SLATE: The gang(s) that couldn’t shoot straight

Yesterday was a day that will live in infamy for Kansas State basketball.

60: the total points scored by both the men and women, minus Ayoka Lee’s 27

23-96 (24%): the combined shooting stats from the field, minus Lee who was 12-19 (and if you also subtract the best effort from the men’s team, DaJuan Gordon’s somewhat respectable 6-13, it’s 17=83, 20.5%)

4-38 (11%): the combined shooting stats from beyond the arc, not minus Lee who didn’t attempt one (and two of the men’s threes came from freakin’ Carlton Linguard and Joe Petrakis, so make of that what you will)

10-19 (53%): the combined shooting stats from the foul line by both teams, minus Lee who was 3-4 (only two players on the men’s team even stepped up to the stripe)

2-24 (.077): the combined record in Big 12 play this season.

But hey, at least the men outrebounded Kansas 36-35. That’s about the only bright spot in a torturously unpleasant 59-41 loss to the Chickens last night, the worst Wildcat regular season offensive performance at Bramlage ever, and also anywhere in the Bruce Weber era. Luke Sobba recapped the carnage, and we’ll also direct you to Kellis Robinett’s piece at the Eagle, Gary Bedore’s KU-slanted recap at the Star, Matt Galloway’s article at the Capital-Journal, and Ryan Black’s story at the Mercury.

Hey, they had to sit through the garbage too, show them some love.

As for the women... oof. Thanks to an unfathomable 17-55 line, K-State only scored 35 points from the floor and 24 of those were courtesy of Lee. Players who are not Ayoka Lee shot 5-36. The ladies were a nightmarish 1-14 from beyond the arc, were outrebounded 46-31, and lost 59-46 to Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

The sad part about the women’s game is that K-State won the turnover battle 17-13, went to the line three more times than Oklahoma State, and were dead even in the paint at 26 points each. They could have won this game if someone would only have given the non-Lee players on the team a compass, a flashlight, and a map to the basket.

If all this commentary seems harsh, that’s because it is. Both teams were terrible last night, and there is no sugar-coating it. Gosh gee aw shucks might be acceptable if the performance was even tolerable; it wasn’t, and it’s not. These are Division I basketball players, and they should be able to manage to find the net at least a third of the time. Whether it’s simply awful shot selection (although a recent data tweet suggests that’s not the men’s problem at all) or awful aim, something’s got to be fixed.

Baseball

But hey, maybe there’s a team sport we can enjoy this spring. Baseball gets underway in Surprise, Ariz. on Friday as the BatCats face Oregon State, Gonzaga twice, and New Mexico over the weekend. Unfortunately, unless you want to shell out some bucks to FloSports, you’ll have to settle for FortnerVision, aka audio only.

The starter against our most hated rivals, the 2013 Super Regional opponent Beavers, will be Jordan Wicks, who was named a first-team preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association yesterday. He’s the first Wildcat to earn that honor since Ross Kivett in 2014.

In today’s Sports Extra, Austin Siegel offers five things you need to know about the 2021 BatCats.