Kansas State 3/5 7:00 ESPN+

[Rufus]

These players do not want to play for Miller or they don't like his offensive schemes, which leads to another question why does Miller recruit players and try to force round pegs into square holes. Or does he become enamoured with a player who opposed us in a game and fixates on that player (see Aziz and Mitchel.) Can he not evaluate what it takes to compete in this conference.

I listened to Millers pgp and he's taking the blame. Chad Brendal ask him if there was a point in the game when he became aware of the lack of intensity from his team and He said it was at the very start. I myself noticed it at the 10 minute mark left in the first half UC was in the lead ( double digits I think ) and it looked like they all just collectively decided they had this game in the bag and no longer need their A game. Or not to make accusations but could have looked like that all said " hey we're not as supposed be winning this easy". But if I'm the head coach and I'm seeing a very noticeable lack of effort from the five I've got on the floor I'm setting all five on the bench and putting in five guys who never get a chance to play. What have you got to lose. Your well on your way to losing again, your in the bottom half of the conference, very little chance of making the tourney, your already on the hot seat, fan base is already booing you and your team, so continuing doing the same old routine that hasn't worked all year just comes across as not caring either or your in over your head.

Someone earlier was listing players who they would let go and keep forgot about McKinnley we do have him returning as of right now do we not?

[Rufus]

why do you suppose that is? The coaching staff or the players lack desire.

We all had the proverbial smoke blowed in our direction by CWM being from the Roy Williams coaching tree, but it is evident that he is not ready to coach in a power four conference.

[sedz]

Mitchell struggled with Hawkins initially, odds are Page would have been a disaster. Reed deserves most of the credit for shutting Hawkins down. That's a large part of the reason Reed got more minutes than Mitchell. I know Reed had a poor offensive game, but he had a great game defense and rebounding.

Yep, everyone will have bad shooting nights, but Reed didn't let it affect his effort and rebounding. Reed, Aziz, and Mitchell each had 7 rebounds, but they only made 5 out of 19 shots combined. Can't have such an offensive black hole in the frontcourt.

[zykarious]

K State does not play two bigs. Hawkins is not a big like Aziz or Page. He's a mobile perimeter player like Mitchell. And we shut him down. He scored 9 points on 10 shots with no offensive rebounds and turned it over 6 times. Are you saying you would rather have had Page chasing him around the perimeter? Our defense in this game was great. We only scored 49 points at home! You don't fix that by adding even slower players.

Mitchell struggled with Hawkins initially, odds are Page would have been a disaster. Reed deserves most of the credit for shutting Hawkins down. That's a large part of the reason Reed got more minutes than Mitchell. I know Reed had a poor offensive game, but he had a great game defense and rebounding.

[BorisTheCat]

Here's the other thing.... there's no reason that UC should "need" that any more than any other school. There has also been talk about whether NIL has made our guys "less driven"... again... there is no reason that would be more true for UC than EVERY other school. My guess is... if this even SEEMS like an idea that should be considered, it is more of a reflection on the players you have brought in... For this and many other reasons, I think Wes MUST reassess his player selection process. His approach to building a roster has not worked... I think the only way he survives after next year is admitting that his current approach (players, coaches, offense) has proven to be insufficient... and to make fundamental changes... He cannot count on more than one year to get this corrected

[sedz]

I think it could benefit Wes and the players if we rearrange our NIL deals to include escalators, just like the escalators in a coach's contract. X amount for player of the week, X amount for first All conferences, and second team all-conference, team bonuses for winning the regular season championship, winning conference championship, making the NCAA, sweet 16, etc... The same could apply to football or other sports, but the money has to be there.

This is a good idea in theory, but put yourself in the player's shoes. If you have one NIL offer that depends on escalators, and another offering equal money that doesn't, you're going to take the guaranteed money. So escalators have to be above what other schools are offering, making everything cost more.

In pro sports this usually goes the other direction. Teams will put player options or no trade clauses in there to entice them to sign for less money.

