SE: K-State Focused on Preparation, Patience in Sunflower Showdown at No. 3 Kansas

While speaking with the media, Bruce Weber pointed to his left at a quote, permanently hung in the theater room of the Ice Family Basketball Center. It reads: “The key is not the ‘will to win’… everybody has that. It’s the will to prepare that is important.”

K-State’s players see this quote nearly every day, but their head coach made sure they took it to heart while practicing for Tuesday’s road trip to Lawrence to play No. 3 Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse.

“You have to be ready there. The will to win is there, but do you have the will to prepare? We have to be prepared, mentally, not just be hyped for the game,” Weber said of the first Sunflower Showdown of the season, which will tip off Tuesday at 8 p.m., and be nationally televised on ESPN2. “We have to be prepared for the game if we want to have a chance to be successful.”

K-State (12-1, 1-0) is off to its best start since the 2009-10 season, but it will need a complete performance to pull off a rare victory in Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks (12-1, 1-0) have won 10-straight games over the Wildcats in Lawrence and 46 in a row overall in its home building.

“It’s a rowdy environment,” senior forward D.J. Johnson said of Allen Fieldhouse, where the Jayhawks last lost on January 5, 2014, to San Diego State. “Any kind of breakdowns, you just have to keep on playing and play through it.”

“For D.J. and I, it’s our last time trying to get a win in Allen Fieldhouse, so it’s a big-time game, one that we circled on our calendars,” senior guard Wesley Iwundu said. “We’ll be ready for the moment.”

During the Wildcats’ current seven-game winning streak, their longest since winning 10 in a row in the 2013-14 season, they have performed well across the board.

Against Kansas, the Wildcats must be locked in on defense. It’s a phase they’ve shown dominant spans in throughout this season. K-State has held opponents scoreless for at least four minutes 15 times this season, with five of those stretches coming in the last two games.

“They’re a team of spurts and runs,” Weber said of Kansas. “That’s so important to control that momentum and that tempo of the game.”

K-State, allowing 58 points on 37 percent shooting during the seven-game stretch, will face the tough task of slowing down a Kansas team averaging 86.5 points per game. Senior point guard Frank Mason III (19.8 PPG, 5.9 APG) and a young talent in freshman guard Josh Jackson (14.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG) highlight a high-powered Kansas attack.

“The biggest challenge is obviously their guards. Frank, to me, has got to be in consideration for player of the year in the Big 12 and the country,” Weber said, also pointing out the capabilities of other Kansas guards like junior Devonte’ Graham, sophomore Svi Mykhailiuk and sophomore Lagerald Vick. “They’re really, really good offensively. They can score as well as anybody in the country.”

Lately, the Wildcats have been impressive on the offensive end of the floor as well.

K-State has averaged 77 points on 50 percent shooting in its last seven games, with 112 assists on 168 field goal makes included. The offensive success, Weber said, has been predicated by the team’s patience with the ball, an area of focus entering its second Big 12 battle of the season.

“That’s going to be a key thing for us, to make them guard us, move the basketball, get inside touches, get paint touches, and that hopefully will slow them down a little bit,” Weber said. “And you have to make shots. If you make shots, you have a lot better chance to get back on defense.”

“Being an older guy on the team, I think it’s kind of your job to keep things settled and at a good pace. Being patient at Allen Fieldhouse, that’s a big-time key to win the game,” Iwundu added. “You can’t go in there rushing shots because bad shots lead to transition or easy buckets for them.”

Offensively, K-State has been powered by versatility, as five different players have led K-State in scoring during their current winning streak. Sophomore forward Dean Wade has established himself as another reliable option, averaging 12.4 points on 33-of-48 (68.8 percent) shooting in the last seven games.

If the Jayhawks are vulnerable in one area, Weber said, it’s in their lack of size in the post. With a season-ending injury to 7-foot Udoka Azubuike, the Jayhawks became even thinner down low, which Weber said could be an opportunity for K-State to utilize Johnson, averaging 12 points on 66 percent shooting this season.

“I have the mindset every game of whatever it takes to get the win,” Johnson said. “If that’s feeding the ball to me a little more, that’s what we got to do. I know traps will be coming, so it’s going to be a lot of me getting the ball inside and kicking it right back out to my players. I like that a lot because they can shoot the ball really well.”

Since losing to Maryland on November 26, the Wildcats have dominated the free throw margin. K-State has made more free throws (104) than its opponents have attempted (93). In the last three games, K-State has converted 61-of-76 (80 percent) from the charity stripe.

K-State must continue most, if not all, of its positive trends to knock off the third-ranked Jayhawks, who haven’t lost at home to a Big 12 school since 2013 (Oklahoma State).

“They don’t lose there very much. It’s not only the environment, it’s their team. That’s what I tell our guys, you make Bramlage a tough place by how you play. Your intensity, your confidence and your aggressiveness are so important,” Weber said. “They play at a different level at home, there’s no doubt about it.”

Unlike a year ago, the majority of K-State’s team has experience playing in Allen Fieldhouse. All but Stokes, who suffered an injury right before the road trip last season, and K-State’s freshmen, namely Xavier Sneed and Isaiah Maurice, have competed in the Jayhawks’ venue.

“It’s going to be really loud and I have to let these younger guys know to not be rattled by it,” Johnson said. “I think they do a good job of that. We’re looking forward to it and it’ll be a good test for us.”

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: K-State Focused on Preparation, Patience in Sunflower Showdown at No. 3 Kansas

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