Second-year guard Nijel Pack was not part of the Kansas State breakthrough win over Wichita State on Sunday evening. He did not travel with the team after suffering from concussion-related symptoms, according to head coach Bruce Weber.

It was a bit of a fluky type incident in the day prior to the contest with the Shockers where he caught an elbow.

K-State's head coach revealed that he does hope that Pack will be available on Wednesday night against Marquette. For that to happen, though, everything would have to go right the rest of the way.

The Wildcat guard missed a handful of weeks before the season-opener due to a hip injury, so he has had a turbulent second season in Manhattan thus far.

Though he struggled from the field for most of the night, Markquis Nowell took his extended minutes due to Pack's absence and ran with it. While it was far from his best shooting performance, he still impacted the game in a variety of ways.

While some of his teammates struggled from the free throw line down the stretch, such as Mark Smith and Mike McGuirl, Nowell was near perfect. He was at the charity stripe often and converted all six of his free throws.

And despite his shooting woes, which included going 4 of 15 from the field, a clutch three-pointer was quite the response when Wichita State threatened to claw back into the game and break the hearts of the Wildcats.

That clutch play wasn't his primary impact though, according to Shockers' head coach Isaac Brown. He made the observation after the game that Kansas State may have benefited from Nijel Pack being unavailable on this particular night.

Nowell is more apt and far better at applying ball pressure and did so for 35 minutes on Sunday evening. That was the culprit for much of Wichita State's struggles on the offensive end, and it was only so due to Nowell being forced into those kind of minutes.

When asked about playing four guards together for so many minutes, Weber pointed to defense being the motivating factor behind that decision. That is why Smith, McGuirl, Nowell and Selton Miguel shared the floor as much as they did against the Shockers.

They know that is an elite defensive lineup and their best one on that end of the floor. Sunday evening inside inTRUST Bank Arena was not the first time we have seen that personnel grouping together and it won't be the last.

That is a lineup that consists of two on-ball pests in Nowell and Miguel and two savvy defenders in McGuirl and Smith. While McGuirl's offense has been inconsistent this year, to be kind, his defense has been improved.

Smith is showing signs of breaking the habits he developed at Missouri and Illinois and comprehending the system at K-State more and more.

In general, the Wildcats have really turned up their intensity and focus on that end of the floor and it is starting to look a bit more reminiscent of the defensive squads that were present when the program was its most successful under Weber.

For anyone concerned that the players may bask in the glory too long after such an impressive win and the first of its kind in multiple years, everything we heard after the game suggested that would not be the case.

It would be completely reasonable and understandable if the Kansas State roster celebrated their moment with excessive exuberance. They haven't had a breakthrough of its kind since many of them signed with the Wildcats.

While social media videos would suggest they enjoyed it for a bit, the few that we spoke to afterwards were sure to share that they would not be complacent or satisfied with just this achievement.

They want to use it as a springboard for more. Simply put, it felt like Sunday's win made them hungrier rather than just satisfying their appetite.