still seems like the game is sped up for him, especially on offense.
I realize that not every game is going to look great for freshmen. To avoid next year being completely bleak, though, there needs to be some obvious positives to extract from a lot of the performances from Murphy, Gordon and Gordon.
It won’t look the same for any of the three. They’re different players, playing different minutes, in different roles and growing up at different rates. You do want it to manifest itself the way it did for Murphy tonight.
The Wildcats will get extreme effort from all three every game. Now, they need noticeable improvement and progress from each as much as possible. They're the most important players to this program right now, right or wrong.
That’s hard to swallow. Nobody should be happy about it, but the way this season is approached has to change for everyone, coaches and fans.
And the growth that we need to see needs to come from some of the players that will certainly return next season. Most of those that will return are the ones with little experience and making some of the bonehead plays right now. Taking the good with the bad from some of those guys is going to have to be a part of the process.
However, you’d like to see all of them take a step forward as the year moves along. They won’t be great every game. Older veterans even aren’t. But you want them to be far better and have the game slow down for them by the time the year comes to a close.
We saw a positive night from Monte Murphy. He scored in double figures. He was active. The freshman hustles, plays hard, is aggressive and has good hands and expects the ball in the paint. That allowed him to corral pass after pass in the paint and draw contact.
Not only that, he followed it up with a perfect night at the free throw line. From the charity stripe, Murphy was perfect on nine attempts.
That type of offensive performance is perfect for a Kansas State big. He doesn’t try to do too much. He does what is asked of him. He doesn’t turn it over and he’s efficient and makes all of his free throws. That will play each and every night.
Murphy still had three turnovers, but that had more to do with his passing and inexperience there than anything he was doing close to the rim. That is the next step for him on the offensive end, though. More minutes should be pushed his way in the future.
Another aspect of his game that will be such a tool moving forward is his defensive versatility. Murphy can essentially guard four spots on the floor. Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t one of those. His on-ball defense versus the Red Raiders on the perimeter was pretty imperfect.
So, in a night where he still made freshman mistakes and wasn’t at his best as a rebounder or as a defender, he still found ways to positively impact the game throughout and in critical moments. If he keeps that arrow pointed upward in regard to his trajectory, that’s a fun player to think about and consider for years to come.
That’s how it can still feel pretty good, even after a loss.
The hope is that everyone can feel that way about multiple young guys, regardless of the game outcome. A key moving forward for K-State is to keep Murphy on that plane and having exciting flashes out of DaJuan Gordon and Antonio Gordon, too.
DaJuan Gordon logged 32 minutes but left little to no mark on the game, while still committing several mental errors on the defensive end. Antonio Gordon only played 15 minutes and still seems like the game is sped up for him, especially on offense.
I realize that not every game is going to look great for freshmen. To avoid next year being completely bleak, though, there needs to be some obvious positives to extract from a lot of the performances from Murphy, Gordon and Gordon.
It won’t look the same for any of the three. They’re different players, playing different minutes, in different roles and growing up at different rates. You do want it to manifest itself the way it did for Murphy tonight.
The Wildcats will get extreme effort from all three every game. Now, they need noticeable improvement and progress from each as much as possible. They're the most important players to this program right now, right or wrong.
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