K-State takeaways: Stokes joins 1,000-point club, makes senior class a historic one at K-State
The Kansas State men’s basketball team concluded the 2018 portion of its schedule on Saturday with a thrilling 59-58 victory over George Mason at Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats built a 21-point lead but then had to withstand a late George Mason rally where it had two chances in the final 10 seconds to steal the win.
K-State will enter its Big 12 opener on Wednesday at home against Texas with a 10-2 record. Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s performance:
1. Stokes gives K-State’s senior class a program first
Kamau Stokes entered Saturday’s game needing eight points to reach 1,000 career points, a milestone he secured with a free throw with 30 seconds left in the first half. Stokes finished with a game-high 20 points on a season-high five three-pointers and became the 30th player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
But the accomplishment was even more special in the bigger picture. Stokes joined fellow seniors Dean Wade and Barry Brown in the 1,000-point club, making this season’s senior class the first in K-State history to feature a trio of 1,000-point career scorers.
Brown (1,450 points) currently ranks ninth all-time in K-State scoring history, while Wade (1,309), who is sitting out with a foot injury, ranks 12th all-time. Stokes already ranks in the career top-10 list for three-pointers made (seventh all-time at 162) and assists (fifth at 344).
“This group is a special group,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “They came in when we had some problems and believed in us and we believed in them. None of them were that highly recruited. But they put in the time and effort into it, and they wanted to be at K-State. When you’ve got guys who want to be here and work at it and believe in the system, they have success. I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“It’s impressive for a class, but I know they’re really focused on leaving a true legacy and going on a run and getting a bunch of more wins here down the stretch.”
Stokes made his milestone night a special one, coming up with clutch back-to-back threes late in the second half to slow George Mason’s first rally. He also nailed his fifth three of the night to push K-State’s lead to 59-53 with 1:21 remaining.
“He stepped up and made some big shots when we needed them,” Brown said. “We put ourselves in a bind, and it came down to a nail-biter, but he made some big shots for us.”
2. So what happened there in the final 10 seconds?
George Mason had two chances to go ahead in the final 10 seconds (and take the lead after having been down 21 points), but came up empty both times.
K-State nearly clinched the game when a corner three by Cartier Diarra rattled in and out of the rim, but George Mason rebounded with 17 seconds left. The Patriots still had their final timeout left, but coach Dave Paulsen made the split-second decision to motion to guard Justin Kier to attack K-State’s defense in transition.
“We were playing well in transition, so when we got the stop we just wanted to go attack,” Paulsen explained afterward.
The gamble didn’t pay off, as Kier put his head down and went straight into the heart of K-State’s defense looking for a foul. Instead, he didn’t get the call and his desperation floater in the lane over two K-State defenders missed badly.
Brown rebounded the miss for K-State at the free-throw line and appeared to dribble out the remaining four seconds for the victory. The crowd exploded, but lost in the noise was a referee’s whistle and ruling that Brown had double-dribbled to avoid a defender with 1.2 seconds still on the clock.
“I think Barry did hit it with both hands when he got the steal down the stretch, but that’s a tough call in that time,” Weber said.
After each side called a timeout to heighten a dramatic finish, the actual ending was about as anti-climatic as it gets. George Mason’s inbounds pass was rifled to Ian Boyd, but the pass was too hard and he bobbled the catch as time expired.
“We’re really disappointed because we had a chance to win that game,” Paulsen said. “But I’m really proud of this group of guys.
“It was just kind of a mishandled exchange in the pressure of the moment.”
3. And what happened in the 10 minutes before that?
George Mason played well down the stretch, but it needed help from K-State in its comeback.
The Wildcats obliged with lethargic offense for much of the second half. After George Mason made its first rally at the lead, trimming K-State’s lead to 49-43 with 6:51 remaining, Stokes appeared to put out the fire with back-to-back threes to force a George Mason timeout and restore K-State’s cushion to 12 points, 55-43.
“You think you’re going to break their spirit, and we didn’t,” Weber said.
While Stokes’ shooting bailed out K-State momentary, those three-balls didn’t cure the offense’s ailment of standing around. Too often K-State’s offense reverted back to dribbling the ball out front for 20 seconds, then forcing a play just to beat the shot clock.
In the final three minutes, K-State’s possessions didn’t even make it that long. That’s because K-State committed three turnovers in four possessions, which George Mason capitalized on for six points to trim K-State’s lead to 59-58 with 44 seconds left.
“It’s always good to get the win, but we made it tough on ourselves, especially me with two careless turnovers at the end of the game,” Stokes said. “I have to take care of the ball at the end of the game; it doesn’t matter how many points I score, if I don’t do that, it puts us in a tough situation.”
K-State scored just 23 points in 31 second-half possessions, thanks to 39-percent shooting and eight turnovers.
It represented a stark contrast from the K-State team from the first half that scored 36 points on 31 possessions, assisted on 11 of 13 made baskets, made 45 percent of shots from the field and 46 percent of shots beyond the arc with just two turnovers.
“When we took care of the ball in the first half, we were really good,” Weber said. “I thought the first 20-27 minutes, we were a good basketball team. But when teams get down, they start taking chances. They were aggressive and they got after it.”
4. Can K-State be a good outside shooting team?
Whenever K-State attempted to drive from the perimeter, George Mason’s game plan was to send at least one help defender from the strong side to crash in and try to force K-State to kick out to a shooter on the perimeter.
The result was the Wildcats taking a lot of wide open three-pointers, but that’s the gamble George Mason’s defense (and likely Big 12 defenses) was willing to make.
On this night, K-State was able to make George Mason pay by hitting 40.9 percent of its threes (9 of 22), the third best accuracy of the season.
The Wildcats still rank in the bottom half of the country in three-point accuracy (31.3 percent) for the season.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to be major big-time at the top of the country, but I think we can be really positive,” Weber said. “Especially if teams are going to pack it in.”
Weber said he has put an emphasis on moving the ball, something K-State did well for the first 25 minutes of the game. Now K-State has to master the art of knowing when to pull the trigger.
“Sometimes we’re passing up on some shots that we could’ve made and taken and shot it with confidence,” Weber said.
It was a learning experience for the Wildcats, one that they were relieved to finish in victory.
“A win is a win, but there are definitely some things we need to learn from this game going into the Big 12,” Stokes said. “We can’t have second halves like that going into the Big 12 against tough teams. We definitely need to learn from this game.”
5. Sneed adjusting to life as small-ball four
Xavier Sneed, K-State’s do-everything 6-foot-5 junior, is adjusting on the fly to filling in as the team’s power forward in the absence of star Dean Wade, who suffered a foot injury on Dec. 15 and has missed the last three games.
Sneed hasn’t seen much of an impact to his offense, but where he has helped the Wildcats the most is with rebounding. After grabbing 14 rebounds against Southern Mississippi and nine against Vanderbilt, Sneed followed up with nine more rebounds against George Mason on Saturday.
“That’s been huge,” Weber said. “He’s really stepped it up in the games since Dean has left. He came up with a big offensive rebound tonight and got it and got it out of there. That might have been the difference in the game.”
Sneed also had 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including three three-pointers. He also had one assist, one block and one steal in 34 minutes.
“He did this last year at the end when he just had to go in and kind of do it on the fly,” Weber said. “Now he’s been through it a little bit and he understands he has to learn to play the three and the four. He’s finding his niche out there.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2018 at 11:08 PM with the headline "K-State takeaways: Stokes joins 1,000-point club, makes senior class a historic one at K-State."
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