A nightmare of a Big 12 Conference season continued for Bruce Weber and Kansas State at Oklahoma State, as the Wildcats suffered their 10th straight loss Wednesday night in Stillwater.

This one came at the hands of Oklahoma State, 69-63, with an 8-0 Cowboy run in the latter part of the second half proving the difference.

We recap K-State's latest setback in The Final at K-StateOnline.

1. A stronger start

For the first time in quite some time, K-State did not spot its opponent a large early advantage in a Big 12 Conference game.

In fact, less than halfway through the first half the Wildcats found themselves leading 10-5 on the road. That edge evaporated relatively quickly and eventually turned into a 26-23 halftime deficit, but it certainly left the Wildcats in a spot where they weren't spending extensive energy early on trying to climb out of a hole.

The final outcome was no different, unfortunately for K-State, but the ability to stay close early was at least a welcomed change.

2. Staying small

With Montavious Murphy once again out with his knee injury the Wildcats went with Xavier Sneed along with guards Cartier Diarra, Mike McGuirl and DaJuan Gordon in the starting lineup, plus post Makol Mawien.

This marks the second straight game K-State has started Sneed at the four after playing the senior from St. Louis very heavily at the small forward position through the duration of the season.

3. Again?!?

Remember when Diarra missed a wide-open dunk against Texas Tech, and many lost their minds?

Well, Sneed did the exact same thing tonight.

The senior forward had a wildly open path to the basket in the final two minutes of the first half, slowed down and tried a full windmill dunk.

And, honestly, it wasn't even close, as Sneed missed it off the front/side of the rim. The miss also immediately turned into a run-out and basket for the Cowboys, who were able to then take a three-point lead into halftime.

Sneed was not benched following his mistake.

4. Second-half separation, with a (short) rally

Oklahoma State never had success building a significant first-half advantage, but it didn't take the Cowboys long to create a little separation in the second half. A made Jonathan Laurent triple made it a six-point game, and then Lindy Waters answered a Mawien floater with another OSU 3-pointer and a seven-point lead with 18:26 still left to play.

Bruce Weber would call a timeout at that point, unhappy with his team for leaving shooters open for the Cowboys.

K-State, to its credit, would rally back to tie the score at 41 before Mike McGuirl put K-State back in front, 43-41, with 12 minutes left in the contest.

5. Many minutes

Neither Sneed nor Diarra left the floor a single time until Sneed rested with 12:13 left to play and the game tied 41-41, as Weber tried to stay small while also riding his best players as long as he could.

It was also especially necessary with both Mawien and Levi Stockard battling severe foul trouble, even forcing Antonio Gordon into spot duty at the five spot with guards surrounding him for brief stretches.

Diarra would briefly leave with about 11-and-a-half minutes remaining, but by essentially the 11-minute mark both Sneed and Diarra were back on the floor, with Sneed dishing to David Sloan for an open triple and a four-point K-State advantage with just 10 minutes remaining.

Unfortunately for the Cats, however, Oklahoma State responded to that Sloan triple with an immediate 8-0 spurt to regain a 54-49 lead, a deficit the guard (and minute) heavy Wildcats did not rebound from.

K-State sputtered offensively down the stretch, and while you wonder how the heavy minutes played by the likes of Diarra, Sneed, McGuirl and Gordon impacted it, it's also fair to note the Wildcats have regularly struggled to make plays down the stretch more often than not this season.

K-State repeated the story we've seen most of this season. The 11th straight game with an efficiency under 1.00 and and eFG% under 40% and 19% from deep. Even with the TO rate difference, K-State only outscored OSU 24-22 in points off turnovers. K-State won the offensive boards but was outscored 17-11 in second-chance points. OSU makes three more from behind the arc and beats K-State in FT rate.

As a result, K-State has 21 losses for the first time ever and the worst winning percentage since 1946.

The big three all had efficiency numbers below 0.90. McGuirl, Sloan, and DaJuan Gordon have solid efficiency games, but not enough.

Takeaway:

K-State's ability to turn teams over has little benefit when the Cats turn it over themselves. K-State hits the offensive glass hard, but can't benefit with points. This is simply a bad shooting team, and that makes it very difficult to win given all the other issues.

If you are one who enjoys watching good ball movement, the first half of this game wasn’t for you. K-State had 30 first half possessions, not including Xavier Sneed’s missed dunk after a run through steal, and the last possession where K-State got the ball back with two seconds left on the clock. On those 30 possessions, the basketball changed sides of the floor twice with a pass only two times, and only five more possessions saw the ball change sides of the floor once.

On all the rest of K-State’s first half possessions, the ball never changed sides of the floor with a pass.

It was no coincidence that on those two possessions with multiple ball reversals the Wildcats got a wide open three on the left wing that DaJuan Gordon knocked down, and Mike McGuirl was able to take advantage of an open driving lane down the right side of the lane for a layup. It was also not a coincidence that all but one of K-State’s eight first half turnovers came on those possessions where the ball did not change sides of the floor. When a team does not get good ball movement and force the defense to react with multiple rotations, it puts a lot of pressure on guys to make individual plays with the basketball, and this K-State team does not have a ton of guys that currently excel in those situations.

On the plus side, K-State played with good effort on the defensive end and forced 11 first half Oklahoma State turnovers. And, when K-State stayed locked into the scouting report and communicated, they made it difficult for the Cowboys to get good looks. On one possession, the Cowboys ran a screen the screener action for Lindy Waters where he set a cross screen in the lane and then received a down screen for a three at the top of the key. D. Gordon recognized Cartier Diarra had to help off Waters on the cross screen and came off his man to take away Waters coming off the down screen.

Conversely, the Wildcats had a possession defensively where Mike McGuirl chose to double Kalib Boone in the mid-post. Boone came into the game only averaging 4.6 points per game, so I would assume doubling him at that spot of the floor was not part of the scout. That decision led to Waters getting a wide open three. On this particular possession K-State got lucky, as Waters missed the shot, but these two possessions I described were good examples of what happens when you follow the scouting report and when you do not.

Early in the second half K-State was able to generate some offense through a set where Makol Mawien set a back screen for Sneed before setting a ball screen for Diarra. What the back screen does is forces the post defender to help for a second on the back screen, which makes him late to get there on the hedge on the ball screen. When Diarra is able to get his shoulders square driving to the basket, he is able to find some success.

K-State had a chance to seize momentum of the game after Sneed’s steal and two free throws tied the game at 41 with just over 12 minutes to play. The Wildcats scored on their next three possessions on two nice drives from McGuirl and a possession where they did get good ball movement. Against the one possession in the game that the Cowboys played zone, Sneed flashed to the high post and pitched the ball to the opposite wing to David Sloan for a three.

Despite the stretch of good offense, K-State was unable to build a lead because they fouled the Cowboys on three straight possessions. Then, coming out of a timeout, K-State did not properly switch a fake hand off at the elbow giving Cam McGriff an easy dunk. What followed was the all too familiar stretch for K-State, as the Cats turned it over on four straight possessions with the last one coming after a timeout. On K-State’s fifth possession, Diarra took a long three before any passes had been made, and after a Levi Stockard offensive rebound, Sneed missed a long two off of one pass.

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