Alrighttttttttt. After we split the Arizona road trip 1-1, it’s time for some home cooking as we take on Kansas State. Good news? Kansas State has seen better days; they’re 10-10 on the year and 1-6 in conference play. Bad news? No one plays down to their competition like the West Virginia Mountaineers. I’m sure all fan bases go through it at one point or another but it really seems like that’s all we do.
There’s only one kid that I’m even remotely worried about and that’s P.J. Haggerty. He’s bounced around over the years from school to school but he’s been a walking 20 for the past 3 years, and he’s averaging 23.4 PPG this year which is the 5th best in the nation. He’s not ultra efficient but if he gets hot it’s pretty difficult to slow him down. Amir Jenkins, Jasper Floyd, and Honor Huff are all going to have their hands full guarding him tonight, so hopefully he doesn’t burn us.
Oh hey, would you look at that. It’s us playing down to our competition again. IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED US OF THAT PRIOR TO THE GAME. The first half was absolutely atrocious: neither team could score, both teams were turning the ball over, and no one could gain an advantage. The worst part of it all? WE WERE THE ONES WHO WERE LOSING. It took us 13 minutes to hit double figures to which we promptly followed that up with a turnover.
The crazy part is, from what I can tell, this is basically the level of play we can expect from Kansas State this year. They’re usually pretty good but this isn’t a year to write home about. Us, on the other hand… I have seen every single game we’ve played this year and I don’t think we’ve ever looked more out of sorts. If it wasn’t for Honor Huff (shocker) we may not have scored more than 10 points until 3 minutes left in the second half.
THANKFULLY, we started to find our groove with 5 minutes left in the first half. Again, thanks to Honor Huff, the offense started to flow a bit more than what we saw the first 15 minutes. Coming into the game Honor was closing in on 1800 career points, and after a flurry of 3’s (4 in the half) he was able to reach that milestone. In doing so, we were able to really break away after a horrendous start. We end the half up 28-22 and it seems like water has found its level; we’ve turned the ball over less (although still too much), we have more points in the paint and fastbreak points, and we shot 36% from 3. Hopefully getting slapped in the mouth for the first 15 minutes woke us up and it’ll be smooth sailing for the rest of the game.
*NARRATOR VOICE*: They were not awake enough.
We start the half the same way we started the first: turnovers, lackluster shooting, and zero sense of urgency. I don’t know how many times someone has to say it, but the Big 12 is the 3rd best basketball league in the world behind the NBA and the EuroLeague. Even when we play this objectively bad basketball team, we can’t just allow them to get back into the game, because they will chip away at the lead and make it competitive. We don’t get back in transition? Andrej Kostic hits a three. We throw a lazy pass? David Castillo scores on the other end. The person I was worried about the most, P.J. Haggerty, didn’t even have that good of a game. He finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists, but he was just so integral to what Kansas State was doing. If he wasn’t involved in the play (no matter how miniscule) they did not convert.
There were a few possessions where I felt like we found something special but we never went back to it. The two-man game and Pick-n-Roll actions between Huff and Brenen Lorient seemed to work every time time, whether it was a direct score from one of them or it was Lorient working the short roll and finding an open shooter. For whatever reason, though, we stopped calling their number and our offense sputtered. I know that when you play in a league this good you want to have structure to your offense. You don’t want to go into an iso heavy offense, especially since we have exactly 1 (maybe 2 if I’m being generous) guys who have the facilities for that. While I do agree to some extent, I also feel like we have to ride wave, and if the guys reach a flow state while playing I think we owe it to them to play it out until it doesn’t work anymore.
They say that you can have good losses and bad wins, and this was a bad win. Stop me if you’ve heard me say this before: “we can’t play like this and expect to win the Big 12.” It just isn’t conducive to winning at any level. In theory, Treysen Eaglestaff or Brenen Lorient should be our second scoring option, but neither of them are consistent enough to do that. Honor Huff played well but 17 points isn’t enough on most nights to lead a team to victory, and when you don’t have consistent scoring options it makes it extremely difficult to play with any sort of continuity. You could make an argument that if P.J. Haggerty played just a normal game for himself that we don’t walk away with this one, and if we lost, it would certainly end all of our March Madness Bid hopes.
For now, those dreams are still alive, I just wish we didn’t have to sweat every single Big 12 game out like this. Like I’ve said too many times this year, though, a win is a win and I won’t ever downplay a W. The Roundball Big 3 of the Game:
Honor Huff – 17 points, 5 3PM, 8 rebounds, 5 assists
Chance Moore – 9 points, 3 stocks
Brenen Lorient – 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block
Our next game isn’t until Saturday when we take on Baylor. They are also at the bottom of the Big 12 standings, but if this game is any indicator, I’m sure they’ll stress me the fuck out all game long. I love you, Pops. I miss you. I’ll see you soon.
Round The Game 
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