Why does Kansas State keep losing basketball games? Start with simple mistakes
Bruce Weber knew what he wanted to talk about following Kansas State’s 70-59 loss to Texas on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Moments after settling in for his postgame news conference, the K-State coach began discussing a key sequence of errors that doomed his team against the hot-shooting Longhorns.
Here’s what happened: The Wildcats took possession of the ball when Antonio Gordon came up with a defensive rebound after one of Courtney Ramey’s few misses. The Longhorns led 26-20 at the 6 minute, 27 second mark of the first half, but K-State had scored six straight points to gain momentum. The game was far from over.
But then K-State’s David Sloan lost a turnover trying to hit Makol Mawien with a bounce pass in the paint. Ramey came up with a steal and made a transition layup on the other end. Then Sloan made the exact same mistake on K-State’s next possession, which led to another easy layup for the Longhorns. Then Mike McGuirl lost a turnover and Ramey hit a three to give the Longhorns a 33-20 lead.
Some teams might be able to come back from that type of deficit, but the Wildcats (9-18, 2-12 Big 12) are not one of them. Not while they are in the middle of a seven-game losing streak and all alone in last place of the conference standings. Not even against a team like the injured Longhorns (16-11, 6-8), who played this game without star forward Jericho Sims.
As Texas pulled ahead by as many as 21, Weber began wondering about his team’s effort.
“I don’t know, to be honest,” Weber said. “I thought we would be ready to play. I thought the guys were pretty focused yesterday. Some of it, credit to Texas and how they picked it up fighting for a NCAA bid. They played at a special level. I don’t think our guys quit, but those missed layups, missed free throws and turnovers just take a mental toll on you. They put us in a big bind, and we couldn’t recover.”
The Wildcats metaphorically shot themselves in the foot throughout this game. How else does a team lose by 11 at home when it was favored to win by five?
For some reason, Sloan kept attempting bounce passes. So did his teammates. Every time they put the ball on the floor something bad seemed to happen. But they kept trying to force the issue. Mawien, Sloan and Gordon combined for 10 turnovers without a single assist.
“I have said all year you cannot bounce-pass out on the court,” Weber said. “You have got to play strong. David has several of them and he has been pretty good and the guy who has been taking care of the ball and giving us assists, but today their physicality and their guards were good.”
Of course, K-State’s fundamental problems were more than just bounce passes. It also shot the ball miserably from the free-throw line.
The Wildcats connected on 16 of 29 shots from the line, continuing a frustrating trend that has been noticeable all season. They only made 65% of their free throws before this game.
Weber is at a loss for words. He has tried making his players stay after practice specifically to work on free throws. He has also done the opposite. Nothing seems to fix the problem.
“It’s simple,” senior guard Xavier Sneed said. “We just don’t make them. It’s like Coach Weber said, we have been in the gym shooting them and everybody has been after them before practice, during practice, after practice. We run for missed free throws, as well. We just haven’t showed up at the line.”
It will be interesting to see where K-State goes from here. This is the first time it has lost seven straight games since Jim Wooldridge was first on the job in 2001. With upcoming games against highly rated Baylor and Kansas, it’s fair to wonder if this team will win again this season, even with Oklahoma State, Iowa State and the Big 12 Tournament still on the schedule.
Even the most of talented teams have trouble overcoming simple mistakes like turnovers and missed free throws. When K-State commits those sins, victory can feel nearly impossible.
This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Why does Kansas State keep losing basketball games? Start with simple mistakes."