No. 9 North Carolina 80, K-State 70. The pain was so obvious.
Well, that was fun. It was a great game to watch and certainly an enjoyable one to cover. This K-State team competes like crazy, plays fearless, and wants to do nothing but win. It's refreshing, and you could definitely see it in their faces that this one meant something to the entire team. It hurt to lose to No. 9 North Carolina, especially in the manner in which it happened.
North Carolina is really good. They pass every basketball-related eye test. They are big, long, athletic, and have so many guys that can hurt you on any given night. The Tar Heels are also a little undisciplined and lack a big-time motor, but each time they got punched, they punched right back. That's what good teams do. UNC might not be a Top 10 team without Marcus Paige. I think that's obvious. But they are scary talented and it took almost the entire game for them to figure out it had to pressure the guards and get active in the passing lanes. A lot of credit has to go to them for finding the final gear late and making the last run in a contest full of them.
K-State, and its fans, should be encouraged by this one. This was supposed to be a learning lesson, and for these young kids to learn what it was like to play against a really good team, knowing the Wildcats will face plenty down the road. The goal was to compete. Anything else was a bonus. K-State provided a lot more than that, though. A lot more.
I honestly that Stephen Hurt's five-straight points to make it a five-point game would have made it enough for it to at least go down to the wire. I knew North Carolina would turn it on, but it begs the question why that team didn't play that hard until that point. It's unfortunate, no doubt, but it's part of growing pains.
Bruce Weber and his staff are coaching the heck out of this team, and it seems each guy is bought and locked in. It's really the ideal brand of basketball this staff wants to play. The Wildcats just need a couple more bodies to make this thing really exciting.
Some will question why Weber didn't call a timeout after Stokes' first turnover to calm things down and get Wesley Iwundu in the game. I get that. Gripe all you want. Regardless whether it's a freshman or senior point guard, Weber wasn't about to call it. It's not his style. He wants his players to play. And it was actually rather characteristic for Stokes.
The first turnover is what it is. The second one was just careless. It's a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me kind of thing. Sure, hindsight says call a timeout. I'm just not surprised one bit that Weber didn't. Against Columbia, when Weber was barking out orders late and was wanting Stokes to maybe call one, Stokes looked at him, and motioned for Weber to kind of calm down. K-State has to learn these situations with this team at some point, and it didn't work out well at the end.
Some will question why Weber didn't put Iwundu, who had four fouls, in sooner. I get that, too. There are tons of arguments for it and against it. But sometimes you just have to ride out the unit that got you there, and that's what happened. It's not a bad move. It just didn't work out.
I think people need to come to peace with this rather quickly. It's a loss that stings and a missed opportunity against a really good basketball team. K-State is going to compete and sometimes plays so hard on the defensive end that it struggles offensively. Anyway, I could ramble for days about this game and this team, so I'll stop here and maybe post something later on if I get the chance.
If these are the type of games we can expect from here on out, it's going to be one helluva roller coaster with a young team. It has the potential to be pretty fun and pretty frustrating all at the same time.
Well, that was fun. It was a great game to watch and certainly an enjoyable one to cover. This K-State team competes like crazy, plays fearless, and wants to do nothing but win. It's refreshing, and you could definitely see it in their faces that this one meant something to the entire team. It hurt to lose to No. 9 North Carolina, especially in the manner in which it happened.
North Carolina is really good. They pass every basketball-related eye test. They are big, long, athletic, and have so many guys that can hurt you on any given night. The Tar Heels are also a little undisciplined and lack a big-time motor, but each time they got punched, they punched right back. That's what good teams do. UNC might not be a Top 10 team without Marcus Paige. I think that's obvious. But they are scary talented and it took almost the entire game for them to figure out it had to pressure the guards and get active in the passing lanes. A lot of credit has to go to them for finding the final gear late and making the last run in a contest full of them.
K-State, and its fans, should be encouraged by this one. This was supposed to be a learning lesson, and for these young kids to learn what it was like to play against a really good team, knowing the Wildcats will face plenty down the road. The goal was to compete. Anything else was a bonus. K-State provided a lot more than that, though. A lot more.
I honestly that Stephen Hurt's five-straight points to make it a five-point game would have made it enough for it to at least go down to the wire. I knew North Carolina would turn it on, but it begs the question why that team didn't play that hard until that point. It's unfortunate, no doubt, but it's part of growing pains.
Bruce Weber and his staff are coaching the heck out of this team, and it seems each guy is bought and locked in. It's really the ideal brand of basketball this staff wants to play. The Wildcats just need a couple more bodies to make this thing really exciting.
Some will question why Weber didn't call a timeout after Stokes' first turnover to calm things down and get Wesley Iwundu in the game. I get that. Gripe all you want. Regardless whether it's a freshman or senior point guard, Weber wasn't about to call it. It's not his style. He wants his players to play. And it was actually rather characteristic for Stokes.
The first turnover is what it is. The second one was just careless. It's a fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me kind of thing. Sure, hindsight says call a timeout. I'm just not surprised one bit that Weber didn't. Against Columbia, when Weber was barking out orders late and was wanting Stokes to maybe call one, Stokes looked at him, and motioned for Weber to kind of calm down. K-State has to learn these situations with this team at some point, and it didn't work out well at the end.
Some will question why Weber didn't put Iwundu, who had four fouls, in sooner. I get that, too. There are tons of arguments for it and against it. But sometimes you just have to ride out the unit that got you there, and that's what happened. It's not a bad move. It just didn't work out.
I think people need to come to peace with this rather quickly. It's a loss that stings and a missed opportunity against a really good basketball team. K-State is going to compete and sometimes plays so hard on the defensive end that it struggles offensively. Anyway, I could ramble for days about this game and this team, so I'll stop here and maybe post something later on if I get the chance.
If these are the type of games we can expect from here on out, it's going to be one helluva roller coaster with a young team. It has the potential to be pretty fun and pretty frustrating all at the same time.
