K-State Wins Without Foster

 

By Cole Manbeck

 

Kansas State notched a significant win on its postseason resume on Saturday, defeating Baylor 63-61. More importantly, the Wildcats came back from a 12-point deficit against a quality opponent without much of a contribution from Marcus Foster, due to second-half foul trouble.

 

In the 13 minutes Foster sat on the bench in the second half of Saturday’s game, K-State scored 30 points on 20 offensive possessions, an average of 1.50 points per possession, which is terrific. During that time, the Wildcats made 10 of their 15 field-goal attempts, as well as 8-of-10 from the free-throw line.

 

But let’s narrow this down to a more crucial time frame: With 11:27 left in the game and K-State trailing 49-37, Foster went to the bench with his fourth foul. Things looked bleak. Over the next nine minutes and 44 seconds, the Wildcats went 7-of-12 from the floor and scored 24 points on 14 possessions, an average of 1.71 points per possession. And they did all of this without their leading scorer.

 

K-State needs Foster to play well in order for this team to be consistently good over the remainder of the season. But perhaps Saturday’s effort gives others on the team added confidence, while also taking a little pressure off Foster.

 

In the game’s final 20 minutes, K-State got 1 point each from Foster and Thomas Gipson, the team’s second-leading scorer. Nino Williams was huge against Baylor’s zone defense, which leaves holes on the baseline for Williams’ mid-range jumper. The senior forward was also big on the glass, leading K-State with seven rebounds in the game.

 

For as good as Williams was, Wesley Iwundu was the co-MVP of the second half. Iwundu is very talented, but I don’t think he knows how good he can be. He lacks aggressiveness on the offensive end of the floor at times. But in the second half, he became more assertive. After not attempting a single field-goal attempt in the opening 20 minutes, Iwundu scored 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting in the second half. He dished out five assists to just one turnover in the final 20 minutes of play, and was often acting as the point guard, bringing the ball up the court after Jevon Thomas left the game. On a few occasions, Iwundu sliced through the Baylor zone, getting to the rim and breaking the Bears’ defense down.

 

Iwundu also keyed the defense in the second half. With 9:07 left in the game and K-State trailing 51-42, the Wildcats, elected to put the 6-foot-8 sophomore on Kenny Chery. The move stifled the Bears offensively. From the 9:07-mark until the 5:03-mark, Baylor went 0-of-6 from the floor while the Wildcats forced two Chery turnovers. During that four-minute segment, K-State went from being down nine to ahead by three.

 

I thought a large portion of K-State’s offensive success in the second half was a direct result of quality defense – particularly in the game’s final 9 minutes. The Wildcats only attempted two free throws in the first half. But from the 8:40-mark of the second half to the 6:24-mark, K-State attempted eight free-throw attempts and made all eight. That’s eight free points the Wildcats were able to get without having to go against Baylor’s set zone defense, which had held opponents to 38 percent shooting on the season heading into Saturday. Six of those free throws were because of quality defense. Four of the free throws came on over-the-back calls on Baylor going for the offensive rebound. Two of them came on a steal of Chery by Iwundu. And to take it further, the Wildcats could have added two more free throws on a Justin Edwards steal, but the junior guard missed both attempts from the charity stripe. This was the key segment of the game that sparked a 12-0 run by the Wildcats.

 

When you consider the opponent, K-State rebounded the ball relatively well on defense. Baylor entered Saturday’s game rebounding 43.3 percent of its missed shots on the season, which ranked No. 2 in the country behind only Kentucky, which rebounds 43.9 percent of its misses. It doesn’t sound great, but K-State held Baylor to an offensive rebounding percentage of 38 percent, meaning the Bears rebounded 38 percent of their missed shots. That’s significant, because that’s the second-worst offensive rebounding percentage on the season for Baylor. Only South Carolina held the Bears to a lower percentage (31 percent), and that came in the second game of the season.

 

The Bears outscored K-State 13-9 on second-chance points. However, Baylor had outscored opposing teams on the season 245-133 on second-chance points heading into Saturday, an average of 14.4 points to the opponents’ 7.8 per game. So while it doesn’t sound like a big difference, that two-point differential from the Bears’ season average on second-chance opportunities stood to be the difference in the game.

 

Rico Gathers, who was No. 5 in the country in total rebounding heading into Saturday, collected just six rebounds in the game. It was only the third time this season Gathers had been held to single-digit rebounds in a game. The 6-8 forward had grabbed 59 rebounds in Baylor’s previous four Big 12 games, an average of nearly 15 per game, so holding him to six is a big deal. In addition, Gathers, the No. 2 offensive rebounder in the country, only had five points in the game, with none of those five points coming on a second-chance opportunity.

 

So I’ve highlighted the positives. Now let’s spend a few words on the portion of the game you’d all like to forget. The Wildcats really struggled early on against Baylor’s defense. In the first 16 minutes and 19 seconds of the game, K-State went 6-of-19 from the floor with nine turnovers. The Wildcats scored 14 points on their first 26 offensive possessions, an average of 0.54 points per possession.

 

K-State also struggled defensively early on. Baylor ran a lot of ball-screen action for Chery, and the Wildcats continued to switch, giving him easy mismatches with either Gipson or Williams guarding him. Switching on the ball screens was really hurting K-State. At approximately the 9-minute mark of the opening half, the Wildcats started hedging the screens but not switching. At the time, Baylor was ahead 24-10. From the 8:49-mark to the 1:32-mark, Baylor didn’t score a single point. The Bears went 0-of-4 from the field and turned the ball over five times during that seven-minute segment. However, a couple of late breakdowns allowed Baylor to score nine points in the final 1:31 of the half.

 

Now, back to the positive: as I mentioned a couple of paragraphs above, the Wildcats scored 0.54 points per possession on their first 26 possessions. From that point on (the final 23 minutes and 40 seconds of the game), K-State went 17-of-27 from the floor, 11-of-16 from the free-throw line, turned the ball over just five times, and scored 49 points on 35 offensive possessions, an average of 1.40 points per possession, which is very good. From the 3:40-mark of the first half to the 16:15-mark of the second half, K-State went 8-of-10 from the floor and didn’t turn the ball over a single time, scoring 18 points on 10 possessions, an average of 1.80 points per possession. That segment kept K-State in the game, enabling the Wildcats to eventually come back and win.

 

Overall, K-State shot 50 percent from the floor in the game, the second-best shooting performance against Baylor this season. Only Texas A&M (56 percent) shot better from the field against the Bears. The Wildcats outscored Baylor 24-20 on points in the paint. The Bears entered the game outscoring opponents by an average of 28-24 in the paint.

 

This was a crucial win for K-State for multiple reasons. In the Big 12, you have to protect your home court. The Wildcats dug themselves a hole with their struggles in the non-conference, so winning Big 12 games at home is crucial. But it also showed that this team has other guys who can step up when its star isn’t on the floor. The Wildcats need Foster, but Foster also needs help if this team is to be successful over the course of the season. Against Baylor, he received that help. And maybe that’s something others on this team can build on.