Why Bruce Weber thinks Kansas State’s best basketball lineup may use two point guards
Bruce Weber made a fascinating discovery while he experimented with different lineup combinations during Kansas State basketball practices earlier this season.
Every time he paired Nijel Pack and Markquis Nowell together in the same back court, their team seemed to score at a dizzying pace.
So why hasn’t Weber started both of them at an actual game this year? Well, uh, you see ... He is slowly running out of reasons to keep them separated.
“Can we start both?” Weber said. “It’s going to be hard not to. They’re obviously going to play together ... Offensively, there’s no doubt that’s our better team with those two.”
Indeed, Pack is the team’s leading scorer and best all-around player. The sophomore guard is averaging 14.4 points and making 47.5% of his three-pointers this season. The Wildcats need him on the floor as much as possible. But Nowell has also been efficient with the ball in his hands. The Arkansas-Little Rock transfer is averaging 13.2 points, 4.6 assists and four rebounds.
It makes tons of sense to play them together, expect that they are both point guards.
The majority of Nowell’s production has come over his past three games, when Pack was sidelined or limited with a concussion. During that time, Nowell totaled 49 points, 23 assists and 19 rebounds. Now that Pack is healthy, Weber can’t just send Nowell back to the bench. Can he?
We will found out when K-State heads to Nebraska for its next nonconference game at 5 p.m. Sunday.
For now, though, a two-point-guard lineup seems likely.
“Offensively, it gets your most productive guys that can create shots and make plays for everybody else,” Weber said. “So that’s a positive. The tough part is if you have big guards on opposing teams. Green Bay and some other people have tried to post up Markquis. You have two smaller guards out there. But I tell our coaches, if they’re going to take themselves totally out of their offense to try and take advantage of it and we do a good job fronting and make them use a lot of shot clock it could be a positive thing for us.”
The Wildcats haven’t played Nowell and Pack together all that often this season. Weber has gone with at least 10 different lineup combinations more often in K-State’s past five games, according to Ken Pomeroy.
But K-State has found success with two point guards in the past.
Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente formed a dynamic scoring duo under former coach Frank Martin. More recently, Barry Brown and Kamau Stokes co-existed in the same back court for four consecutive seasons and guided K-State to three straight NCAA Tournaments and one shared Big 12 championship.
It will be interesting to see how Nowell and Pack share the ball if they are asked to play alongside each other for long stretches against the Cornhuskers. But they could complement each other well if Nowell operates as the lead point guard and Pack does more away from the ball.
Nowell can make lots of things happen by driving to the basket and either creating his own shot or kicking the ball out to open shooters. Pack is more gifted as a catch-and-shoot scorer or a mid-range shooter.
Defense and rebounding could become issues with two small guards on the court at the same time, but an infusion of offense could help offset any of those issues.
Weber has been reluctant to embrace K-State’s top scoring lineup this season, but it may be time for the Wildcats to give it a go.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Why Bruce Weber thinks Kansas State’s best basketball lineup may use two point guards."