[sedz]

Also, with UC not playing the matchups, K-State's two big men lineup gave UC problems like the two big men lineup has done so all season. Why not play Page and Aziz at the same time to match up to K-State? To me it is common sense.

K State does not play two bigs. Hawkins is not a big like Aziz or Page. He's a mobile perimeter player like Mitchell. And we shut him down. He scored 9 points on 10 shots with no offensive rebounds and turned it over 6 times. Are you saying you would rather have had Page chasing him around the perimeter? Our defense in this game was great. We only scored 49 points at home! You don't fix that by adding even slower players.

[longtimefan]

Why did they start fouling on that last KState possession??? Play defense, get the ball back down 3 with about 15 seconds left. Then Day Day fouls their best FT shooter before the ball is even inbounded. Yes, I broke my own rule and booed this team off the floor.

So I just heard Wes say they were told not to foul there, and Aziz took it on himself to commit that stupid foul with 28 seconds left. If that’s the case, it’s insubordinate, and cannot be tolerated. If I am the coach, Aziz has played his last game as a Bearcat, he would not travel to OSU, or the Big XII tournament. I hate to rag on a single player, but that cost the game, and the season, and he was instructed not to do it.

[leo from jersey]

I watched the TV replay this morning, and it looked better on TV than it did in person, and it as horrible on TV. I went to my first UC game, with my Dad, in 1960, against Tulsa at the Armory Fieldhouse. We won that game scoring over 100, and I don’t think Oscar missed a shot. That’s how long I’ve been going to UC games. Last night was I think the low point of all the games I’ve seen, as far as being careless and stupid. I can’t remember such a lack of effort, not even in Tony Yates’ 3-25 team. Is it coaching? Yes. Is it a bad roster? Yes in the sense that there is not one guy out there who will refuse to lose. You have to have at least one guy who will fight his butt off, and will do whatever it takes to help his team. One Gary Clark would make this a different team, because that type of tenacity and leadership rubs off on others. We do not have that one guy on this roster, and we need to find one.

were you able to hear what CWM was yelling to Jizzle on the side during a time out

[longtimefan]

I watched the TV replay this morning, and it looked better on TV than it did in person, and it as horrible on TV. I went to my first UC game, with my Dad, in 1960, against Tulsa at the Armory Fieldhouse. We won that game scoring over 100, and I don’t think Oscar missed a shot. That’s how long I’ve been going to UC games. Last night was I think the low point of all the games I’ve seen, as far as being careless and stupid. I can’t remember such a lack of effort, not even in Tony Yates’ 3-25 team. Is it coaching? Yes. Is it a bad roster? Yes in the sense that there is not one guy out there who will refuse to lose. You have to have at least one guy who will fight his butt off, and will do whatever it takes to help his team. One Gary Clark would make this a different team, because that type of tenacity and leadership rubs off on others. We do not have that one guy on this roster, and we need to find one.

[zykarious]

I agree. One guy that did play better as the year went on was Reed.

I'd argue Day Day improved too, at least from three. He went from being one of the worst three point shooters on the team last year at 28% to being the best at 38%.

May not be coincidence that the two hardest working guys on the court showed improvement.

[Gypo O'Leary]

I'm going to be Mr. Negative this morning. Worst.Effort.Ever.... At least in a clutch situation. We had to have that game. They came out spectacularly flat and blew it.

That was low energy on all fronts last night. Yes, the fans too. There were a couple of times late in the game where you could have heard a pin drop in 5/3 on the TV broadcast. What even is that?

From the coaches, to the players, to the fans, everyone was asleep at the wheel last night. I think NIL has led to some of the players mentally checking out early because they were going to get paid anyway. Makes me wonder how many of them actually listen to Wes in game and in practice.

Also, let's just get this out of the way. Wes is a bad in-game coach. He can recruit well and draw up inbound plays really well but his ability to adjust on the fly and coach modern offense is sorely lacking. Every once in while I have to remind myself that when he was at UNCG, it took a long long time for him to sustain success there and over his ten years with the program he averaged 18.5 wins a season despite winning the conference 4 times.

