Men’s basketball worked out their frustration from the Ft. Myers Tip-Off with a 76-58 drubbing of Florida A&M Monday night in Bramlage Coliseum.
The Wildcats struggled on their trip to Florida, dropping the first game to Pittsburgh 63-59 after leading for most of the first half and the third-place consolation game against Bradley 73-60.
“We had every chance against Pittsburgh, we don’t know what would have happened against Northwestern,” head coach Bruce Weber said. “Obviously I didn’t get their attention, [Bradley] was our worst defensive night of the year.”
Kansas State’s answer for the frustrating trip was to thoroughly demolish the now 0-6 Florida A&M Rattlers.
“It was a good game to have for our guys because they were sick,” Weber said. “They had their hearts set on going to Florida and trying to win a tournament.”
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K-State beaten by Bradley in third-place game at Ft. Myers Tip-Off
After shooting 19 percent from the three-pointer range and 40 percent overall against Bradley, K-State shot 35 percent from three and 54 percent from the field against the Rattlers.
“We’ve made some progress offensively,” Weber said. “We’ve got to be a little more patient, a little more disciplined.”
For Weber’s young Wildcat squad, just like all teams in all sports, the name of the game is improvement over the course of the season.
“I always go back to Coach [Bill] Snyder, you watched them early and they always got better,” Weber said of the K-State football program. “And I think Coach [Chris] Klieman did a great job this year of getting them better even after adversity.”
Coming up Saturday, K-State has a tough match-up against Marquette and their star, senior guard Markus Howard. Howard scored 45 points in a 83-71 win over the Wildcats almost exactly a year ago in Milwaukee.
“Obviously we have to do a great job on Howard, we’ve got one of the best guards in the country coming here,” Weber said. “I believe we have good defenders.”
Howard has been lighting up the scoreboard again this year, scoring 51 points against USC and 40 against Davidson in the Orlando Invitational.
K-State will tip off against Marquette at 8 p.m. Saturday in Bramlage Coliseum. The game will broadcast on ESPN2.
