SE: K-State MBB Knows Time will Help Alleviate Sting of Elite Eight Loss, Create Appreciation for NCAA Tournament Run
Mar 25, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
ATLANTA — Perspective changes over time.
Minutes after K-State's impressive run to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight ended with a 78-62 loss to 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago on Saturday night, heads hung, tears flowed and disappointment filled the Wildcat locker room.
Appreciation for what the Wildcats accomplished was hard to find.
"At this current point in time, I can't (appreciate it) just because I wanted it to go farther," freshman guard Mike McGuirl said. "Hopefully in the future I'll be able to, but not right now. "
Days, maybe weeks, from now will be different.
The loss will hurt and possibly fuel the Wildcats until next season begins, but perspective will begin to shift from what went wrong in the South Regional final to what went right in the 2017-18 season.
"I think we're just going to take it all in the next few days and really cherish what we did," said K-State junior guard Barry Brown, named to the South Regional All-Tournament Team. "It sucks right now but looking back on it, with the expectations of a lot of people, we exceeded a lot, even though we know what we were capable of ourselves. Within the next few days we're going to take it all in, come together and really embrace what we did."
Here's a brief synopsis of what exactly the Wildcats did.
Without a scholarship senior, K-State finished fourth in a vaunted Big 12 Conference — the same conference it was picked to finish eighth in, the same conference that sent seven schools to the NCAA Tournament and the same conference that sent three to the Elite Eight, one of them being the Wildcats.
"I'm just so proud of our guys, how hard they've worked, how we've overcome so much throughout the year and did some special things," K-State head coach Bruce Weber said. "It's hard to get to this spot, and right now we've got a lot of sad faces, a lot of tears, but I told them I appreciate them so much."
Without its top scorer, 6-foot-10 Dean Wade, for all but eight minutes of the NCAA Tournament, K-State found a way to advance to its first regional final since 2010. Along the way, the Wildcats smothered an offensive juggernaut in Creighton, knocked off the first No. 16 seed to ever advance out of the first round and gritted out a win against a Kentucky squad full of future NBA players.
"Overall we had a great season. We made a great run in the tournament," Wade said. "I'm very proud of them. I'm happy we had a great season. We shouldn't be sad about it or anything. It ended before we thought it should, but it happens. This was a great run."
What will Wade remember most about this run?
"Teammates, definitely. Our togetherness, how close-knit we are, those bonds that we made," he started. "And we still have another year together, everyone except for Mason (Schoen). I can't give Mason enough credit. He brought it every day in practice, in the weight room, was a great leader. We're going to miss him a lot but I'm just going to remember how fun it was with these guys, hanging out with these guys every day, doing what we love to do, play basketball. We had a great time together and we'll be back next year."
To even get to the NCAA Tournament, K-State cleared several hurdles.
Veteran point guard Kamau Stokes went down early in Big 12 play with a broken foot. While he dedicated himself to recovering as quickly as possible, redshirt freshman Cartier Diarra — who missed all of last season with an ACL injury — displayed his wide-ranging capabilities.
Diarra's emergence, paired with Wade and Brown taking their games to another level, allowed the Wildcats to do more than just survive Stokes' seven-game absence. K-State thrived in it, winning five games during that stretch, a key push to eventually put them in the NCAA Tournament.
"You've got to give them some credit for overcoming (adversity)," Weber said. "When you lose your starting point guard in the middle of the Big 12, the toughest conference in the country with three teams in the Elite Eight, and you're able to survive, it's amazing. And then you lose Dean…it's tough, but they found a way. That is just amazing, their resiliency and persistence."
En route to the Elite Eight, K-State collected 25 wins in a season for just the sixth time in school history, while breaking program records for steals (294) and 3-point makes (254) in a season. The Wildcats also dished out 510 assists, only the 10th time in program history a team has surpassed 500.
All of the records were a culmination of individual improvements.
Brown became an even tougher player to score on, earning him All-Big 12 Defensive Team honors. The All-Big 12 Second Team pick also upped his scoring average by more than four points and his free throw percentage by more than 16 percent.
Wade added seven points a game to his scoring average from a year ago. The All-Big 12 First Team forward also recorded career highs in field goal percentage (55.0), 3-point percentage (44.0), free throw percentage (75.2), rebounds per game (6.2), assists (89), steals (51) and blocks (27).
