Before the season started, head coach Bruce Weber thought this Kansas State men’s basketball team was underappreciated. He didn’t think the No. 12 preseason ranking was valid. He thought this team deserved more: a Top 10 rank.
Now, after two road losses against Marquette and Tulsa, senior forward Dean Wade said at the team’s press conference on Thursday that this team probably doesn’t deserve to be ranked after the way they played the past two weeks.
Even so, Wade said he knows the team can and perform better.
“We had two bad games in a row,” Wade said. “We didn’t play with urgency. We’re still a great team. We got some great pieces. When we put it together, we’re going to be a hard team to stop. We just had a rough two weeks. Hopefully, we are going to use this as motivation and bounce back better than ever.”
Related:
Men's basketball drops second straight game in agonizing 46-47 loss to Tulsa
Head coach Bruce Weber said the past two weeks are a lesson.
“These past two weeks have been good for us,” Weber said. “We had a couple tough road games. We had some adversity. You know you got to deal with that, that is part of the season. That is how you get better.”
Wade also said he finds value in the losses.
“I feel the away games against tougher opponents really battle test a team, gets everyone going for the season,” Wade said. “You stay at home, play lesser teams, you don’t really learn much from those games. I think it’s a good thing to go out and play tougher teams. It helps our RPI [ranking]. It helps everyone on the team learn and get better.”
The Wildcats will now look to get back in the win column Saturday evening as they host Georgia State. The game will tipoff at 7 p.m. The game can be watched on Fox Sports and ESPN3. It can also be listened to on the K-State Sports Network.
