K-State Skid Reaches Four, Drops Second Straight at Home 78-67 to Seton Hall

SB Nation

As it turns out, meeting newly-introduced Head Football Coach Collin Klein was the pinnacle of the afternoon in Bramlage, as K-State (5-4) dropped their fourth straight – second in a row in the Octagon

of Gloom – to the Seton Hall Pirates (9-1), 78-67. K-State entered the game as a 2.5-point favorite, but produced another bed-soiling.

I apologize we have to come down off this high and get kicked in the nuts by reality.

K-State came out of the gate with a little more fire than the last game (let’s not stub our toes stepping over that bar), connecting on a backdoor alley-oop set play to Nate Johnson to get the crowd fired up and get on the board first 2-0. K-State would never lead again the rest of the way. Poor perimeter defense allowed Seton Hall to connect on a few early threes to steal the lead. K-State’s Dorin Buca – who didn’t see the floor against Bowling Green despite averaging 10 minutes a game – provided a heroic spark off the bench in the half, posting 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists in the half, while turning away the Pirates at the rim on several occasions. The Cats were able draw even at 26-all, before Seton Hall went on an 8-0 run (with Buca out) to regain the lead at the half, 35-29.

Only one team came out after the halftime break – and it wasn’t the team in white and purple. Seton Hall a six-point advantage to a 13-point lead, 44-31, before coach Jerome Tang would call a quick timeout to try to stop the bleeding. Lots of frustration as Seton Hall continued to hold the Cats off – leading to Tang eventually boiling over and picking up a T on a no-call where PJ Haggerty looked to be tripped on a drive to the bucket (honestly, the contact wasn’t a foul; Haggerty tripped over his own feet). Haggerty then picked up two quick personals on absolute crap calls right in front of Tang on a side-out play by Seton Hall, and how Tang managed to not get kicked out is incredible. The technical free throws stretched the Pirate lead out to 16, before K-State went on a run to draw it back to 9 and 51-42. Didn’t take long for the Cats to turn it over a couple of times and let Seton Hall stretch the lead back out to 16 at 60-44. Another nice little run and K-State cuts the lead to 8, only to have Seton Hall stretch it back out to 17 just before the under-4 media timeout. It became pretty obvious after the timeout that the only thing in question would be the final spread, which ended at 78-67 after a late flurry from the Cats.

All five starters for K-State finished in double-figures, with Khamari McGriff leading the way with 12 points, 8 boards, and 3 blocks. Haggerty finishes with 11 points, 4 boards, 6 assists, and somehow only 6 turnovers. Buca had a solid game; only 5 points, but 8 boards, 2 assists, 3 blocks, and as mentioned before, his presence on the interior turned away a number of Seton Hall advances.

The Pirates were paced by AJ Staton-McCray with 16 points (albeit on 3-15 shooting), with 5 boards, 4 assists, and 3 steals.

THREE IN THE KEY

1) Defense? Optional.

Open looks from 3? Check. Overplaying the passing lane giving up an easy bucket? Check. Allowing a coast-to-coast layup when your “defense” is more or less back and set? Check.

This team is going to get torched in conference play if this is the best that can be conjured on the defensive end. That being said, the defense was probably good enough to win this game.

2) Offense? Offensive.

Turnovers? Check. Bricks? Check. No actual offensive flow? Check. The Best Shooters In America™ managed to go 6-30 from deep (it was 3-26 through the first 38 minutes), 23-62 overall (a blistering 37% FG), and a really good-start on a new facility on campus with all the bricks from the stripe (15-35, 43% FT). It all boils down to offensive execution.

This team looks lost on offense right now – much like the bogged-down offensively-inept teams of the late Bruce Weber era. They aren’t moving well, or more accurately, they’re not moving in ways that gets the defense out of position. The result is a lack of open shots. When we can find open shots, we have really been struggling to make them. The result is a death-spiral of confidence, which is bleeding into the free-throw shooting.

Even if the defense improves, mediocre teams in the Big 12 will beat us handily if we can’t be more efficient scoring the basketball.

3) Haggerty? Demonstrably Average.

3-12 today from the field, with 11 points. 5-12 from the line. His normally pedestrian defense was undeniably awful today. All on the heels of going 6-19 from the floor, 4-9 from the line against Bowling Green. The leading scorer in Division 1 is struggling mightily.

He looks despondent on the floor. He looks despondent on the bench. He’s having more difficulty getting to the basket the last several games, and when he does, the shot attempts have gone from difficult to requiring divine intervention. And he’s getting off the floor begging for a call nearly every single time.

I don’t know if there is a nagging injury or something, but if this is how our best scorer is going to deal with adversity and difficulty, it’s going to be a very long season for him. And for us.

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS:

It was only a matter of time before this came up: the officiating in college basketball is just. so. bad.

So many easy missed calls in our game. Fouls. Goaltends. Travels. So many. And as I sit here watching the CU/CSU game — a late call that a ball was out off CU on a rebound. The refs get together and change the call to off the CSU player. CSU challenges – video review shows the ball going off the fingers of the CSU player – and yet, the refs reverse the call back to being off CU. All the while, what was unreviewable is the fact that the CU player fouled the hell out of the CSU player in the process – and that’s what the call should have been all along.

We all – fans, players, coaches, programs – are held hostage to the incompetence of the zebras, especially in close games. And I’m sitting here wondering why I care about the result of a contest that is so frequently impacted by mediocrity.

CSU ended up winning. Screw CU.