This game in many ways was about oscar getting out of the way and letting Marcus make plays down the stretch to win a ballgame. After almost giving it away with multiple terrible offensive performances right after the under 4 TO, oscar made it Marcus' game to win and he won it.
However, this game was also about lots of other guys (finally) playing well together on the same night when Marcus didn't play well. You can't say enough about 15 and 8 from Hurt and 9 and 9 from Edwards and even 6 and 4 from Westicles. Jevon played 39 minutes (the most of anyone) and only had 2 TOs. Gip battled foul trouble a ton, and still ended up with 10 and 6.
And the biggest issues that have plagued KSU all year became strengths. TOs were cut down to only 17.7% for the game and and impressive 10.3% in the 2nd half. Despite a major drop in eFG%, K-State still stayed in the game. That Cats turned around oboarding as well, but the most important thing was holding OU to only 44.7% shooting and especially impressive was only 42.9% on 2s. The Cats were reasonable with with TOs and eFG% defense and those things were huge in winning this game, especially since the Cats still finished under 1.0 PPP on offense. Keep in mind this Sooner team was a Top 40 efficiency offense coming into the game at nearly 1.09 PPP on average.
Now, whether the Cats can continue this formula will be the big question. They will continue to need big offensive games from Foster and his surround cast, but defense and taking care of the ball are equally important. Either way, its fun to have a fun Saturday night again as a K-State basketball fan.