While on the subject of improvement, Xavier Sneed should be brought up. The St. Louis, Missouri, native matured in a multitude of ways during his sophomore year. He provided lockdown defense and much-needed rebounding to go along with his 3-point shooting. He scored 22 points in K-State's Sweet 16 win over Kentucky, the Wildcats' first win over Kentucky in program history to avenge a 1951 NCAA Tournament title game loss when "Mr. K-State" Ernie Barrett was playing.
"Just to be here in this position, it was great for us, and we see what it takes," Sneed, also named to the South Regional All-Tournament Team, said. "This off season, we're going to come work even harder to get back and go even further. It's a growing lesson for me. I know these guys and we're all going to work hard this offseason to get here.
"It's going to take a little bit more effort, a little more energy and a little bit more time in the weight room, film, in the gym, just learning the game, learning the system."
Several other newcomers flashed promise this season for K-State.
Diarra added point guard depth, playing more than 20 minutes a game and averaging about seven points and 2.7 assists.
Sophomore transfer Makol Mawien scored 29 points in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship against Kansas. It was his 10th game in double figures for the season and his third in a row at that point to garner him a spot on the All-Tournament team.
McGuirl, who pulled his redshirt when Stokes went down in January, scored 17 of his 40 points this season in K-State's first round win over Creighton.
"I'm not a freshman any more after this. I have to learn from this and just be more mature next year," McGuirl said. "We're just going to have to listen to the coaching staff, listen to their plans, listen to what they have for us and we have to buy into what they think we need to do to get better. That's what we're going to do."
The best part for the current Wildcats: All of them will get another shot at this.
Wade, Stokes and Brown will all be seniors on a team expecting to follow this season with an even better one. More important, they know from experience that it takes more to get more.
"It's really taught us that we can compete with any team and if we play together, we're a hard team to beat," Wade said. "That's what we're going to take into next year, but we also have to remember that's it's not going to magically just happen next year. We have to come in and start working hard as soon as we can. I think it's just a matter of working hard and we'll get back here next year if we do what we need to do."
As much of a step forward as this season represented for K-State, Diarra summed up the key to taking another in 2018-19 in four words.
"Next year starts tomorrow."
ATLANTA — Perspective changes over time.
Minutes after K-State's impressive run to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight ended with a 78-62 loss to 11th-seeded Loyola Chicago on Saturday night, heads hung, tears flowed and disappointment filled the Wildcat locker room.
Appreciation for what the Wildcats accomplished was hard to find.
"At this current point in time, I can't (appreciate it) just because I wanted it to go farther," freshman guard Mike McGuirl said. "Hopefully in the future I'll be able to, but not right now. "
Days, maybe weeks, from now will be different.
The loss will hurt and possibly fuel the Wildcats until next season begins, but perspective will begin to shift from what went wrong in the South Regional final to what went right in the 2017-18 season.
"I think we're just going to take it all in the next few days and really cherish what we did," said K-State junior guard Barry Brown, named to the South Regional All-Tournament Team. "It sucks right now but looking back on it, with the expectations of a lot of people, we exceeded a lot, even though we know what we were capable of ourselves. Within the next few days we're going to take it all in, come together and really embrace what we did."
Here's a brief synopsis of what exactly the Wildcats did.
Without a scholarship senior, K-State finished fourth in a vaunted Big 12 Conference — the same conference it was picked to finish eighth in, the same conference that sent seven schools to the NCAA Tournament and the same conference that sent three to the Elite Eight, one of them being the Wildcats.
"I'm just so proud of our guys, how hard they've worked, how we've overcome so much throughout the year and did some special things," K-State head coach Bruce Weber said. "It's hard to get to this spot, and right now we've got a lot of sad faces, a lot of tears, but I told them I appreciate them so much."
Without its top scorer, 6-foot-10 Dean Wade, for all but eight minutes of the NCAA Tournament, K-State found a way to advance to its first regional final since 2010. Along the way, the Wildcats smothered an offensive juggernaut in Creighton, knocked off the first No. 16 seed to ever advance out of the first round and gritted out a win against a Kentucky squad full of future NBA players.
"Overall we had a great season. We made a great run in the tournament," Wade said. "I'm very proud of them. I'm happy we had a great season. We shouldn't be sad about it or anything. It ended before we thought it should, but it happens. This was a great run."
