FanPost

Kansas State vs. Duke: Thoughts

 

So, since I did not write a recap of the KSU/Colorado game (if you’re wanting to call that a game), I have decided I would give my thoughts on the KSU/Duke basketball game.

I was just re-watching the game because I have nothing better to do, and I have come to realize that there are many things that can be pointed to as to why we lost this game. I cannot say that this is going to be a very fun post to write, but it is something that I am noticing as things that need to be fixed if we’re going to be as good of a team as I, and many other people, believe that we are.

My reasons for this loss will come after the jump.

 

1. Free Throw Shooting – Let’s be honest, there’s no need for any sort of explanation for this. We suck… bottom line.

2. Offensive Starting Position – I almost wish there was a stat for this like there was in football. I don’t mean where we actually took control of the ball, but I’ve been watching this game and I cannot count how many times that our guards are being pushed 6-8 feet off of the three point line trying to start our offense. We can’t be effective trying to run plays from this far out; which brings me to my next point.

3. Half Court Offense – I think the quote by Pullen sums this up, “We live in transition. We really don’t want to have to set up an offense if we don’t have to.” If we’re going to win the Big XII or make a deep run in the tournament, we’re going to have to get better at playing half court offense, which again brings me to my next point.

4. Passing – Our passing was abysmal nearly the entire game. Part of this is because of where we were trying to run our offensive sets from, and part of it is because we’re just bad in the half court set. Not only were we bad passing the half court, but there were a couple times where we had trouble even outletting the ball (Kelly’s pass to Pullen that ended up out of bounds being the key example). To stick with the theme from the last three points, this also brings me to my next point.

5. Turnovers – I think this was due in part to two things. First, as said before, is where we were trying to run our offense from. It’s hard to make good passes when you’re playing from 6 to 8 feet further out than we should be. Second, and this is the inner coach in me that can’t help but give credit to the other guys, is because of how well Duke played defense against us. We looked sped up most of the night to be honest, and looked a step slow at times on defense.

6. Shot Selection – I think that we forced a lot of shots against the Blue Devils, Pullen especially. I understand he was trying to get it going and bring us back into it, and I also understand the idea that “shooters keep shooting” and it will eventually work itself out, but those shooters also have to be a little bit smarter than trying to shoot over Singler or just taking the first even semi-open shot he sees. This also goes for the rest of the guys too. I know I can think of a time or two when Samuels threw up a three-pointer early in a possession that we just didn’t need, and a couple of them were at key times.

7. Making a Play in the Clutch – Granted we never got into a late-game clutch moment, but there were several times in which we were fighting back and got the game back within two scores and then weren’t able to convert on offense, or gave up an easy basket on defense. Both of these are areas in which we need to improve to be successful.

8. Fouls – I’m okay with how the Cats play. I understand that they are a physical team and that there are going to be more fouls than in the average game, but what I’m not okay with is the way that we were fouling. Too many times in the game we were letting them get and-ones because we would foul soft. If you’re going to foul the guy on the shot, make it so he can’t make the shot, or at least make it as difficult as possible. I’m not saying to play dirty; I’m just saying to not give up an easy two.

9. Compounding Mistakes – I don’t know if I would have been able to count the amount of times that we did this. Sometimes it would be a foul on a layup, sometimes it would be a foul that was at midcourt (which I would be okay with saying that would be more beneficial than giving up an easy lay-up), and sometimes we would have a turnover or a missed shot and end up giving up a three on the other end. That is what frustrated me the most in the game. I know there were at least a couple of times either off of turnovers or missed shots on our end that resulted in three’s for the Devils. Bottom line is, if you make a mistake, don’t hang your head just hustle, and get it back on defense.

10. Baseline Out of Bounds Plays -- I have never seen a team that has had as much trouble inbounding the ball as we did over the last couple games. It seemed to me like we only ran one play trying to inbound the ball from under the basket. I understand doing that if it was successful, but just lobbing it up to the free throw line doesn't do a whole lot when there's no other movement, and it got quite predictable as well.

By no means am I saying that the season is over or that we’re just a bad team. I think that Duke really came out and showed why they are picked by many to win back to back championships this year. They capitalized on the mistakes we made, and they limited their own. They had a game plan to spread us out when they were on offense, and make us play a half court game when they were on defense. I think that a lot of teams may try to do this to us in the future. I don’t know if they will have the athleticism that the Duke guards had (I feel bad for Spradling because he just looked a step slow all night against their guards) to be able to do this, but it is an area of concern to me. I don’t think that we played off-ball defense very well in that game. Hopefully, a lot of this was just a one game thing, or things that Martin will address in practice in the upcoming weeks. If they aren’t fixed, then I think we could see an end to a tournament run a lot sooner than expected, but if they are, I’m very confident in what we’ll be able to produce.

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