Three takeaways from Kansas State’s first Big 12 loss of the season 82-68 at TCU
The Kansas State men’s basketball team was bound to come back down to earth at some point this month, and it finally happened during an 82-68 loss against TCU on Saturday at Schollmaier Arena.
K-State looked nothing like the same squad that opened conference play with four straight victories and appeared unstoppable while doing so. The No. 11 Wildcats (15-2, 4-1 Big 12) turned the ball over 20 times on offense, gave up 25 layups on defense and never found their rhythm with point guard Markquis Nowell only scoring 14 points and sending out four assists.
No. 17 TCU (14-3, 3-2) was the better team on this day with Emanuel Miller leading all scorers with 23 points and Eddie Lampkin adding 17 in the paint.
The question: Is this the beginning of a downward trend for the Wildcats? Or was it simply an off game?
We may soon get an answer with the rival Kansas Jayhawks next on the schedule on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
Until then, here are some key takeaways from Saturday’s action:
K-State and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day
Let’s explore that key question from above a little deeper.
Was this blowout loss a sign of bad things to come for K-State? Will there be more days like this in Big 12 play? Will the Wildcats struggle to remain in the top half of the league standings?
Or was this just a blip on the radar screen, the type of bad game that even the best teams encounter each season? Will they bounce back with ease?
New coach Jerome Tang thinks he knows the answer.
“I don’t know what our record is, but I know we only have two losses,” Tang said. “There is nothing to panic about. I’ve got a veteran group and I’ve got a bunch of winners in that locker room.”
He blamed this loss on himself.
“I was very disappointed in myself and our staff and our preparation,” Tang said. “I don’t feel like, in hindsight, that we gave our guys the best opportunity to win this game. We will do a better job of that.”
While it’s impossible to gaze into the future and say anything definitive, signs do point to the Wildcats having staying power. Maybe they won’t be able to reel off another four straight conference victories on command like they did at the start of league play. But they are too good to fade into the background.
This was not a shock for K-State players.
“Every night you have got to bring it and give it all you can,” K-State forward Keyontae Johnson said. “You can’t have any off nights. We are getting the other team’s best and they are getting our best. That is why you play college basketball to play against the highest level, especially in this conference. I think I made the right decision coming to the Big 12.”
The only other time K-State lost a game this season, it bounced back immediately from a 76-64 loss at Butler with nine straight wins until it stumbled on Saturday.
Tang has assembled a resilient group. One loss is unlikely to shake them.
Not all teams in the Big 12 are built like TCU, either. Better matchups are on the horizon, even though Kansas poses a considerable challenge next week.
By the way, few K-State fans will have any memory of this loss if the Wildcats turn around and beat the Jayhawks on Tuesday.
“It’s a big rivalry game and it is going to have high intensity,” Johnson said. “I came to this conference to play in these type of games. They have got a lot of history behind them. I am just ready to compete and get back out there again.”
Losses are inevitable in the Big 12. How the Wildcats respond to them will ultimately determine how much this team can accomplish.
TCU is a bad matchup for the Wildcats
K-State hasn’t done much wrong this season, but turnovers and post defense have stood out at times as two of their biggest weaknesses.
Guess what the Horned Frogs are really good at. They are excellent at creating turnovers with their defense and scoring inside with Eddie Lampkin and Emanuel Miller. TCU took advantage of both of those strengths on Saturday and they exposed the Wildcats in both areas.
K-State turned the ball over like crazy and finished with 20 giveaways. That allowed TCU to run and score a plethora of easy points at the rim. This game felt like a layup line at times for the Frogs, and they finished with 25 of them on 35 attempts. They scored 32 of their points in transition.
No team could overcome those numbers.
TCU was so dominant with its inside play and transition offense that it crushed K-State despite only making three shots from three-point range. You don’t see that every day.
Rare bad game for Markquis Nowell
We can probably hold off on proclaiming Nowell as a lock to win Big 12 Player of the Year honors after this performance.
Nowell had a rare quiet game against TCU and finished with 14 points, four assists and six turnovers.
“I just wasn’t poised,” Nowell said. “I feel like I’m way better than what I displayed today. I could have done a better job leading and I could have done better with my defense.”
That might have been the biggest surprise of Saturday’s action. Nowell entered the game as the Big 12 leader in points, assists and turnovers with a pair of 30-point efforts on his resume.
But he was unable to sustain that level of play against a TCU defense that was clearly focused on stopping him. Though Nowell finished in double figures, the bulk of his scoring came in the final few minutes when K-State was impossibly behind.
Nowell went 5-of-13 from the field and 2-of-7 from three-point range. He also finished with more turnovers than assists.
“He’s a good player. You can’t take that away from him,” TCU guard Mike Miles said. “We just tried to make him take difficult shots at the rim instead of shooting open threes all game.”
To be fair, just about everyone in a lavender uniform had a bad game for the Wildcats.
Keyontae Johnson had 18 points and nine rebounds, but also seven turnovers. Cam Carter only had four points. Starting forward Abayomi Iyiola didn’t score.
This was easily K-State’s worst performance of the season. But it was only one game.
This story was originally published January 14, 2023 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Three takeaways from Kansas State’s first Big 12 loss of the season 82-68 at TCU."