Bruce Weber disappointed in K-State players (not Big 12 refs) after technical fouls
A pair of Kansas State men’s basketball players raised their hands above their heads and flashed looks of disbelief when they were called for technical fouls during an 82-71 loss against Texas Tech on Tuesday at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas.
The first was freshman guard Selton Miguel, who made an athletic layup at the 14:26 mark of the second half and celebrated the bucket by screaming a few words in the direction of his defender.
The second was freshman forward Seryee Lewis, who converted a key put-back layup to bring the Wildcats within seven points of the Red Raiders with 6:11 remaining and celebrated his big play by flexing his muscles and appearing to yell the words “and one” with several Texas Tech players by his side.
Some might view those actions as innocent signs of enthusiasm, but the officiating team that worked the game — John Higgins, Doug Sirmons and Ray Natili — considered them taunting and slapped both K-State players with costly technical fouls.
Right or wrong, K-State basketball coach Bruce Weber pointed within when it came time for him to assess blame.
“I’m obviously disappointed in the technicals,” Weber said. “Our guys have to be more mature. They are freshmen and those are things they did. Those are habits they have had. We talked about it in practice. Obviously, they made mistakes and now we have got to learn from it and now you can’t have it again. We have to be better if we are going to make progress as a team.”
Both technical fouls were a hot topic for K-State fans after the game. Though they likely didn’t have a major impact on the final score, they robbed the Wildcats of valuable momentum on a night when they were competitive with the nation’s 18th ranked team.
They were also both questionable calls that left much up for interpretation without knowing exactly what was said by each K-State player.
“They just taunted,” Weber said. “They talked to their people. They made a layup and talked in their face, I guess. That is what we were told.”
Weber showed frustration after both fouls, mostly because Texas Tech took advantage of them by making two free throws each time the Wildcats had just pulled within single digits of the lead.
Miguel’s layup made the score 49-41, but the Red Raiders responded with nine straight points. Lewis’ layup made the score 65-58, but the Red Raiders scored the next six points.
Without those runs, the game might have gone differently. Instead it was game over.
Freshman guard Nijel Pack hopes the entire team uses those technical fouls as a learning experience.
“Sometimes I think we play with a little too much emotion,” Pack said. “Being young, those were definitely young mistakes coming from AAU where you could clap in someone’s face and the ref wouldn’t say a thing to now in college basketball where you can’t really get excited. I think my teammates will learn from it and it won’t happen again down the road.”
Weber was asked if there was any kind of silver lining that came with the technical fouls, perhaps that it showed his team played with grit on the road against a heavily favored opponent.
He shook his head.
“The only silver lining is that you hopefully learn from it and it never happens again,” Weber said. “We have talked about it at practice several times. You can’t do that. You can’t do that on national TV with Final Four refs. It’s not allowed. They had to learn the hard way.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 10:03 PM with the headline "Bruce Weber disappointed in K-State players (not Big 12 refs) after technical fouls."