Kansas State at Oklahoma: How much longer can this skid last?

I am tempted to just copy and paste what I wrote here exactly one week ago, because very little would need to be changed from what I wrote about the Cats headed into a pivotal game against TCU.

Turnovers have been a problem for the Kansas State Wildcats this season. But on Saturday night they turned into a full-blown catastrophe for the Cats. No, they didn’t lead to a double-digit loss like at TCU a few weeks ago, but the season-high 23 turnovers committed by the TangCats turned what should have been a solid road victory into a stunning defeat.

No player who recorded a stat in either column had more assists than turnovers, and Ish Massoud was the lone Cat to even be even between the two. Markquis Noweel, Keyontae Johnson, and Desi Sills combined for 16 all by themselves, which would’ve been high for the team on a normal night. And it’s the 3rd time in the last five losses that the Cats have had more than 19 as a team (going back to the previous season-high of 20 against TCU in Fort Worth). Clearly, turning the ball over is not a recipe for success.

Of course, it’s also an incredibly easy thing to fix with the right effort and commitment. These turnovers have usually been caused by sloppy ball handling and over-aggressive passes when a simpler play would have sufficed. Both of those things are correctable in-season. Do these Wildcats have the maturity and “want-to” to make that change?

Thankfully, one of the other causes of turnovers — defensive pressure a knack for forcing them — is not something that should be much of an issue tonight. Despite the absolute pantsing they gave Alabama, the Oklahoma Sooners are not a good basketball team right now. They play really good defense, but struggle scoring, and lack the kind of athleticism needed to overcome that (my goodness, that sounds familiar...). The Sooners are on a four-game slide, and 7-straight in Big 12 play sandwiching that 93-69 beatdown of the Crimson Tide in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Last Saturday, they fell by 23 points to the visiting Jayhawks, and that wasn’t even their worst loss this month.

But back to turnovers, the Sooners are really bad at forcing them. So if the Cats can keep from just giving the ball away like Oprah giving away cars, then they could have a huge turnaround in that department today.

If the Cats can hang on to the ball, they should win easily. If they can’t, it could be an embarrassing night in Norman.

Tonight’s matchup is scheduled for a 8:05pm CT tip from the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman and will be aired on ESPNU with the venerable James Westling (play-by-play) and Lance Blanks (analyst) on the call. You’ll also be able to hear the game online at K-StateSports.com (and via the Varsity Network app), plus parts of the K-State Sports Radio Network and on SiriusXM 84 with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) calling the action over there.

Go Cats!

Hey, are you on Discord? We are now, too! Feel free to join us! (Make sure you click the reaction button on the rules notice though, or you won’t see anything.) We’ll have a game thread there as well!