MANHATTAN, Kan. — Nothing about Kansas State’s men’s basketball game against Texas was normal on Tuesday inside Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats were missing head coach Bruce Weber and five scholarship players for their home Big 12 opener because of COVID issues within the team’s roster. That meant Shane Southwell served as the team’s coach and seldom-used forward Carlton Linguard was a member of the starting lineup.
Under those bizarre circumstances, few expected K-State to compete against the No. 14 Longhorns, let alone pull off an upset. So it came as no surprise that Texas won 70-57.
With only seven healthy scholarship players, K-State got off to a strong start and scored the first seven points of the night. It also led 35-29 at halftime thanks to 15 early points from sophomore guard Nijel Pack. For a while, at least, it actually seemed like the Wildcats might be able to pull off an improbable win.
But reality caught up with them in the second half. The Longhorns flexed their muscles and used depth to their advantage. Texas scored the first eight points of the second half to erase their halftime deficit and then pulled away from there. It led by as many as 12 down the stretch.
One could say the Wildcats ran out of gas.
Without Davion Bradford, Kaosi Ezeagu and Logan Landers, the Wildcats didn’t have a single true center available to counter the Longhorns’ big lineup. Without point guard Markquis Nowell, they also didn’t have anyone in the back court to make outside shots and complement Pack, who finished with 21 points.
Marcus Carr led Texas with 19 points, while Courtney Ramey added 14. Timmy Allen also had 17 points and 14 rebounds.
The Longhorns (12-2, 2-0 Big 12) had a much more complete effort than the Wildcats (8-5, 0-2).
It is unknown how long K-State will be without Weber and much of its roster, but only Nowell may be ready to play in its next game at West Virginia on Saturday.
Here are three key takeaways from K-State’s loss against Texas:
A welcome start
Say this much for Southwell: He had the Wildcats ready to play against the Wildcats.
Slow starts have become a disappointing trend for K-State in recent games, but that wasn’t an issue on Tuesday. The Wildcats came out with noticeable energy and scored the first seven points of the game. They led by as many as nine in the first half and didn’t seem fazed by their limited roster numbers.
That was a welcome change, even though it didn’t last.
Texas eventually wore down K-State, especially inside. But there wasn’t much the Wildcats could do about that with their best front court players and their head coach watching from home.
K-State clearly responded well to Southwell under the circumstances.
Another lucky break for Texas
The Longhorns have benefited from some good fortune at the start of Big 12 play.
Texas got to play West Virginia at home when the Mountaineers were without several of their best players because of COVID. Then they got to play the Wildcats when they were down half their roster for the same reason.
The Longhorns won both games by double digits.
Perhaps they would have won both games regardless, but unbalanced rosters like that will make for some unusual outcomes this season. K-State is on the other end of the spectrum. It has missed starters in each of its first two Big 12 games.
Nice effort from Pack
No one can fault sophomore guard Nijel Pack for K-State losing the game.
Pack came out on fire and scored 15 points in the first half despite only attempting seven shots. He cooled off a bit from there and only finished with 21 points, but few could blame him for that. Texas made defending him a priority.
He will benefit from having Nowell back in the lineup whenever that happens.
