The final score says about as much as you need to know about the K-State men’s basketball opener against the Missouri Tigers in Columbia Friday night. The Wildcats appear to be a team that can score. But
they will have to improve in other areas to be successful.
Defense is an obvious concern. Mizzou’s 100 points came on 55% shooting. That will happen when you give up 54 points in the paint and 29 on the fast break.
Rebounding was a major bugaboo last year, and though K-State only lost the battle of the boards 38-34, it felt worse than that. Missouri converted several offensive boards to dunks, and free throw attempts.
Speaking of free throws, fouling was also a problem. The Cats committed 23 fouls, sending the Tigers to the line for 34 charity attempts. They made 26, while K-State went 15-21 from the stripe. Even an old English teacher can do that math to compare that deficiency to the final scoring margin.
Not all the news is bad. After two years of struggling on the offensive end, it appears the Wildcats will be able to score plenty. PG Haggerty looked like everything he was advertised to be, putting up 23 points on 8-14 (2-4 from three) shooting. He also posted six assists, three rebounds, and a steal, and he was nowhere near the biggest liability for K-State on defense.
Nate Johnson also played well, netting 14 points and 6 rebounds. Eleven of the twelve Wildcats who played contributed at least 5 points.
In a fast-paced game, the Cats only committed 10 turnovers
Given the choice between a team that struggles to score and one that needs to tighten up the defense and put more effort into rebounding the ball, I’ll take the squad that can score. After the last couple of seasons, I imagine we all will.
NEXT GAME:
We’ll see how much the squad can learn from the tape. The Cats will wrap up the exhibition portion of their season against Newman at 7:00 on Halloween.
