Three things we learned from Kansas State’s disappointing 71-68 loss at West Virginia
Forget about Kansas State only having eight healthy scholarship players and one coach available during a 71-68 loss against West Virginia on Saturday at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.
None of that is enough to explain away this result.
The Wildcats were in position to win their first Big 12 game of the season, regardless of circumstances, but then completely collapsed. They blew a 17-point lead and allowed the Mountaineers to make every clutch play they needed to steal the game in the second half.
Simply put: This loss is going to sting.
“It’s a tough day,” acting head coach Jermaine Henderson said. “Any time you drop a game that you had the potential of winning, it’s hard. Give credit to West Virginia. They fought back like well-coached, good teams do.”
For a while, it didn’t look like K-State was going to give West Virginia that opportunity.
K-State jumped out to a 23-6 lead midway through the first half, thanks to some hot shooting from Markquis Nowell, Nijel Pack, Mark Smith and Ismael Massoud. Even with a roster and coaching staff depleted by COVID, the Wildcats seemed well on their way to pulling off an improbable road upset.
They led 40-27 at halftime. They were making three-pointers at an impressive clip. Everything was going their way.
But they ran out of steam in the second half without Mike McGuirl, Kaosi Ezeagu, Logan Landers and head coach Bruce Weber, who all watched the game from home while in COVID protocols.
“We just need to put together a full 40-minute game,” Pack said. “They hit some tough ones in there and made some big shots at the end. But, overall, it’s just really about us putting together a whole game. Once we do that I think we’ll be pretty effective.”
The game began to slip away from K-State when most of its three-pointers stopped falling, Davion Bradford struggled mightily to finish good scoring opportunities around the rim and Henderson didn’t have any good adjustments to make.
West Virginia (12-2, 1-1 Big 12) came from behind for the victory against K-State (8-6, 0-3) thanks to 26 points from Sean McNeil, 14 points from Taz Sherman and 11 more from Kedrian Johnson.
McNeil did the majority of his damage in the second half and gave the Mountaineers their first lead of the game when he drained a three that made it 53-50 at the 8:35 mark of the second half.
K-State kept the game close until the end thanks to 20 points from Pack and 14 from Smith. But it wasn’t enough.
Nowell missed a deep three-pointer as time expired that would have forced overtime.
The Wildcats will try to bounce back in their next game against TCU, set for Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Here are three key takeaways from the West Virginia loss:
Another fast start, slow finish without Weber
For the second straight game, K-State played like a relaxed and confident team immediately after the opening tip.
Much like they did against Texas earlier in the week, the Wildcats raced to an early lead over West Virginia without their head coach watching from the bench.
This time, K-State jumped out to a 23-6 lead and looked like the superior team despite only having eight scholarship players. Nowell, Massoud and Smith drained three pointers. Bradford threw down a dunk. They showed emotion after every bucket and stop.
The Wildcats made nine three-pointers and led 40-27 at halftime. It was a welcome change for a K-State team that has gotten off to way too many slow starts during nonconference play.
What’s changed? Well, it’s hard to overlook the fact that Shane Southwell served as the head coach against Texas and Henderson was in charge against West Virginia.
Maybe it’s just a strange coincidence, but slow starts haven’t been a problem for K-State without Weber. Perhaps he should let his assistants handle things until the first media timeout arrives in future games.
But the Wildcats certainly seemed to miss both Weber and associate head coach Chris Lowery in the second half of its past two games. Halftime turned into losses on both occasions.
They could have really used some coaching adjustments as the Mountaineers made their run.
“You miss those voices,” Henderson said. “There’s a lot of knowledge on both sides of the ball when you talk to Coach Weber or whoever on down with the rest of the staff. You do miss that for adjustments. I think that is the beauty of our staff, is we all see things differently and we do a good job of trying to help each other.”
Welcome back, Nowell
It’s clear the Wildcats missed Markquis Nowell.
The junior point guard had 10 points and 10 assists in 32 minutes of action against West Virginia. That was a strong return to the lineup after he missed K-State’s first two conference games of the season with COVID.
But Nowell was clearly worn out in the second half. That was most obvious by the way he lost six turnovers and also made a foolish foul near midcourt late in the game when he already had three fouls. That sent him to the bench during a crucial time in the game. K-State will hope for more from him after he gets his stamina back and returns to game shape.
Missing piece
K-State may have won this game with a little more production inside.
Points and rebounds were hard to come by with only Bradford and Carlton Linguard available to play the five position.
Without Ezeagu and Landers, the Wildcats squandered several scoring opportunities in the paint against West Virginia.
Bradford finished with six points and three rebounds but only made 2 of 7 shots. He missed a pair of open layups and had his shot blocked multiple times. That was disappointing, because K-State guards got him the ball in excellent scoring position right in front of the basket several times and he was unable to finish. Lingaurd missed his only shot and went scoreless while grabbing five rebounds.
When they weren’t in the game, Massoud had to play center. And that’s not a good fit him.
K-State could really benefit from Bradford returning to his freshman form at some point. He doesn’t seem close to that right now. Perhaps Ezeagu can provide a lift when he returns next week.
Henderson said “the sky is the limit” if the Wildcats can start getting more production from their front court.
Right now, that seems like the missing piece for this team.
This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Three things we learned from Kansas State’s disappointing 71-68 loss at West Virginia."