I think everything about Wes looked good coming in but we were starting from the point of the Brannen debacle at that time. I like Wes but I don't feel like he can motivate his players and in this NIL era it's harder to do that from the jump. The NIL era is not what most of these coaches signed up for to be honest so it's not all on Wes for sure. Players have to want to improve and get to the next level. With NIL, the cash incentive to do so is gone.

I want to continue to support the team and Wes but the effort level and attitude need to improve across the board from the players and I'm not not sure Wes can get that out of them. I want guys on the floor playing for the C and not just for the $.

Hopefully Wes will keep Abaev and Tillery and the three of them will prove me wrong next season.

I see it differently. Aziz and Simon are not Big 12 level talent. So what does that say about recruiting. Same with Frederick and Hickman. When you play in the major conferences you have to have a front line. This 2 guard + an athletic siwng player (Mitchell/Skillings) works in leagues with less talent (which Wes excelled in). Aziz Bandaogo would probably be my MVP because he absolutely played at his ceiling. Unfortunately his ceiling was more the AAC than the Big 12. Last night was an obvious example that Simon Lukosius doesn't belong being a starter in the Big 12. He has a goofy almost set shot, he is too slow to play defense, and he can't get open, can't rebound for a 6'8" guy. He chucks his 36' threes and hits 1 of 3...and it is the one where he gets lost by the defense and gets wide open.

So looking forward this team has Page and Betsey. I would have wanted to see Page a lot more this year. He comes in the game and sets up in the post. He got so little floor time that he seemed to force a shot every time, I think mainly because he knew he was only going to get a minute to play. He has the size and skills to play in the post in the Big 12. An offense needs to work that way. Always trying to get the ball inside so the D has to collapse. So far, Betsey, in a similar vein, seems to settle for breaking outside and throwing a three (which was his HS game?). But he needs to work inside. Both of these guys should be bigger and stronger next year. (And they should have gotten more playing time this year.) With the wing shooters the Bearcats have, if Jizzle and Day Day can distribute the ball properly in an offense, I don't think next year is that bleak talent wise. But I can't say that Wes Miller looks at it the way I do.

The bad side is there isn't much from this year that seems like it would entice a player to want to come to an under water Big 12 program that seems to accept mediocre.

[loshow22]

not to start baseless rumors, but there's one out there that wes will stay, but will need to hire a new set of assistants. my thought is, if josh loeffler was so damn important, why'd they let him go.

He took a head coaching gig at Loyola

[Gypo O'Leary]

I think Reed showed improvement this year. He did not play well tonight but neither did anyone else for UC. Again, a shameful performance.

I agree. One guy that did play better as the year went on was Reed.

[leeraymond]

Last night's loss was a major set-back loss. This game was very much needed to keep any chance of an NCAA post-season alive. To make matters worse, this was a Senior Night home game against one of the bottom teams in the conference. This was also a revenge game because K-State beat UC once already. The table was set for a victory that never came. I would imagine that for some of the UC administrators, alumni, and fans, this may have been the loss that broke the camel's back. Miller may now be officially on the "hot-seat".

The team seemed to have low energy from the get-go last night. Houston had a similar beginning last Saturday against UC. Sampson called a time out and had a "talking to" with his players. Sampson put another unit in the game and the effort level then went up. The starters came back in and took control of the game.

With that said, sometimes a team comes out flat and is not really motivated to play. It is the coach's job to light a fire under his players. Miller was not able to do that last night. After half time, K-State increased its defensive intensity while Miller did the same old thing that he normally does. That increase in defensive intensity by K-State created 4 major turnovers late in the game by both Thomas and James where K-State was able to take advantage. Also, with UC not playing the matchups, K-State's two big men lineup gave UC problems like the two big men lineup has done so all season. Why not play Page and Aziz at the same time to match up to K-State? To me it is common sense.

Cunningham may have made a mistake when he extended Miller's contract after only his second year. What AD would do something like that with an unproven coach? I would imagine that if Miller was under the conditions of the original agreement, this may be his last season. Miller has got to find a way to get to the upper half of the BIG XII next season or next season may be his last at UC.