Men's Hoops Recap - Kansas State 47, Texas Tech 64

The Kansas State Wildcats (12-11, 5-5 Big 12) just lost a game on the road to the league's worst team - the Texas Tech Red Raiders - 64-47. Well, the way things are going, who is the "worst" is probably debatable now.

The story of this game was actually the suspension just hours before the game of leading scorer Marcus Foster and key backup Malek Harris, for a "violation of team rules". Check out our other coverage of the suspensions and what they might mean here, and expect more on the subject soon. Also, a plane crash nearby apparently knocked out power to the arena, and delayed the start of the game. Do not know details with that situation.

K-State jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, followed by Texas Tech swinging back to take a 6-4 lead. Tech never trailed again. The Cats had a flurry of threes between Tre Harris and Stephen Hurt in the second half, and found themselves down by one 1 at 45-44. That's as close as they got. A couple of empty possessions by K-State found the Cats quickly down 7, then a technical foul by Thomas Gipson and a complete lack of defense followed, and suddenly it was a 15-point deficit. Tech closed the game out on a 19-3 run.

Overall, Texas Tech and K-State looked relatively even from a capability standpoint, and Tech just wanted it more. It's no wonder we lost. Our guys "tried hard", but didn't "play hard", if that makes any sense. Gip was really taken out of the game to a large extent because of the Red Raiders defense - who double-, triple- and even quadruple-teamed him on occasion, forcing him to give the ball up. Nino Williams is clearly not the same player he was during his tear before the knee injury against WVU, and we didn't have a legitimate scoring threat beyond those two. Wesley Iwundu was pretty much a non-factor, Nigel Johnson was a net-negative, Justin Edwards was iffy at best, and aside from Hurt and Harris doing a couple of decent things in the second half, it was pretty much a lost cause.

Brian Rohleder - bless his heart - started, for crying out loud.

That was depressing.

That was a joke.

Stats, STAT:

53.7%.

We gave up 53.7% FG to one of the not only worst shooting teams in the conference, but in the country. The team we just got beat by is absolutely anemic on offense.

9.

Somehow, we managed to only commit 9 turnovers. Arguably the only bright spot offensively the whole night.

That's all I got. There aren't really any other notable stats.

K-State Player Of The Game: Thomas Gipson

Gipson...well, he tried. With Nino not playing well, and no other legitimate scoring threats, Gipson was at least double-teamed every single time he touched the ball, and ended up leading the team in scoring with 13 points (5-10 FG, 3-3 FT), but only mustered 2 rebounds.

Other Player Notes

Justin Edwards finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds. Also joining him at 5 rebounds was Nino Williams, who only garnered 4 points on 2-8 shooting.

Tre Harris did come off the bench to go 3-8 from behind the arc for 9 points. Jevon Thomas also came off the bench tonight, and came up with 4 points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds.

Devaugntah Williams made up for his previous game against us, and posted a game-high 22 points with 4 rebounds. Zach Smith continued his good play against the Cats, posting 9 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Toddrick Gotcher started on the pine, but finished with 15 points.

Big Thoughts:

1. Where to go from here?

There's nothing we can take away from this game aside from this fact: what we thought we had figured out - or at least were making progress - has just been completely undone. More than any postseason implications, the thing that distresses me the most about this is just how discombobulated everything was tonight. Without Foster on the perimeter, our offense is so bad but predictable at the same time, there's very little chance for victory the remainder of the season. Take Gip out of the game, and we're done. Simple as that.

2. I'm gonna be sick.

That was difficult to watch. Not just because how bad K-State played, but because of how bad both teams played. Neither team deserved to win tonight. Just pathetic offense all around. It was slow, it was sloppy, it was unorganized, it was unmeaningful.

3. You got thoughts?

Fire away below. I've lost interest for tonight. Blow it up? Fire Weber? Boot Foster from the team? Stick our head in the sand? Everyone gets Otter Pops and orange slices after the game? Have at it.

Next Up:

#EMAW returns home to take on another Big 12 dumpster fire - the Texas Longhorns - at Bramlage on Saturday, February 7.