I wasn’t able to catch the game in real time last night, but I was able to keep up with the live box score. I’m not going to lie, at halftime, I was writing, shall we say, a colorful critique of the coaching
staff. As things started rapidly shifting in the ‘Cats’ direction, I filed that critique away in my brain’s drafts folder and began composing this article instead.
Now that I’ve watched the game, I have a few thoughts.
The first half was frustratingly familiar. Kansas State looked like a collection of independent contractors going about their business with the joy of mercenaries cashing a paycheck. The defense wasn’t connected, giving up easy looks to players who needed easy looks to score. The offense was stagnant and directionless, with Haggerty looking like he would be docked pay for every pass he attempted.
You know what? I’m not going to spend any more time talking about the first half.
It was bad basketball, and I didn’t enjoy watching it. I don’t think that’s who this team is. I’m not sure if they’re going to be good, but if nothing else, I think they’re going to be entertaining. In the second half, the team I expected finally made their Bramlage debut; I’d prefer to talk about them instead.
Abdi Bashir and Andrej Kostic flipped the script in the first five minutes of the second half. After being held scoreless in the first half, Bashir took it upon himself to create his own offense with a step-back jumper. After a Haggerty transition bucket off a turnover caused by Nate Johnson, Kostic stepped behind a screen and popped another three. On the next possession, Kostic ripped down a defensive board, took off down the court, and hit an open Bashir for his second three of the half. Whatever Jerome Tang preached at halftime must have led to a few converts because the Wildcats were out of the mud and off to the races. They turned a one-point halftime deficit into a 51-43, eight-point lead by the 14:27 mark of the second half, and then they hit the gas.
After only managing to scrape together 33 points in the first half, they made 60 points in the second half look like easy work. Are P.J. Haggerty and, to a lesser extent, Nate Johnson, good enough to drag this team through dry spots, perhaps dry halves, until the shooters ignite?
Granted, we only have a sample size of 1 game, but I see the vision.
It’s going to be choppy at times, especially early on, but what separates this team from the last two Tang debacles is scoring. Haggerty is obviously the lead dog, but this team has scorers up and down the roster. When this team came out of the locker room looking to run and get everyone involved in transition, it appeared to be a completely different team. It’s like the first step back three Bashir drained hit the rest of the squad like shot of adrenaline to heart, Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction style.
Kansas State did what a good team does; it blew UNC Greensboro out of the water and left no doubt. I’m not sure if this is a good team. I’m going to need to see more than one dominant half against UNC Greensboro before I buy all the way in, but I’m not going to lie, in a fit of enthusiasm, I was reaching for my wallet a couple of times in the second half when the threes started falling. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that making any definitive statements about a team before January 1, much less after game 1, is a fool’s errand, but color me intrigued.
This might work.
