Kansas State pregame discussion

KSU is pretty small, definitely a young guard oriented team. They don’t appear to be lighting it up on offense based on their %'s. Certainly a winnable game for us, huge implications for our non-conference RPI. Let’s hope Ingram can get back on the court or Cherry remembers how to put it in the basket.

They do not have a great deal of height, but they are not a small team.

DJ Johnson is their #2 scorer (10 ppg 5.7 rbg) and he goes 6’9 250 lbs. That’s bigger than anyone we have but Thorne.

Marquis Foster is their top scorer this season (16.7 ppg). He is 6’2 200. He is also their 3 pt ace (42.1% on about 6.3 attempts per game)

F Shane Southwell plays a lot, and he goes 6’7, 215 (9.3 ppg / 5 rpg), as does Will Spradling 6’2 185 (8.7 ppg 4.7 rpg).

Their 5th starter is usually Wesley Iwundu. He is a 6’7 195 F (6.3, 4.7). They do some committee starting and he plays a lot fewer minutes (20 mpg) than the other 4, who are all basically 30 mpg playes. Their bench players seem to be pretty interchangeable. There’s another big, but he has only seen the floor in one game so far.

So their lineup goes: 6’9 (and 250), 6’7, 6’7, 6’2, 6’2. I would advise we disabuse ourselves of the notion that this is a small team. They will be bigger at the 3 than us and their 5 man is thick/wide. They have 2 or 3 guys who can and will hoist 3’s with effectiveness and they drive hard to the basket, play good defense and are very tough. They will almost certainly be the most athletic team we have faced so far. I think we will have a battle on our hands.

Looking forward to it.

Looks like KState -6 according to today’s Sagarin Ratings . Need to win the first game just so we’re on TV for the other two.

I’d like to know the line. Sagarin is b.s. because it uses last year’s stats as a filler until it has enough data for the model (usually around new year’s).

I agree, we really need to win this game, but IIRC, the loser bracket games will be on TV too?

[quote=“Nineradvocate, post:4, topic:28404”]I’d like to know the line. Sagarin is b.s. because it uses last year’s stats as a filler until it has enough data for the model (usually around new year’s).

I agree, we really need to win this game, but IIRC, the loser bracket games will be on TV too?[/quote]
All games except the 7th Place game will be on ESPN U according to the bracket graphic in the other thread.

I don’t think KSU is a small team, but FWIW they did they did lose to the Northern Colorado Bears in their season opener. I had no idea Northern Colorado was even a school.

Other things that stand out to me: We are averaging 42 rebounds to their 36. They’re not that good of a shooting team either… .417 FG, .615 FT, .259 3% vs .458, .705, .237. Their A/TO ratio is better than ours, however at 16/11 vs our 12/15 (ouch).

I think this is going to be a really ugly game, with lots of turnovers on our part. With that being said, I don’t think their offense is good enough to keep up with Lester and Co. I’m calling PH icing it with some FTs late and the Niners advancing 74 to 71.

ESPN Blog post on the game - quite a bit of discussion: http://espn.go.com/blog/espnevents/post/_/id/443/kansas-state-charlotte-know-each-other-well

Bracket (with times & TV): http://espnevents.com/puerto-rico-tip-off/bracket/

Predicting these tournaments when it comes to the Niners is impossible.

I have absolutely no idea. I could see us winning by a large margin or getting destroyed, and everything in between.

Seems, based on last year, that Major does a good job preparing the guys to play in these neutral site tourney environments.

The nation will know Shawn Lester’s name by the end of this tournament.

If you’re an apologist, you think we’ll win.

If you’re a realist, you think we’ll lose.

[quote=“punkrockcowboy, post:6, topic:28404”]I don’t think KSU is a small team, but FWIW they did they did lose to the Northern Colorado Bears in their season opener. I had no idea Northern Colorado was even a school.

Other things that stand out to me: We are averaging 42 rebounds to their 36. They’re not that good of a shooting team either… .417 FG, .615 FT, .259 3% vs .458, .705, .237. Their A/TO ratio is better than ours, however at 16/11 vs our 12/15 (ouch).

I think this is going to be a really ugly game, with lots of turnovers on our part. With that being said, I don’t think their offense is good enough to keep up with Lester and Co. I’m calling PH icing it with some FTs late and the Niners advancing 74 to 71.[/quote]

You mean like he did at CofC?

[quote=“NLP49, post:10, topic:28404”]If you’re an apologist, you think we’ll win.

