Kansas State Wildcats only have themselves to blame after costly Utah basketball loss
The Kansas State men’s basketball team had much to play for against Utah on Monday night.
The Wildcats could have inched closer to the NCAA Tournament with a win. They also could have moved up the Big 12 standings and proved they are a team to be reckoned with late in the season before everyone’s attention shifts to March Madness.
But K-State was unable to secure the positive result it yearned for and lost 74-69 in front of 7,537 fans at Jon M. Huntsman Center.
At this time last week, the Wildcats were on a six-game winning streak and arguably the hottest team in the entire country. Now they are a middling team that is in danger of falling off the bubble after losing two in a row.
Why? The answer is what makes Monday’s loss to Utah more frustrating than usual — K-State couldn’t make hustle plays in a high-stakes game that felt like a must-win for NCAA Tournament purposes.
Utah bludgeoned K-State in rebounds 51-28. It also attempted 30 free throws and beat the Wildcats 14-7 on second-chance points.
Every time the ball was up for grabs in an important situation, it seemed like the Utes were able to corral it and score. The Wildcats were a step slow and spent much of the game committing fouls.
“When we go after the ball with one hand, man, it’s just tough,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said afterward. “Tough people grab two-hand rebounds and they go stick their nose in and get the ball. That’s something that we have got to learn and grow from, especially when you’re in a tough environment or you’re on the road. The fans aren’t giving you energy. You’ve got to bring your own energy. You have to make those plays happen. We didn’t, and they did.”
One might have expected the Wildcats to play with an extra gear in this game, given everything that was on the line.
But it didn’t happen. Coleman Hawkins, David N’Guessan, Mobi Ikegwuruka and CJ Jones all committed four fouls, which meant none of them could play their usual allotment of minutes. Outside of Brendan Hausen (17 points) nobody had a particularly strong game on the offensive end. Nobody looked great on defense.
It looked like Utah (15-11, 7-8 Big 12) was the team with something to play for instead of K-State (13-13, 7-8 Big 12).
“No excuses,” Hausen said. “We just didn’t come out and get the job done. They played harder than us.”
Despite all the numbers that went against K-State as it tried to match up against a Utah starting lineup that featured five players who are 6-foot-6 or taller, they had opportunities to steal the game late.
But Utah made all the clutch plays to go along with all the hustle plays.
That was most obvious on the glass.
“They are big at every position,” Tang said. “I asked a few times, ‘Are our guys not jumping?’ I was told that, ‘Yeah, they’re boxing out but they’re not jumping.’ I will have to go watch the film and figure it out.”
Tang tried to put a positive spin on this loss, saying that the Wildcats are close to being “really, really good.” He is hopeful that losing games against BYU and Utah during their road trip through the Mountain Time Zone will end up being a great learning experience for this group.
And the NCAA Tournament is still technically within reach.
“We obviously have got to win out,” K-State guard Max Jones said. “But I feel like we could do that with our team. We will just always have hope.”
Still, it will be hard for some to see a silver lining after a loss to Utah that could have been avoided by making a few extra hustle plays.
This story was originally published February 18, 2025 at 9:48 AM with the headline "Kansas State Wildcats only have themselves to blame after costly Utah basketball loss."