Lunch Time Mini-Blog-Baby Steps and a Quiet Exit
Last night’s first round wins by the Sunflower schools at the Big 12 tournament were not that aesthetically pleasing, but there is one aesthetic hurdle that was cleared, that of winning. Ask Texas Tech, which became the first 2 versus 10 loser since the conference went to ten teams.
The top-ranked Wildcats, as expected, had to operate without Dean Wade, and for ten minutes they looked like the version that at times can stagnate at both ends of the floor, not the team that brushed off his absence in last years Elite Eight run, and did the same in several games this season.
The common denominator generally when the ‘Cats thrive without their first team All-Big 12 big man is Xavier Sneed. Likely Sneed’s best career game was his 22 point, 9 rebound, outing against Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen last year, and likely his best career half plus five seconds was last night in a come-from-behind win over TCU. All nineteen points came in the second half and on his late first half three, which had K-State right there after falling behind 23-11.
There was also solid play from Mawien, Brown, and Stokes, and a nice return to action in 29 minutes from Cartier Diarra, but besides Sneed, once again, the biggest factor was the Wildcat defense. After allowing the 23 that got them in a hole in the first ten minutes, they got past what seemed to be a post-celebration funk and gave up just 38 in the final 30 minutes.
Bruce Weber stated that it was important to hold out Wade completely not just because he is hurt right now, but so his team could get preparation if Wade still isn’t ready to go next week. It likely will be the same scenario tonight, but if the schizophrenic Cyclones play like they did last night in waxing Baylor, another notch is going to have to be climbed by K-State, which is an underdog in the semifinal.
Kansas sure isn’t. They get last place West Virginia, which has handed their coach Bob Huggins a chance at another of the twenty-five thousand-dollar bonuses her gets for a win over the Jayhawks. He already cashed one for their earlier win in Morgantown over KU, a rare highlight in a down season until last night’s Mountaineer upset of the Red Raiders.
Bill Self really embraces grind it out wins like last night’s 65-57 no-style-points effort against Texas, which should knock the Longhorns out of the tournament, what with their rousing .500 record, but may not. Kansas only shot 42 percent in the game, but they held (or Texas just made) only 36 percent from the field. Their inside stud Jaxson Hayes was a dud in 14 foul plagued minutes, but the peaking David McCormack (13 and 9) should get some of the credit.
Devon Dotson had his second straight strong game after some sleepy efforts with 17, 4 and 4, and he didn’t commit a single turnover in his 37 extremely efficient minutes. That helped offset a semi-off night by Dedrick Lawson, who needed 15 shots to get his 16 points.
Last night’s B-minus offensive effort likely would be enough against a West Virginia team that will be playing for the third straight night. It’s hard to imagine KU not unwrapping the gift they have been given. It’s arguable that if they had designs on Des Moines or Tulsa, and Kansas City, playing Texas Tech would have been better, but the Red Raiders also would have been far harder to beat.
The cash-registers should really be ringing around the P and L (is that phrase even applicable anymore?) since it looks like a mighty good bet the final will be either KU-K-State or Jayhawks and Cyclones.
The Missouri Tigers have been a local basketball footnote for quite a while now, and the final one came last night as they had their season ended by Auburn. Jordan Geist spilled it all on the floor in his last two games as a Tiger, scoring 55 tournament points, but his Tiger career is officially over after Cuonzo Martin said the Tigers wouldn’t accept a CBI invitation. Now it will be up to others to see if a rebound season next year is in the cards.