Kansas State Still Has Work To Do To Make NCAA Tournament
The Kansas State basketball program has little time to celebrate Monday's upset of Cincinnati in the Big 12 opener.
There is still plenty of work left for the Wildcats to start thinking NCAA Tournament. After struggling through the non-conference portion of the schedule, they need more quality wins to have any chance of an at-large bid.
According to the website Field Of 68, the Wildcats at least took a step in the right direction.
"K-State (7-5, 1-0) still has a lot of work to do to be in the tournament field after not securing a single marquee non-conference victory," wrote Samuel Lance. "Coming into the game, the Wildcats were one of the10 worst power teams in the NET and KenPom. But this win over the Bearcats is a good place to start a run. Jerome Tang is now 10-2 vs. AP Top 25 opponents at home since taking over the Wildcats in 2022."
The Wildcats are seemingly starting to figure things out. Forward Coleman Hawkins, who transferred from Illinois, had his best games of the season. He finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. He shot 7 of 13 from the field.
“I feel like I was a little bit more aggressive," Hawkins said. "I feel like I was kinda all over the place, it’s hard to determine what to do with me because we wanted to exploit if they were switching. If not, try to pick and pop. I was used as a ball handler a little bit, but I think I was just a little bit more aggressive.”
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Kansas State Wildcats On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com
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