oscar sometimes likes to throw around the term punked, and that would be appropriate for tonight's game. "Thrown around" would be pretty appropriate as well, considering the number of times K-State threw the ball away (or didn't throw it all). Huggins brought his tough-minded team into the Octagon of Doom (and it was pretty OODish tonight) and out fought the Wildcats for a crushing home loss.
Of course anytime you turn the ball over 1/3 of the time you have major problems and as a result tons of possessions were wasted. It was clear the gameplan was to be deliberate so as not to make mistakes that led directly to WVU points and the Cats actually outscored WVU on points off of turnovers 12-11. K-State also won fast break points 17-8. Still, the wasted possessions because K-State couldn't even get the ball in were mind numbing and despite the wretched offense, it would've been nice to see the Cats in the half court.
Then there are categories that the Cats seemingly won, namely oboarding and FT rate. But each of these comes with a disclaimer, because it wasn't so much what the K-State gained, but what they did with it. For example, the first half saw K-State win OR% 41-22% (9 oboards to 4), yet WVU outscored KSU on 2nd chance points 9 to 2. So everytime WVU got an oboard they converted and K-State managed to turn 9 offensive boards into 2 points. In the 2nd half WVU flipped it 42-27% (8 to 4), however K-State scored even with WVU 5-5 off of those oboards. Still, the net loss of 14-7 is a huge factor in a 6 point loss. The Cats had been solid on 2PT% lately, but were held to under 40% against WVU's length and K-State will not win games with that shooting, especially with no outside threat besides Marcus.
Finally the FT line and K-State not taking advantage of 2nd half opportunities. Despite a healthy FT rate differential for the half and the game, WVU still outscored the Cats by 1 point on FTs. With the way WVU fouls, FTs are an area you have to take advantage of against them and K-State failed miserably in that regard tonight.
Finally, the Cats had to have guys step up with the loss of Nino so early in the game. (and its idiotic to say losing Nino wasn't a huge factor considering how he had been playing) However, guys like Edwards and Hurt came out on the floor and completely caved against WVU's pressure. As a result the only way were going to win was a huge night from either Marcus or Gip and we got neither.
As a result the Cats suffered a devastating loss after barely bringing their season back onto life support from the dregs that were December. Even worse, up next is a trip to Lawrence with 5 of the next 7 on the road.
