Ugghhhh, well that sucked.
And the bad part is, it was eminently predictable. I didn't though. I had fallen into the Bruce trap and I had convinced myself that the offense had turned a corner. The problem is, I didn't take into account that this team has a hard time motivating itself. When it's a bad opponent and a dead arena, this team simply has a hard time focusing and digging in. That leads to two or three inexplicable performances per year.
The thing is, that's not just a Bruce thing. It happens to most teams throughout the season. They have a couple of letdowns that don't seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but can absolutely be seed killers. It happened to me last year. We played our last region game at the gym of a team we had beaten by almost 30 earlier in the season. We had a bad couple of days of practice leading up to it and had absolutely no energy during the game. We missed a shot at the buzzer that would have given us the win. We played about as poorly as we could play and it led to us falling from the 2 seed from our region to the 4 seed from our region. So instead of getting a couple of games in the playoffs that we would have had a great chance of winning, we played one of the #1 seeds and lost in the first round to the team that lost to Zion Williamson in the state championship.
It happens to almost every team during the season. Here's the thing though, it was my fault then, and it's Bruce's fault now. It's our job as coaches to find a way to get our teams through those games. You have to try and make some adjustments. You have to do something. If it doesn't work, at least you feel like you did everything to push your team through it.
Even Fran said it during the first half. He literally said that he felt like K-State was just going through the motions and the longer that Texas A&M stayed close, the worse it was going to be for K-State.
The offense was really bad in the first half, but I was encouraged. As bad as K-State had played, they missed a wide open shot that would have given them a 7 point lead at halftime. I thought it was a great opportunity for Bruce to go in at halftime and just rip the ass out of the team. It was the perfect opportunity to remind them that they were in first place in the Big 12 and playing for a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, but the kind of effort they were playing with and the shots they were taking in the offense were bad enough to get them beat if it didn't turn around in the second half.
The opposite happened. Billy Kennedy abused Bruce over and over again and Texas A&M took advantage of K-State's poor offense and poor effort and crush the Cats in the second half. It was hard to watch. Kennedy took advantage of every mismatch. Bruce put McGuirl on Flagg and what did Kennedy do, he sent Flagg right into the post to score over the top. My favorite was the inbounds play where Flagg simply posted up McGuirl on the low box and the inbounder passed it to him for a simply layup.
As bad as the defense and effort were, the offense in the second half was one of the worst things I have seen all season. The numbers back up how bad it actually was. For the second half, the Cats were 8 of 35 from the floor. As bad as those numbers look, it was worse. The good news, K-State was perfect from the freethrow line in the second half. They were 2-2.
How about these stats:
On shots at the rim (layups/dunks), they were 1-3. THEY TOOK THREE SHOTS FROM 4 FT AND IN FOR AN ENTIRE HALF!!! And the bad part, that 33% was the best percentage that they had in the half.
Remember, Dean Wade hit the a three for the first shot of the half to put the Cats up by 7. Including that three, K-State was 5 of 22 from three point range in the second half. Yep, the team that shoots about 30% from three shot 22 3's in the second half. But 5-22 is not the worst of it. 23% is better than they shot on long jumpers.
They were 3-13 on two point shots in the second half. Remember that they were 1-3 on layups, so they were 2 of 10 on long jump shots. They made 20% of everything between 5 and 19 feet. Remember when Bruce said that he likes jump shots? This is simply more proof about how bad an offense that relies on jump shots is. It's simply unsustainable.
So, on all shots outside of 4 feet, they were 7 of 32 in the second half. One of the main problems with missed jump shots is that they can lead to long rebounds which lead to runouts by the opposing team and the Aggies took huge advantage of that. They weren't even sending multiple guys to the defensive glass. They gave up a bunch of offensive rebounds to the Cats because as soon as a shot went up, they were sending guards the other way. All of these things have a compounding effect. A&M were pushing the ball on the offensive end so the Cats never had a chance to get set up defensively and as a result, A&M was getting every shot that they wanted.
At least in the first half, the Cats were able to get their defense set up and they forced A&M into a bunch of steals that led to layups for K-State. Look at the difference in stats: the jumpshots were slightly better (but still awful at 6-20), but the difference was that K-State was 6 for 7 from inside 4 feet and were 4 of 5 from the free throw line.
Final percentages for the game:
Layups/dunks - 7 for 10
Long 2 pointers - 6 for 20
Three pointers - 7 for 31
Free throws - 6 for 7
Let those numbers sink in for a minute. K-State was 13 for 51 (25%) on jump shots and only took a total of TEN shots around the rim in the whole game.
But never forget...Bruce loves jumpers....
