Kansas State Wildcats struggle without starter Desi Sills in loss at West Virginia
The Kansas State men’s basketball team was down a key starter when it took the floor against West Virginia on Saturday ... and it showed.
Desi Sills, a senior guard who helped the Wildcats reel off four straight victories after being promoted to the starting lineup two weeks ago, didn’t make the trip to Morgantown. He skipped the game in order to attend a funeral, according to a team spokesperson.
Jerome Tang expects Sills to be back in the rotation for the Big 12 Tournament. That is good news for K-State, which hasn’t lost a game all season with Sills in the starting lineup. But K-State clearly missed him during an 89-81 road loss against the Mountaineers.
The Wildcats shifted back to a starting five that featured David N’Guessan at the five. That strategy worked in the early going, as they raced to an 8-0 lead, but they were no match for West Virginia the rest of the way. Only Keyontae Johnson and Markquis Nowell (24 points each) played well on offense. The entire team looked bad on defense, as the Mountaineers averaged 1.17 points per possession.
It was hard for Tang to quantify where the Wildcats missed Sills the most.
“Defensively, ball-handling, being able to run certain things that we had gotten into the last five games or so,” Tang said. “We’ve gotten into a really good rotation of subbing and things that we felt that we could be effective with both on the offensive end and this just changed everything. It was a good learning experience, though. We saw some things out there that happened out during the last five games. They are things that we can address and be ready for and more prepared for the next time.”
West Virginia played so well that K-State probably would have struggled to win this game even with him on the court.
But the Wildcats had no chance without him. Sills entered the day averaging 8.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He was at his best earlier in the week when he helped K-State beat Oklahoma with an all-around good game that featured 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
K-State players wanted to dedicate a road victory to him. But it didn’t work out that way.
“We had to try and bring the energy that Desi would bring if he was here,” Johnson said. “We went into the game saying we were going to play in ‘Desi Mode,’ just trying to go out there and bring energy and play together and play for Desi.”
The Wildcats probably missed Sills the most on defense.
Opponents were only averaging 64.3 points against them with Sills in the starting lineup. West Virginia rolled to 89 while making 62% of its shots from two-point range and getting to the free-throw line 25 times.
Not having Sills made this an easy game for K-State to put in its rearview mirror. The Wildcats are confident they will bounce back when he returns to the lineup next week at the Big 12 Tournament.
“It will be fun being in Kansas City and playing for a championship,” Nowell said. “The regular season is over now. We can wash this out and play for a trophy. That is going to be the most fun thing about it, actually playing for something.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Kansas State Wildcats struggle without starter Desi Sills in loss at West Virginia."