K-State Wildcats blown out by Iowa State at Big 12 Tournament. Are NCAA hopes done?
It will come as a major surprise if music is playing for Kansas State when the NCAA Tournament bracket is unveiled later this week.
A field of 68 teams will go dancing as part of March Madness, but the Wildcats probably won’t be among them. An invitation to a postseason tournament is likely in their future, but they now appear destined for the NIT following a 76-57 loss to Iowa State in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday at T-Mobile Center.
K-State’s hopes of reaching the Big Dance likely came to a painful end against one of its rivals.
The Cyclones played with more energy, toughness and poise than the Wildcats, and for that reason they are advancing in the Big 12 Tournament and K-State is heading home.
K-State (19-14) fell behind by seven at halftime and never found a way to make a serious push against Iowa State (25-7). It did manage to start the second half with a brief run that made Cyclones fans nervous for a minute or two. But Iowa State punched back and then poured it on.
Jerome Tang’s team has a tendency to fight back from big deficits and battle for a full 40 minutes no matter what the scoreboard indicates. But the Cyclones were too strong for that to happen in this game.
Robert Jones led a group of four Iowa State players in double figures with 18 points while K-State only made 18 of 47 shots as a team. Tylor Perry led the Wildcats with 18 points, but he was only able to score five in the important second half.
Little went right for K-State in this game, with each mistake pushing it further and further away from the NCAA Tournament in a must-win game.
K-State will learn its postseason fate on Sunday evening. Until then, here are some takeaways from Thursday’s action:
A familiar problem doomed the Wildcats
Iowa State can be a difficult matchup for Kansas State because of one simple thing.
The Cyclones, and their stifling half-court defense, force more turnovers than any team in Big 12. The Wildcats, and their sloppy offense, commit more turnovers than any other team in the Big 12.
Pit those two extremes against each other on a neutral court and it’s no surprise when one team uses its a strength to expose a weakness on the opposing sideline.
Iowa State did exactly that on Thursday and forced K-State into 20 turnovers. That was too many for the Wildcats to overcome, especially with the Cyclones scoring 23 points off of them.
You could see the Wildcats metaphorically sliding off the NCAA Tournament bubble with every turnover they committed.
Turnovers have been such a problem for K-State this season that Tang more or less gave up on trying to prevent them late in the year. If the Wildcats could limit themselves to 14 turnovers per game, he thought they were in good shape. Eliminating turnovers wasn’t the goal. Finding a way to win despite turnovers was the priority.
K-State couldn’t find a way to do that against Iowa State. Its time at the Big 12 Tournament came to an end for that reason.
Jerome Tang wasn’t happy with the officiating
This game was officiated by Big 12 refs Keith Kimble, Bret Smith and Chance Moore. Jerome Tang didn’t seem happy with any of them.
Tang was in their ears early and often on Thursday, so much so that he picked up a rare technical in the first half for saying something that the officials didn’t approve of.
It happened at a strange time, immediately after K-State came up with a defensive stop. But it seemed like Tang was expecting something like that to happen, because he didn’t react at all after the whistle was blown.
Maybe he was trying to get a technical foul to fire up his team or even out the calls?
It was easy to see why he spent much of this game working the refs. The first six fouls of the contest went against K-State and Tylor Perry had to spend long stretches of the first half on the bench with two fouls.
It wasn’t until the 11:52 mark of the first half that Iowa State was called for its first foul. K-State fans reacted with loud applause after it finally happened.
The final foul count ended up being 21 to 19 in favor of K-State, so the calls evened out in the end. But everyone wearing lavender was frustrated there for a while.
No comeback this time for the Wildcats
K-State fans had to like their chances, even when the Wildcats were trailing 34-27 at halftime. This is a team that almost always finds a way to go on runs in the second half behind shooters like Perry and Cam Carter.
One day earlier, the Wildcats came from 10 down to beat Texas 78-74 for a victory that gave them legitimate hope of reaching the NCAA Tournament with just one more victory.
But it wasn’t to be.
Nobody on the entire K-State roster was able to find an offensive rhythm against Iowa State.
Tang even challenged Arthur Kaluma at halftime by wrapping his arms around the K-State wing and encouraging him to play with more aggression and possibly take over the game in the second half. He seemed to respond immediately after halftime. But it wasn’t enough.
The Wildcats had such a hard time scoring that the Cyclones won with ease despite only making one 3-pointer.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 8:41 PM with the headline "K-State Wildcats blown out by Iowa State at Big 12 Tournament. Are NCAA hopes done?."