Three things we learned from Kansas State’s home loss against Oklahoma on Senior Day
The Kansas State men’s basketball team ended the regular season with a 78-71 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Unlike many of their previous games, there was no controversial ending for the Wildcats in this one.
The Sooners were better, plain and simple.
With the loss, K-State (14-16, 6-12 Big 12) will carry a five-game losing streak into the Big 12 Tournament. It will be the No. 8 seed at the event and open play against No. 9 seed West Virginia on Wednesday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
The Wildcats will need to win four games in four days to extend their season and reach March Madness. Otherwise, they will miss the postseason for the third straight year and head coach Bruce Weber will almost certainly be removed as head coach.
Oklahoma (17-14, 7-11) kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive and will receive a bye into the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament.
Umoja Gibson led Oklahoma with 29 points. Mark Smith paced K-State with 21.
Here are some key takeaways from the game:
Nijel Pack benched with foul trouble
Bruce Weber proved once again just how much he detests keeping his players in the game when they encounter foul trouble.
Nijel Pack picked up his second foul of the day at the 13:16 mark of the first half and didn’t see the court again until the second half.
That strategy is nothing new for Weber. He rarely ever trusts anyone to play with two fouls in the first half. Not even Barry Brown was immune to an extended benching in K-State’s last NCAA Tournament game, a 70-64 loss to UC-Irvine in 2019.
If ever Weber was going to make an exception and keep one of his guys in the game with two fouls it made sense to happen on Saturday. Pack is the team’s leading scorer and best all-around player. He is also the backup point guard, and Markquis Nowell missed this game with a hamstring injury.
Benching Pack meant that Mark Smith and Mike McGuirl had to handle the ball.
Pack also only averages 1.9 fouls per 40 minutes.
The strategy ended up working out decently, as the Wildcats trailed by five when Pack went to the bench and cut that deficit down to one at halftime. Pack also went back to the bench when he picked up his fourth foul in the second half. Maybe this just wasn’t his day. Weber later said Pack was dealing with a stomach virus.
Still, it would be interesting to know how much differently things might have gone with Pack playing his normal minutes.
Seniors shine on Senior Day
It was appropriate that Mike McGuirl and Mark Smith led the Wildcats in scoring.
Both senior guards played well in their final appearances at Bramlage Coliseum after they were honored in a pregame ceremony.
Smith, who began his career at llinois and Missouri, finished out his home career with the Wildcats by scoring 22 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
McGuirl, who has been around long enough to play in the Elite Eight and earn a Big 12 championship ring, scored a season-high 21 points.
McGuirl seems to be playing his best as his college career comes to an end. His big performance on Saturday came a few days after he scored 18 points against Texas Tech.
It won’t mean much to either player, because those strong individual games didn’t lead to a victory. But they certainly gave it their all on Senior Day.
Frustrating late-season collapse
The most frustrating thing about K-State’s losing streak has to be that it came right when it looked the Wildcats had a realistic path to the NCAA Tournament.
It wasn’t that long ago that K-State had won four of five to climb into the top half of the Big 12 standings. Some thought winning their remaining home games against Iowa State and Oklahoma would be enough for them to reach the postseason.
Instead, they lost both of those games and couldn’t pull off road victories against Oklahoma State, Kansas or Texas Tech.
Most of those losses were close calls. The Wildcats really aren’t that far away from the Big Dance. They simply haven’t been able to win when it matters most. That is one of the main reasons why this was also likely Weber’s last home game with K-State.
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Three things we learned from Kansas State’s home loss against Oklahoma on Senior Day."