And the bad part is, it was eminently predictable. I didn't though. I had fallen into the Bruce trap and I had convinced myself that the offense had turned a corner. The problem is, I didn't take into account that this team has a hard time motivating itself. When it's a bad opponent and a dead arena, this team simply has a hard time focusing and digging in. That leads to two or three inexplicable performances per year.
The thing is, that's not just a Bruce thing. It happens to most teams throughout the season. They have a couple of letdowns that don't seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but can absolutely be seed killers. It happened to me last year. We played our last region game at the gym of a team we had beaten by almost 30 earlier in the season. We had a bad couple of days of practice leading up to it and had absolutely no energy during the game. We missed a shot at the buzzer that would have given us the win. We played about as poorly as we could play and it led to us falling from the 2 seed from our region to the 4 seed from our region. So instead of getting a couple of games in the playoffs that we would have had a great chance of winning, we played one of the #1 seeds and lost in the first round to the team that lost to Zion Williamson in the state championship.
It happens to almost every team during the season. Here's the thing though, it was my fault then, and it's Bruce's fault now. It's our job as coaches to find a way to get our teams through those games. You have to try and make some adjustments. You have to do something. If it doesn't work, at least you feel like you did everything to push your team through it.
Even Fran said it during the first half. He literally said that he felt like K-State was just going through the motions and the longer that Texas A&M stayed close, the worse it was going to be for K-State.
The offense was really bad in the first half, but I was encouraged. As bad as K-State had played, they missed a wide open shot that would have given them a 7 point lead at halftime. I thought it was a great opportunity for Bruce to go in at halftime and just rip the ass out of the team. It was the perfect opportunity to remind them that they were in first place in the Big 12 and playing for a top 4 seed in the NCAA tournament, but the kind of effort they were playing with and the shots they were taking in the offense were bad enough to get them beat if it didn't turn around in the second half.
The opposite happened. Billy Kennedy abused Bruce over and over again and Texas A&M took advantage of K-State's poor offense and poor effort and crush the Cats in the second half. It was hard to watch. Kennedy took advantage of every mismatch. Bruce put McGuirl on Flagg and what did Kennedy do, he sent Flagg right into the post to score over the top. My favorite was the inbounds play where Flagg simply posted up McGuirl on the low box and the inbounder passed it to him for a simply layup.
As bad as the defense and effort were, the offense in the second half was one of the worst things I have seen all season. The numbers back up how bad it actually was. For the second half, the Cats were 8 of 35 from the floor. As bad as those numbers look, it was worse. The good news, K-State was perfect from the freethrow line in the second half. They were 2-2.
How about these stats:
On shots at the rim (layups/dunks), they were 1-3. THEY TOOK THREE SHOTS FROM 4 FT AND IN FOR AN ENTIRE HALF!!! And the bad part, that 33% was the best percentage that they had in the half.
Remember, Dean Wade hit the a three for the first shot of the half to put the Cats up by 7. Including that three, K-State was 5 of 22 from three point range in the second half. Yep, the team that shoots about 30% from three shot 22 3's in the second half. But 5-22 is not the worst of it. 23% is better than they shot on long jumpers.
They were 3-13 on two point shots in the second half. Remember that they were 1-3 on layups, so they were 2 of 10 on long jump shots. They made 20% of everything between 5 and 19 feet. Remember when Bruce said that he likes jump shots? This is simply more proof about how bad an offense that relies on jump shots is. It's simply unsustainable.
So, on all shots outside of 4 feet, they were 7 of 32 in the second half. One of the main problems with missed jump shots is that they can lead to long rebounds which lead to runouts by the opposing team and the Aggies took huge advantage of that. They weren't even sending multiple guys to the defensive glass. They gave up a bunch of offensive rebounds to the Cats because as soon as a shot went up, they were sending guards the other way. All of these things have a compounding effect. A&M were pushing the ball on the offensive end so the Cats never had a chance to get set up defensively and as a result, A&M was getting every shot that they wanted.
At least in the first half, the Cats were able to get their defense set up and they forced A&M into a bunch of steals that led to layups for K-State. Look at the difference in stats: the jumpshots were slightly better (but still awful at 6-20), but the difference was that K-State was 6 for 7 from inside 4 feet and were 4 of 5 from the free throw line.
Final percentages for the game:
Layups/dunks - 7 for 10
Long 2 pointers - 6 for 20
Three pointers - 7 for 31
Free throws - 6 for 7
Let those numbers sink in for a minute. K-State was 13 for 51 (25%) on jump shots and only took a total of TEN shots around the rim in the whole game.
But never forget...Bruce loves jumpers....
