Most likely, this is the “final” final of a disappointing season.
Kansas State dropped a 70-56 decision to the Baylor Bears Wednesday evening in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.
For the second straight night, K-State (16-17) started fast, scoring the game’s first 4 points and forcing an early Baylor timeout. The Bears (19-13) responded with a 13-4 run to seize a lead they would never surrender.
Let’s acknowledge the few positives first. David N’Guessan, who has built himself into an efficient battler for K-State, finished in style. The big man scored 20 points on 8-9 shooting from the field, and he even made 4 of 5 free throw attempts. He added 10 rebounds to notch a double-double. His efforts, frankly, saved the Wildcats from abject embarrassment at T-Mobile Center.
Dug McDaniel had a decent game, at least in some respects, scoring 14 points while collecting 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He only shot 6-17 from the floor, however, including 1-6 from three-point range, and he committed 5 of the team’s 7 total turnovers.
Max Jones scored 10, giving the Wildcats a third double-figure scorer. He was 3-10 overall, and 0-6 from deep.
Inefficient shooting has been a major defect, of late, and it was again. Overall the team shot 21-57 (37%), including 3-25 (12%) from outside. If you remove N’Guessan’s performance, the rest of the team combined to shoot 13-48 (27%) overall.
Poor shooting was not the only culprit. Aside from N’Guessan’s performance, the team did nothing particularly well. Defenders could not stay in front of Baylor’s dribble-drives, and when K-State helped, the Bears made their wide-open looks from outside. Attempting to change the tempo by playing zone in the second half, the Wildcats repeatedly failed to rebound misses, allowing Baylor to burn more clock and get second opportunities.
To be clear, Baylor did not necessarily play like a juggernaut. It only looked that way. The Bears made 28 of 61 attempts (46%), including 7-21 from beyond the arc. They out-rebounded K-State 37-32, had 6 more 2nd-chance points (10-4), and beat the Cats 42-32 in the paint. They had 16 assists to K-State’s 10. Baylor committed 6 turnovers, to K-State’s 7.
The Bears’ ability to create open looks and make baskets was the difference. At heart, it’s a simple game: Score, and stop the other team from scoring. Baylor was better at those things than K-State was.
VJ Edgecombe scored 19, and Jayden Nunn added 18 to lead the Bears.
NEXT GAME
Next year, most likely.
There is a chance the Cats get an NIT invitation, but it is by no means a certainty. Teams are not required to have a .500 or better record any longer to be eligible. The NIT guarantees entry to the highest ranked two teams (based on NET rankings) from each of six conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern) who missed the NCAA field, irrespective of record, and then selects the 20 best teams available to complete the 32-team field.
Before tonight’s loss, K-State’s NET rating was 73, one spot ahead of Arizona State. But UCF (17-15, NET 72), Utah (16-16, NET 70), and Cincinnati (18-14, NET 48), are all likely to miss the NCAA field. West Virginia (19-12, NET 46) is a bubble team that failed itself by losing to Colorado this afternoon and could get bumped by mid-major madness. The point is, K-State simply will not have one of the two highest NET rankings among non-Big Dance qualifiers from the Big 12.
The Cats do have more “Quad-1” wins than any of those teams, except West Virginia. Whether that gives them a winning argument or not, nobody can predict.
Sadly, for a three-week period when K-State knocked off three ranked opponents and decimated Iowa State in Ames, we saw the potential this squad possesses. We just didn’t see it consistently, outside of that one stretch. Night-in, night-out, the team needed to be able to rely on more than only the effort of David N’Guessan, and it never found that second consistent, reliable thing.