The best team in college basketball over the past 15 days has been … Kansas State.
Wait, what?!
Yes, the Wildcats, who were in second-to-last place in the Big 12 at 1-6, with a 7-11 record overall, have won five straight games and easily beat ranked teams on two consecutive weekends, the latest an 81-73 win Saturday over No. 16 Kansas.
Plug in the date range, from Jan. 25 on, at Bart Torvik, and K-State is No. 1 in that very small window.
Before then, K-State ranked 95th at Torvik.
Jerome Tang has led the turnaround by getting his Wildcats to buy into (and excel in) their roles, with Big Ten transfers Coleman Hawkins and Dug McDaniel turning into the stars he needed them to be.
Tang, meanwhile, has drawn up some smart game plans the past two Saturdays, daring Iowa State’s role players to shoot last Saturday in a shocking 80-61 win at Hilton Coliseum over the then No. 3-ranked Cyclones that ended a 29-game home winning streak, and then picking on Hunter Dickinson and Zeke Mayo in the latest win over the Jayhawks, his third victory in three tries hosting rival Kansas.
While KU’s defensive metrics this year are good — No. 5 in adjusted defense at KenPom — in several of KU’s losses, the opponent has been able to take advantage of Dickinson’s lack of foot speed. And every time you think Kansas, now 16-7 and 7-5 in the Big 12, has turned a corner and is ready to lean into its defensive identity, there comes a dud like Saturday’s.
After having success in Tuesday’s win over Iowa State at Allen Fieldhouse using Dickinson in drop coverage, Bill Self went with that strategy again against the Wildcats.
The reason to play a drop is so that KU can play two-on-two in the pick-and-roll and there’s no need to help away from the ball. The Jayhawks didn’t want to help off K-State’s Brendan Hausen or Max Jones, both shooting just over 41 percent from 3.
In order for that to work, KU’s guards needed to fight over screens and get back in front of the ball, so Dickinson could get back to his man. That didn’t happen.
K-State used the speed of its bigs, mainly David N’Guessan, to get behind Dickinson and beat him to the basket.
Dickinson got beat on those rolls twice, and he struggled in help situations as well. He was indecisive all afternoon, worrying that his man would get an easy basket and not committing to stopping the ball.
When Dickinson leaned more toward the ball in help, he got beat that way too.
In response, the Jayhawks weren’t exactly trusting that their teammate didn’t need help on the roll, and so even when he was in position, they weren’t.
Watch KU’s Flory Bidunga (No. 40), cheating in to help Dickinson when it’s not needed and giving up a 3:
It’s been an issue for two years for Kansas to figure out how to hide Dickinson in ball screen plays. But the defenses lapses weren’t entirely on him.
The Jayhawks seemed to be in a fog all afternoon. There were effort-based mistakes, like this one where N’Guessan just beats them down the floor:
And away from the ball, they weren’t always engaged. Transfers Mayo, Rylan Griffen and AJ Storr all had their moments, but Mayo was picked on the most.
Here’s Mayo falling asleep off ball and getting screened way too easily:
And here’s a spot where Mayo doesn’t see Bidunga pointing to double switch so Mayo can go to the perimeter and not get stuck on Hawkins in the post:
The Cats appeared to be hunting Mayo all day, especially any time he’d get switched onto Hawkins.
Hawkins, who played four seasons at Illinois, has found his place in K-State’s offense, and Tang has wisely moved him all over the floor and put him in spots where his versatility can shine. He thrives as a facilitator. The Wildcats want him to get doubled, because he’s really dangerous when he draws two to the ball and can use his size to survey the floor. He had eight assists against the Jayhawks, and six of those came when he drew two to the ball.
Hawkins struggled to score early this season, but he’s found his spots where he can succeed there, too. He’s now scored in double figures every game during this winning streak — he had 12 points against KU — and is averaging 5.6 assists. He also had a career-high five blocks against the Jayhawks.
McDaniel has also been much more consistent during this winning streak, finding his jumper and using his speed to set up himself and teammates. He went for 15 points and a career-high 11 assists against KU, and he’s averaging 13.4 points and 7.4 assists over the past five.
The Wildcats still have work to do to get on the bubble because of some bad losses in the nonconference (LSU at home, Liberty on a neutral court and at Wichita State), but they now have three Quad 1 wins and at least three Quad 1 opportunities left in the regular season. If they finish several games over .500 in the Big 12, they’ll have a chance.
Tang deserves some of the blame for what happened early. He overspent on the center position, bringing in Hawkins, Achor Achor and Ugonna Onyenso, with plans to start all three. Achor, a star on Samford’s NCAA Tournament team last season, never started a game and left the program in early December. Onyenso, who was a starter at Kentucky, has also not started a game for K-State and averages only 10.7 minutes per game and did not play Saturday against the Jayhawks.
But Tang has settled into a rotation that makes sense, with Hawkins and N’Guessan, who led the Cats with 20 points on Saturday, developing a strong chemistry. Then there’s Hausen (the sharpshooter), Jones (Swiss Army wing) and both CJ Jones and Mobi Ikegwuruka bringing energy off the bench. Everyone fits. K-State has been elite on both ends during the winning streak — eighth-best offensively and seventh-best defensively, per Torvik. And this has quickly gone from one of the most disappointing teams in college hoops to a redemption story, with the Cats gaining confidence by the win.
Kansas, meanwhile, still seems like a team continuously searching for consistency. The numbers say it’s elite defensively, but it doesn’t always look it. The Jayhawks are used to winning Big 12 titles, and while that was a long shot going into Saturday, now they’re really out of contention at four games back. And, shockingly, there are the Cats, just one game back of KU and Baylor for fifth place.
A run no one saw coming.
(Photo of Kansas State’s David N’Guessan and Kansas’ Flory Bidunga: Peter Aiken / Getty Images)
