Three takeaways from Kansas State’s road basketball loss against the UCF Knights
Kansas State’s roller-coaster basketball season continued on Wednesday when the Wildcats fell to UCF 80-76 at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando.
You can’t find a stranger sequence of up-and-down results than what K-State has produced in recent weeks.
First, K-State lost six straight conference games. Next, it reeled off six consecutive wins to enter the NCAA Tournament conversation. And now, it has lost four in a row.
The Wildcats (13-15, 7-10 Big 12) will need a strong finish to avoid their first losing season under third-year coach Jerome Tang.
Perhaps that made this loss more difficult than usual for Tang to take.
“I normally take the blame for stuff and everything,” he said on his postgame radio show. “But at some point some of these guys have got to take ownership of what’s going on out there. This one is very frustrating.”
The Knights (15-13, 6-11 Big 12) won this battle of struggling conference foes by winning the rebounding battle 41-35 and by getting 26 points from Keyshawn Hall to go along with 23 points from Darius Johnson. Not to be outdone, Moustapha Thiam nearly had a triple-double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks.
K-State played from behind most of the game, as it only led for 1 minute, 33 seconds late in the first half. But it threatened to steal the game late. The Wildcats pulled within two in the closing moments but they were only able to make one field goal in the final 3 minutes with the game on the line.
“I have got a good group of guys that have high character and perseverance,” Tang said. “They’re gritty and they fight back. But at some point we have to stop fighting back and just fight from the very beginning and get a lead. We have to not allow a team to get a lead and force us to claw back.”
Max Jones led the Wildcats with 22 points and CJ Jones had 12.
One disappointing stat for K-State was that it got 24 points off of UCF turnovers and still lost a road game that was up for grabs.
Coleman Hawkins missed his second straight game with an injury. There is no timetable for his return.
Up next for K-State is a home game against Colorado on Sunday.
Tang didn’t waste any time after this loss before he asked fans to continue supporting the Wildcats inside Bramlage Coliseum.
“We are not good enough to win without you,” he said. “We need a home-court advantage ... We can still turn this thing and do some good things moving forward, but we need you.”
Until then, here are takeaways from Wednesday’s action:
Max Jones showed off in his home state
Max Jones took a long and winding path to the Wildcats.
The senior guard grew up in Clearwater, Florida, and began his college basketball career playing for a Division II school in nearby Tampa. He was not a heralded high school recruit, but he played well enough as an underclassman to transfer up to the Division I level at Cal-State Fullerton. From there, he made enough plays to earn a shot at K-State.
He has been able to show off his skills to a wider audience during his lone season with the Wildcats, as he has become a regular starter who averages nearly 10 points per game.
Still, it was clearly important for him to put up a big game upon his return to the Sunshine State.
Jones led the Wildcats with 22 points while playing a few hours away from his hometown. He did most of his damage from the free-throw line. Jones attacked the basket with reckless abandon and got to the charity stripe all night long. He made 7 of 8 foul shots. He also drained three 3-pointers and grabbed four rebounds.
This was arguably his best game in a K-State uniform. He set a season-high in scoring, topping the 19 points he scored in the opener against New Orleans.
Welcome back, Macaleab Rich
It came as a complete surprise when Tang sent Macaleab Rich onto the floor midway through the first half.
The sophomore forward has long been a fan favorite, because of his ability to make athletic plays and score in the paint. But he had missed the past 13 games for K-State simply because Tang didn’t feel the need to play him. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like he had lost his spot in the rotation and there was no way for him to get it back.
But Rich got an opportunity in this game with Coleman Hawkins on the bench with an injury and David N’Guessan in early foul trouble.
He immediately made his presence felt by soaring through the air and throwing down a put-back dunk.
It turned out to be an up-and-down game for Rich. He logged 14 minutes of playing time and managed to score four points and grab four rebounds while he was on the court. Best of all, the Wildcats outscored the Knights by seven when he was in the game.
But Rich showed clear signs of rust, and he appeared lost at times on offense when he didn’t have the ball.
It will be interesting to see if Tang continues to use Rich in a limited role or if he will return to the bench.
Ugonna Onyenso disappointed in his first start
The Wildcats went with a small starting lineup that featured four guards in their first game without Hawkins. But Tang opted to change things up when that strategy led to an ugly home loss against Arizona State.
In this game, K-State tried a big lineup that featured 7-foot center Ugonna Onyenso in the paint.
It was understandable for Tang to put his faith in Onyenso, given that the Knights have a tall frontcourt. Onyenso has the capability to block shots and score in the paint.
But the new starting lineup did not produce the kind of results that Tang was searching for.
Onyenso disappointed in his first start of the season, as he only scored four points and grabbed four rebounds. Only one of his boards came on the defensive end, which allowed the Knights to get several looks at second-chance points. Onyenso did record three blocks, but he turned the ball over twice.
More was expected of him when he transferred to K-State from Kentucky.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Three takeaways from Kansas State’s road basketball loss against the UCF Knights."