Kansas State @ Texas A&M Recap

Another loss. Another Saturday thinking about what could have been if the ball had bounced this way, if that rebound would have gone to Kansas State, if that shot would have fallen. It’s getting old fast. There was a bit of good to take form the game as a whole though. The team did better and was in this one right up until the end. I’ll take that over the beat downs that have been coming regularly any day. Continue reading for the good, bad, and ugly of the game including a few rants about Texas A&M.

The Good

Playing the bench… It’s usually not a good thing to have everyone on the bench rotating through the game in the first 5 minutes of play but this team is at a point where something has to get figured out. I like seeing Frank Martin try anything he can to get this team moving in the right direction. On top of all that, it builds some experience for the young guys and it could pay off next season.

Curtis Kelly… From this point on Ck will be referred to as either Tourney CK or Dillards CK. Kelly is either really good or really bad. Dillards Ck is the guy who constantly whines, takes stupid shots, forces the ball, and generally annoys the heck out of K-State fans. Tourney CK is the guy who showed up against Texas A&M. CK totaled 15 points, 11 rebounds, 6 blocks, and 2 assists. All that included a 3pt fg, great put backs, a couple of monster blocks, solid defense, and solid effort all day long. If tourney CK can stick around, things will be better.

The Bad

Dry Spells… Kansas State had two in this game. In the first half, they went 6 minutes between FG in the first 10 minutes of play. That gave A&M a small lead and made us play from behind. In the second half, after coming out with a decent start, K-State went 5 minutes point. For those of you scoring at home, that’s over ¼ of the game without a point because of dry spells. It’s happened in quite a few games now and it’s killing opportunities for victory.

Texas A&M cheers… I’m all for tradition. That’s part of what makes college sports so fun. But seriously?! What is all this hand signaling junk going on by the crowd? They have an elaborate set of movements for everything. I’m sure it’s some amazing historical thing that dates back to the Spanish-American war or the discovery of Florida by Ponce De Leon but It reminds me too much of Jane Goodall helping Coco the gorilla figure out how to say things. We are humans. We have voices and the ability to use words to express thoughts. That should be implemented more at Texas A&M games.

Curtis Kelly rebound positioning… I don’t know if this is something new or just something I haven’t noticed until this game. On free throws, CK positions himself between the man he is blocking out and the basket fine but he was always facing the person not the basket. While it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, it worked fine for a while. The whole game I kept waiting to see it cause a problem and it finally did in the final minute. During the stretch where rebounds were crucial if K-State was going to have a shot, A&M shot a free throw, CK faced his man, and the A&M player went right around him for the rebound. If someone understands this better than I do, let me know, but isn’t it a constant disadvantage to have no idea where the ball is? It has to be coming from a coach because there’s no way if it’s a mistake it would be unnoticed. I just don’t get it.

The Ugly

The fall apart… A 14-0 run by Texas A&M that included K-State stepping over the out of bounds line for a turnover, back to back 3 pointers by the same A&M guy, and general ugliness by K-State. The end result: going from up by 7 to down by 7. What else would we expect? It turned the game upside down and Kansas State never led again.

Kourtney Roberson… Who is Kourtney Roberson you ask? Exactly. At this point the most interesting thing is that he spells his name with a “K” instead of a “C”. I assume that’s because it’s the more male spelling of the name Courtney but I doubt many people really feel that changes a whole lot. The reason he gets a mention here though is because I am so tired of watching players do something that is below average and feel like they are the greatest on earth. A bit into the second half, 6’9” 230 pound Kourtney with a “K” dunked on 6’3” 170 pound Will Spradling. Alright fine, life goes on. But no… Kourtney with a “K” decides he is now a stud and stares down Spradling all the way down the court. Besides the fact that Spradling really just happened to be under the basket at the time of the play, Kourtney with a “K” has 6 inches and 60 pounds on the guy. If you dunk on someone your size or bigger, you get 2 seconds of self promotion time. That’s it. No more. If you dunk and someone smaller happens to be in the vicinity of the hoop, you get nothing. Nada. Zip. This goes for all college basketball players… not just Kourtney with a “K”.