Kansas State Wildcats Can't Catch Kansas Jayhawks at Phog

Well, that sure seemed familiar.

Yeah, 18-6 is slightly better than 18-0, and it was nice to tie the game at 45 rather than stop at 45-42, but the similarities between this year’s game and last year’s were just downright eerie. 82-65 feels just about the same as 87-71.

The fact is, when you go into Allen Fieldhouse and get down early, you might be able to crawl back with a monumental effort, but Kansas pulling away in the end is an almost inevitable third step. For a K-State fan, that recipe is almost as painful to watch as Cole Aldrich’s free throw shooting motion.

When Denis Clemente hit the three to even the score, I’ll admit it, I thought Kansas State had a chance to score the upset. Looking back, it should have been obvious that KU would regroup and put away the tired Wildcats, especially since Kansas has an impressive but also worrisome ability to switch gears unlike almost any team in the country.

The Jayhawks tried some unique things to stop Clemente and Pullen, including the rarely-used triangle-and-two defense. Still, Kansas State’s prolific guards still did what they needed and combined for 41 points by hitting some incredible shots, most notably a 30-footer from Pullen that might have gotten him benched if it hadn’t gone in.

Unfortunately, Kansas State’s third-leading scorer was Wally Judge with a whopping six points.

As a result, by the end of the night, Pullen and Clemente were being depended on so much that they were trying to score over (through?) the Big 12’s best interior defender, with predictably disastrous results.

Maybe I was the only one to do this, but I couldn’t help seeing the report on the Knicks game and wonder what last night’s game would have been like if would-be senior Bill Walker was still around. You know, if we lived in a universe where money didn’t matter .

Back in reality, Kansas State’s offense is suddenly a growing concern. A week ago, the Wildcats had one of the most efficient offenses in the country with more than 80 points per game. Then Frank’s boys were held under 68 points for the first two times all season. Last night, Kansas State averaged one assist for every ten minutes. Yikes.

So what’s the problem? Well, it certainly doesn’t help that Missouri and Kansas have the fourth and first-ranked scoring defenses in the conferences, respectively. But I’m afraid that’s not the whole story.

Dominique Sutton has taken a huge step backwards in his last three games after a combined 32 points against Nebraska and Oklahoma. The only two big guys that can really be depended on for scoring, Curtis Kelly and Jamar Samuels, seem to have lost some of their ability to create their own shots. For most of the season, backup guards Martavious Irving and Rodney McGruder have been fickle at best.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to quickly lay some blame on ESPN for making Wally Judge’s appearance on the offensive end so brief Wednesday night. After his putback dunk, one of the announcers yelled excitedly, “Wally Judge, welcome to the party!” and shortly afterward, someone decided it would be a good idea to show the audience that his season-high was 15 points, and he had six in the first half (gasp!)*.

Naturally, Judge dropped two easy passes shortly after that and did not score again.

*This is something that endlessly frustrates me about announcers. They don’t seem to understand that as season-highs or averages get smaller, the pace that a player is on becomes less and less relevant. The most egregious example is Luis Colon. Any time he makes two baskets in a row, announcers get really excited because “he only averages 2 points per game!”

That doesn’t somehow make 4 points a special accomplishment. It just means he’s sucking a little less today.

When the K-State offense is struggling, Pullen and Clemente (understandably) feel like they need to carry the team on their back, and that’s when things get ugly. These two guys need help, and Clemente especially needs to understand that he can be just as valuable to the team by creating plays and making the guys around him better.

Several times last night and throughout the season, Clemente got out of control with his incredible speed and forced up some ridiculous shot that really has no business going near the basket. Incredibly, some of these shots actually do defy the laws of physics and find their way into the basket, but that still doesn’t stop K-State fans (including me, occasionally) from yelling at Denis every time he misses one.

However, upon reflection, I think it’s unavoidable that Denis’ best weapon, his speed, is also his kryptonite. It’s kind of similar to the way that Adrian Peterson is only the best running back in the NFL because of his recklessness that also makes him prone to injury and will likely shorten his career by two or three years. It’s just something we have to live with as fans, and in Clemente’s case, the heartburn will be over with after this season.

On the bright side, Kansas State’s defense still looked fairly strong, although I would question Frank’s decision to move away from his team’s signature hard-nosed man-to-man defense so often last night. I understand the difficulties matching up with Aldrich, but Kansas State might have even been a little lucky that the ‘Hawks made 8-18 threes in front of that crowd, considering Sherron Collins made just 1 of 7.

Of course, the best thing that happened for K-State basketball last night — and the part that makes this loss completely different from last season or any other in my lifetime — came courtesy of an event that happened far away from Lawrence, in a place called College Park. T

hanks to an impressive effort by the Terps against the Dukies, Kansas State actually moved into a better position for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney. When was the last time you could say that about a 17-point loss?

This article was written by hongabear of Ahearn Alley .

Follow Ahearn Alley on Twitter: @AhearnAlley