Goodbye Ranking. Hello bubble.

I have come to grips with the fact that Kansas State is not only out of the Big 12 championship hunt but may become a NCAA tourney bubble team in the next week. It’s been a long, hard fall from the anticipation at the beginning of the season until now and the landing is still to come. I hope Pullen rethinks his stance on the NIT because that might be his last chance to impress some people. Continue reading to see the good, bad, and ugly of last night’s trouncing in Misery.

The Good

Free Throws. This is an area that has been atrocious but is actually improving. It still hurts to see the front end of one-and-ones missed but overall the past few games there have been baby steps taken. K-State went 16-22 which for a normal team is bad but considering we started under 50%, I’ll take it. Imagine the final if K-State had been their usual selves.

Second Half Start. Going into the half I had the feeling this was going to be a 20-25 point blowout. The team looked confused and incapable. I actually went to do something else and came back a few hours later to watch the second half because I thought it was long over. Whatever Frank Martin said (yelled) at halftime lit a fire under someone’s butt though and the team came out playing well. They began with getting their turnovers under control and worked it back to a 3 point game with 8 minutes to play. While the end wasn’t pretty, I fully expected the team to give up and was glad they kindof proved me worng.

Jordan Henriquez-Roberts. It’s not too often yet that JHR gets mentioned as a big part of the game but he played great against Missouri. His final stats: 5-5 on FG for 10 points, 4-5 on free throws, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks. I can’t wait until he gets some juice and gains 40 pounds of muscle.

The Bad

Key Rebounds. During the second half when Kansas State was making a push there seemed to be too many times where a rebound would have been huge but no one was there for it. A lot of those led directly to transition buckets for the Tigers as well which in any comeback is  a killer.

Pullen Pushing. I know that there are times when someone has to step up and force things in every game and normally that guy should be Pullen but it’s just not there this season. For every fantastic play he makes driving to the hoop, there is one where his skillets come out and he losses it out of bounds or he dribbles of his body or he decides to push when the smart decision is to hold back.

Spradling Passing. I just don’t know what to think of this guy yet. I know he’s a freshman which means this time last year he was playing against 15-17 year olds but that’s not an excuse for some of the horrible decisions he is making with his entry passing. Time and time again he lofts the ball up for anyone to grab when our guy underneath has decent enough position. Either throw it in there with authority like you understand basketball or make a pass that doesn’t involve thought.

The Ugly

Ball Handling. We don’t have one guy that we can trust to be the point. It’s going to haunt us all season and it’s not going to change. Get used to seeing this struggle every game. I think at this point Martin has tried every possible player that could maybe be that guy and none has been consistent enough to rely on.

Breaking Pressure. From the time kids start playing biddy basketball they learn that all you need to do to break a press is pass the ball around. That’s it. You don’t even have to dribble the ball if you simply dp a good job of passing. Kansas State might want to go back and learn how that works. Missouri is known for press but KSU helped them out by holding the ball. The press didn’t actually result in a ton of turnovers but it effectively screwed up the offensive sets and took a good 8 seconds off every possession.

Second half finish. After playing great and beginning the second half with a big turnaround, Kansas State when flat and allowed Missouri to finish with a 17-4 run. I’m not exactly sure what happened but it wasn’t pretty. I hate the feeling of getting excited about the game again only to have my soul crushed and that’s exactly what happened for every K-State fan watching. It’s going to be along season.