Wildcats starting to live up to Bruce Weber’s lofty preseason expectations

It’s hard to pick the most impressive thing about Kansas State’s 65-55 victory over TCU on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.

Xavier Sneed scored a game-high 18 points that featured a pair of lob dunks. Those were good.

The Wildcats made 22 shots on 15 assists, including some terrific ball movement that featured a touch pass from Dean Wade to Makol Mawien for a slam, against lots of zone defense. That was pretty.

K-State also forced TCU into 18 turnovers and held the Horned Frogs to a season-low 55 points, more than 25 below their average. It won without a super-human effort from Barry Brown (10 points), a rarity in these parts. That was hard to ignore.

Pick one or pick them all. There is no wrong answer. Perhaps that is the most impressive aspect of this game.

If there’s anything K-State has proven during its four-game winning streak, which has vaulted the Wildcats (14-4, 4-2 Big 12) into a tie for first place in the conference standings after an ugly start, it’s that it can win in different ways.

That was certainly the case here. K-State’s most recent victory didn’t resemble any of its previous three, which included a 21-point comeback against West Virginia, a grind-it-out win at Iowa State and a drama-free beatdown at Oklahoma.

This felt like the most complete effort of the bunch for Bruce Weber’s team.

“They did what they wanted to do, and we did not,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “That is an extremely physical team, and they got it done. Give them credit.”

K-State took control early against TCU by scoring the first seven points and never surrendered the lead. The Wildcats have now gone 80 straight minutes against quality Big 12 opponents without trailing for a single second.

They have been dominant.

Wade’s healthy return to the lineup has sparked the turnaround after an ugly start to conference play. His scoring ability and mere presence on the floor has helped the Wildcats open things up on offense. Teams can’t simply collapse into a zone against them.

But it goes deeper than that. K-State is playing with swagger right now, and it shows.

“Our confidence is at an all-time high and we are just playing really good basketball right now,” Wade said. “Hopefully we can keep that going.”

Is K-State back to being the team that made a run to the Elite Eight last March and began the season at No. 12 in the national polls? That’s a question fans have asked throughout this winning streak.

Weber thinks the answer is obvious.

He liked Saturday’s result so much that he said this team is even playing up to the expectations he set for it before the season began, when he said K-State wasn’t getting nearly enough national respect.

“We had to figure it out,” Weber said. “We had to go through some adversity. We had to go through some tough times and figure it out. They had to figure it out … I’m happy, but we have got to keep getting better. Teams get better as the season goes on. I don’t care what the sport is, you have to get better. Hopefully they have that desire.”

K-State players have shown plenty of desire over the past two weeks. Impressive results have followed.

This story was originally published January 19, 2019 at 7:27 PM with the headline "Wildcats starting to live up to Bruce Weber’s lofty preseason expectations."