What will Wade remember most about this run?
"Teammates, definitely. Our togetherness, how close-knit we are, those bonds that we made," he started. "And we still have another year together, everyone except for Mason (Schoen). I can't give Mason enough credit. He brought it every day in practice, in the weight room, was a great leader. We're going to miss him a lot but I'm just going to remember how fun it was with these guys, hanging out with these guys every day, doing what we love to do, play basketball. We had a great time together and we'll be back next year."
To even get to the NCAA Tournament, K-State cleared several hurdles.
Veteran point guard Kamau Stokes went down early in Big 12 play with a broken foot. While he dedicated himself to recovering as quickly as possible, redshirt freshman Cartier Diarra — who missed all of last season with an ACL injury — displayed his wide-ranging capabilities.
Diarra's emergence, paired with Wade and Brown taking their games to another level, allowed the Wildcats to do more than just survive Stokes' seven-game absence. K-State thrived in it, winning five games during that stretch, a key push to eventually put them in the NCAA Tournament.
"You've got to give them some credit for overcoming (adversity)," Weber said. "When you lose your starting point guard in the middle of the Big 12, the toughest conference in the country with three teams in the Elite Eight, and you're able to survive, it's amazing. And then you lose Dean…it's tough, but they found a way. That is just amazing, their resiliency and persistence."
En route to the Elite Eight, K-State collected 25 wins in a season for just the sixth time in school history, while breaking program records for steals (294) and 3-point makes (254) in a season. The Wildcats also dished out 510 assists, only the 10th time in program history a team has surpassed 500.
All of the records were a culmination of individual improvements.
Brown became an even tougher player to score on, earning him All-Big 12 Defensive Team honors. The All-Big 12 Second Team pick also upped his scoring average by more than four points and his free throw percentage by more than 16 percent.
Wade added seven points a game to his scoring average from a year ago. The All-Big 12 First Team forward also recorded career highs in field goal percentage (55.0), 3-point percentage (44.0), free throw percentage (75.2), rebounds per game (6.2), assists (89), steals (51) and blocks (27).
While on the subject of improvement, Xavier Sneed should be brought up. The St. Louis, Missouri, native matured in a multitude of ways during his sophomore year. He provided lockdown defense and much-needed rebounding to go along with his 3-point shooting. He scored 22 points in K-State's Sweet 16 win over Kentucky, the Wildcats' first win over Kentucky in program history to avenge a 1951 NCAA Tournament title game loss when "Mr. K-State" Ernie Barrett was playing.
"Just to be here in this position, it was great for us, and we see what it takes," Sneed, also named to the South Regional All-Tournament Team, said. "This off season, we're going to come work even harder to get back and go even further. It's a growing lesson for me. I know these guys and we're all going to work hard this offseason to get here.
"It's going to take a little bit more effort, a little more energy and a little bit more time in the weight room, film, in the gym, just learning the game, learning the system."
Several other newcomers flashed promise this season for K-State.
Diarra added point guard depth, playing more than 20 minutes a game and averaging about seven points and 2.7 assists.
Sophomore transfer Makol Mawien scored 29 points in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship against Kansas. It was his 10th game in double figures for the season and his third in a row at that point to garner him a spot on the All-Tournament team.
McGuirl, who pulled his redshirt when Stokes went down in January, scored 17 of his 40 points this season in K-State's first round win over Creighton.
"I'm not a freshman any more after this. I have to learn from this and just be more mature next year," McGuirl said. "We're just going to have to listen to the coaching staff, listen to their plans, listen to what they have for us and we have to buy into what they think we need to do to get better. That's what we're going to do."
The best part for the current Wildcats: All of them will get another shot at this.
Wade, Stokes and Brown will all be seniors on a team expecting to follow this season with an even better one. More important, they know from experience that it takes more to get more.
"It's really taught us that we can compete with any team and if we play together, we're a hard team to beat," Wade said. "That's what we're going to take into next year, but we also have to remember that's it's not going to magically just happen next year. We have to come in and start working hard as soon as we can. I think it's just a matter of working hard and we'll get back here next year if we do what we need to do."
As much of a step forward as this season represented for K-State, Diarra summed up the key to taking another in 2018-19 in four words.
"Next year starts tomorrow."
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