Men’s basketball head coach Bruce Weber realizes Saturday was a lost opportunity for K-State to garner a true nonconference road win at Tennessee. As they sit with a 4-4 overall record and 1-4 record away from home or on a neutral court, his team will continue to sift through answers on familiar court.
“Right now that is one of the elements we need: just figuring out roles, understanding and delivering each person’s role,” Weber said of the team’s need to find chemistry. “It is obvious by our numbers we need to get something out of Nigel (Johnson), Wesley (Iwundu), Justin (Edwards), and Tre (Harris). That will help us out offensively.”
Bradley (3-5), who has played the likes of Memphis, TCU and St. Louis, heads to Manhattan to play K-State for the first time since 1996. The Wildcats are 64-27 all-time against Missouri Valley schools and 41-5 at home.
“We need to improve and get practice time,” Weber said of finding a rhythm. “We need to get some continuity on offense and some toughness on defense. We have to play the beginning, middle and end of a game. That is just that toughness to grind it out.”
The game will be just the fourth home contest of the season for K-State as it has traveled for five of their first eight games. The confines of Bramlage Coliseum have been good to the Wildcats, who have scored three of their 80-point games on the home court floor.
Regardless of where K-State is playing, Weber hopes to see his team focus in on their known production leaders and find some consistent alternative scoring options to pair with sophomore guard Marcus Foster and senior forward Thomas Gipson.
“The other guys have to make some plays,” Weber said. “In the zone, Thomas (Gipson) and Marcus (Foster) are our go-to guys. When you have grind out games you have to be more efficient and we have not been doing that. Hopefully the other guys can step up and make some plays.”
