Kansas State interim head coach Matthew Driscoll sounded off after the Wildcats’ 100-76 loss to No. 13 Texas Tech, sending a blunt message: you can’t win games playing the way his team did against the Red Raiders.
Driscoll, coaching in only his second game after Kansas State fired former head coach Jerome Tang, collected his first loss and the team’s 12th after a strong showing at home against Baylor.
Texas Tech beats Kansas State despite missing JT Toppin
Driscoll had nothing but kind words after the match for Texas Tech head coach Grand McCasland, and rightfully so. The Red Raiders jumped to third in the conference after the win and collected their fourth victory in five games.
Texas Tech shot just shy of 50% from the floor, ending the game with all five starters in double figures. Luke Bamgboye, who started the game in place of Toppin, logged 12 points, six rebounds and a team-high three blocks.
“[Texas Tech] was not concerned that [Toppin] wasn’t playing,” Driscoll said. “They were playing like ‘JT’s not playing, so what’s next?'”
Red Raiders’ shot blocking ability dominates Kansas State
Bamgboye was the only member of the Texas Tech starting five to come away with multiple blocks, but not the only on the board in that category. LeJuan Watts, Christian Anderson, Marial Akuentok, Josiah Moseley and Tyeree Bryan all ended the game with blocks of their own.
Compare that to Tuesday against Baylor when the Bears only came away with five, and the difference in shot-making ability becomes night and day. Unlike that game, P.J. Haggerty only scored 17 points, half the total he finished with against the Bears.
“Today, you found out that P.J. Haggerty, when he gets cut, he bleeds too,” Driscoll said. “He’s human. Did they do something to him, were they more physical with him… He just had a bad day.”
Matthew Driscoll comments on Wildcats’ performance post-Tang
When asked about how his team bounced back in the wake of the recent events surrounding the program, Driscoll wasn’t shy about sharing the truth about how it affected his players.
For clarity, he didn’t say that Tang’s departure was positive, just that the team has been responsive to Driscoll’s style of coaching.
“There was no sulking, [and] there was no ‘it’s my time’,” Driscoll said. “Right now, this can become an individual deal, but the problem is that marketability always comes into play. The way in which you grow… all that stuff is going to matter, [and] from a basketball standpoint they haven’t missed a beat.”
In Tang’s final game on the road against Houston, the team showed vast improvements, even removing player names from the back of their jerseys. That day, the Wildcats flipped the betting odds, ending the game within 14 points instead of the projected 22.
And according to Driscoll, nothing about the expectations or anything related to discipline has changed in wake of the recent events.
“We’re coaching them just like we would coach them if coach Tang was here,” Driscoll said. “To their credit, they haven’t missed a beat in that sense.”
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