K-State of the Union: Basketball Where We’ve Been
Last season for the K-State men’s basketball team ended better than anyone predicted. A chance at the Big 12 Championship and a run to the Elite 8 that included one of the greatest games in tournament history left fans waiting to see what would take place in the 2010-2011 campaign. Entering the year ranked in the top 5 of every major poll only fueled that excitement more and hopes ran high for what could be a national title run. Now that 16 games have been played, hopes for a national title have all but disappeared and the high goals of early November have been replaced by the desire to simply see the team come together and play solid basketball. Hit the jump to read more about the first half of the season.
The year got off to a great start. While there were a few games that didn’t have the blow out scores that were expected from a top 5 team, the Cats faced two top 25 teams in their first 4 games and came out ahead in both contests. The first game was against Virginia Tech who entered the game ranked #24 and #12 Gonzaga followed a week later. To have two impressive wins that early in the season seemed to be a great sign for what was to come. Those victories allowed everyone to overlook the struggles and still feel good.
Things got real pretty quickly during the next game. Kansas State played Duke in Kansas City with the nation watching and the #1 ranking on the line. Unfortunately what could have been a huge step for the program turned into a step in the opposite direction. Duke handed it to K-State in coach Krezwichegskieey’s 800th win and all the weaknesses of the Cats were fully exposed. The free throw death march continued, Pullen forgot how to shoot, and the leading scorer ended up being a guy who is known for his time spent in the doghouse.
Three days later brought some much needed relief for the team in the form of Texas Southern. A solid win there and soon after against Emporia State helped to get K-State back on track in time for the first true road test of the season at Washington State. Despite a victory in Pullman, it was clear that Kansas State’s early problems couldn’t just be attributed to playing #1 Duke. Relief was found again in the next two opponents, one of which hadn’t won a single game. Two victories and being 9-1 with the only loss coming against the best team in the country wasn’t a bad place to be a week before Christmas.
Again, whatever false hope a 9-1 record brought was crushed during the worst offensive showing in 5 seasons by K-State. The 57-44 loss to Florida saw the fewest points by a K-State team since January 11 of 2006 against Nebraska. The Florida game was punctuated with a loss to UNLV 4 days later and the first losing streak of the season. But that was nothing compared to the shock of finding out that the two seniors on a team that had constantly been described as lacking leadership by head coach Frank Martin had been suspended by the NCAA for impermissible benefits. That was clearly the lowest point of the young season.
With Pullen and Kelly gone, it was anyone’s guess as to what would come next. The UNLV game ended up being a close game and showed that there was more hope in the underclassmen and maybe not all was lost. It helped to find out Pullen would only miss three games as well. The next three games saw some of those underclassmen step up; specifically Rodney McGruder and Jamar Samuels. Losing the seniors seemed to help the rest of the team understand their roles and take on a bit of that leadership that was so badly missing. That was carried into the most recent game at Oklahoma State which ended in a disappointing loss and 2873 fouls.
So what has the first half of the season showed us?
To put it simply, Kansas State just isn’t as good as everyone was hoping. These are some glaring weaknesses which could easily be fatal to the final 15 games:
Free throw shooting: To this point in the season it has been absolutely horrendous. Making just .577% of uncontested shots is ridiculous. Frank Martin has said that it’s purely a game time problem and that it is not something that is going on in practice, but if it doesn’t get fixed you can add a few losses to the season.
Turnovers: Kansas State is averaging 16 turnovers per game which puts them closer to the bottom of the national rankings. If you’ve watched many games this season, you know it isn’t just that teams are taking the ball away through steals or good defense either. Every game has its share of bad passing and poor effort.
Leadership: This is the area that is most surprising. Pullen and Kelly were supposed to come in and take over where things left off last season. Instead, they both ended up getting a little extra on the side from Dillards (Really?! Dillards?! If you are going to risk suspension would you choose to do it for Dillards?!) and costing themselves a few games and probably a few $ as their NBA potential took a hit.
Have no fear though! While the season hasn’t started as great as we had hoped, all is not lost. These problems are fixable. Check back to see how they can be fixed and where the season is headed.