Rapid recap: Kansas State must start faster
Another slow Kansas State start
Kansas State started slow for the third consecutive game. Oklahoma held K-State scoreless until the second media timeout. It was 8-1 Sooners with 11:49 to go in the first half. Saturday at Houston, Kansas State did not score until after the first media timeout. Last Wednesday at Iowa State K-State fell down 9-0 in the first three minutes.
Jerome Tang said he needs to watch the film more to see if there is something teams are doing defensively that is a common denominator to start games. The Kansas State head coach believes his team was getting good shots at the first media timeout, but was not knocking them down. K-State’s first basket came at the 10:30 mark of the first half on a David N’Guessan layup.
Second chance points
For the most part, Kansas State battled tonight on the glass. Specifically on the defensive glass, Oklahoma had just 12 offensive rebounds. However, eight of those came in just the second half. Jalon Moore and Sam Godwin had six of the offensive rebounds in the second half for the Sooners.
Another problem with the offensive rebounds given up was were they were loud. Whenever Oklahoma got an offensive rebound it seemed to lead to a big basket off of second-chance points. Specifically, K-State forced a missed shot down seven but did not get the rebound leading to a Sooners basket. It happened again on the next possession pushing the lead back out to 11 and then Kansas State never threatened.
K-State’s offensive struggles
K-State’s offense has lacked a rhythm or flow in the last two games. Houston held the Wildcats to 52 points Saturday and Oklahoma held Kansas State to 53. Some of the problem is just missing shots. K-State had some open looks in the first and second half that could have cut the lead. In fact, the Wildcats had multiple possessions around the 11-minute mark where the lead could have been trimmed to single digits and did not convert.
Another problem growing on offense is not giving one more pass. Kansas State has been a good catch-and-shoot team in practice and they want to recreate those shots in game action. In the Big 12, every team knows what sets teams want to run, so K-State’s coaches want to do a better job of helping them in those situations. When the Wildcats do get a catch-and-shoot opportunity, the players need to step up and make plays.