If you’re a realist, you think we’ll lose.[/quote]

I fancy myself a realist, but its hard not to see this game as winnable. KSU is not a power house by any means, and they are not so athletic as to completely dominate us. That being said I think our best hope is that we come out of the gates strong because KSU will be our first big game of the season, KSU players will more than likely be looking past us and on to George Town. If we can punch them in the mouth first, we will have a good chance to win.

Because of the Hill/Beasley crap we experienced, this team is high on the list of teams I want us to beat.

[quote=“Honest Niner, post:12, topic:28404”][quote=“NLP49, post:10, topic:28404”]If you’re an apologist, you think we’ll win.

If you’re a realist, you think we’ll lose.[/quote]

I fancy myself a realist, but its hard not to see this game as winnable. KSU is not a power house by any means, and they are not so athletic as to completely dominate us. That being said I think our best hope is that we come out of the gates strong because KSU will be our first big game of the season, KSU players will more than likely be looking past us and on to George Town. If we can punch them in the mouth first, we will have a good chance to win.[/quote]

i know we have been irrelevant for better part of a eight years but if they are stupid enough to look past what is clearly a very talented team, they deserve a beating. we are better inside and i think more talented. their best player sounds like that freshman foster but i like having henry or lester on him.

[quote=“ninerfan55, post:16, topic:28404”][quote=“Honest Niner, post:12, topic:28404”][quote=“NLP49, post:10, topic:28404”]If you’re an apologist, you think we’ll win.

If you’re a realist, you think we’ll lose.[/quote]

I fancy myself a realist, but its hard not to see this game as winnable. KSU is not a power house by any means, and they are not so athletic as to completely dominate us. That being said I think our best hope is that we come out of the gates strong because KSU will be our first big game of the season, KSU players will more than likely be looking past us and on to George Town. If we can punch them in the mouth first, we will have a good chance to win.[/quote]

i know we have been irrelevant for better part of a eight years but if they are stupid enough to look past what is clearly a very talented team, they deserve a beating. we are better inside and i think more talented. their best player sounds like that freshman foster but i like having henry or lester on him.[/quote]

We will win by 8, shock the nation by beating GTown by 15, and take the championship by 4. Outside of that prediction I have no idea how we will fair.

k-state 73 NINERS 68 :frowning:

I have no feel for this team, played like crap to start out vs. CoC, get our crap together only to fall apart again. Then against Elon start out like crap and play that way for a while before getting our crap together. We consistently, at least 2 games in, play like crap and play well in games. I want to win, hope to win, but won’t be too surprised if we lose.

[quote=“Nineradvocate, post:2, topic:28404”]They do not have a great deal of height, but they are not a small team.

DJ Johnson is their #2 scorer (10 ppg 5.7 rbg) and he goes 6’9 250 lbs. That’s bigger than anyone we have but Thorne.

Marquis Foster is their top scorer this season (16.7 ppg). He is 6’2 200. He is also their 3 pt ace (42.1% on about 6.3 attempts per game)

F Shane Southwell plays a lot, and he goes 6’7, 215 (9.3 ppg / 5 rpg), as does Will Spradling 6’2 185 (8.7 ppg 4.7 rpg).

Their 5th starter is usually Wesley Iwundu. He is a 6’7 195 F (6.3, 4.7). They do some committee starting and he plays a lot fewer minutes (20 mpg) than the other 4, who are all basically 30 mpg playes. Their bench players seem to be pretty interchangeable. There’s another big, but he has only seen the floor in one game so far.

So their lineup goes: 6’9 (and 250), 6’7, 6’7, 6’2, 6’2. I would advise we disabuse ourselves of the notion that this is a small team. They will be bigger at the 3 than us and their 5 man is thick/wide. They have 2 or 3 guys who can and will hoist 3’s with effectiveness and they drive hard to the basket, play good defense and are very tough. They will almost certainly be the most athletic team we have faced so far. I think we will have a battle on our hands.

Looking forward to it.[/quote]

Good write up.

That ‘other big’ they had coming off the bench last game was their leading returning interior scorer from last season. I think he averaged 8 pts 5 rebs last year, but didn’t play the first two games and didn’t look great in the last one. Hopefully, he is still getting back into the groove.

I think if Ingram can have a smooth transition and help us with handling the ball and some shooting we can squeak by. Also, just like every game this year, it will be a game of ‘I hope our big guys don’t get in foul trouble’.