The Post Game returns for basketball as we'll provide you a recap, insight and likely some (attempted) humor all in one place.

And I couldn't have been more thrilled.

Gosh, what a breathtaking athlete - Xavier Sneed is everything I wanted the Dominique Sutton Experience to be during my first run covering K-State.

What can't X do?

He defends. He shoots, and makes, threes. He dunks with ferocity. He rocks a headband. The more I see of him, the more fascinated I am with the prospect of the Wildcats playing truly positionless basketball - just throw your best five out there at times. I can't remember who mentioned this - forgive me, but the Sunflower Showdown sapped my brain cells - but why not use Sneed at the 4?

Not all of the time, of course. But with his wingspan and athleticism, he seems longer than his listed height of 6-5.

He had his way with the Fort Hays State Tigers, ending the afternoon with a game-high 18 points and seven rebounds, and that was a welcome sight after watching him against Missouri State. I wasn't concerned - just as I wasn't concerned by Dean Wade's single-digit scoring output - but the more I see, I realize how vital he's probably going to be K-State's success.

"He was a little tight last week," K-State coach Bruce Weber said. "With X, some of it is confidence, some of it is experience... He's been one of our best players every day."

Weber continued, saying we haven't seen everything Sneed can do just yet. Apparently, he can be deployed in the paint on post-ups, and as a help defender, he's just scratching the surface as well.

Consider me officially fascinated.

Five most fascinating figures inside of Bramlage Colisuem Saturday.

1. Aggressive Dean Wade. There are shots he should always take - 15-footers on the baseline or near the elbow, for instance. There are lanes to the hoop he should always drive through - any time he's single-covered, basically. There are putbacks that will be easy buckets. What I'm suggesting is this doesn't have to be an "aggressive" version of Wade, who finished with 15 points. This can be normal. This can be him.

2. Cartier Diarra. If you can't stay in front of him, and if he finishes around the rim, and if he doesn't finish but he hits his free throws... Yeah, he's a problem. "Cartier has been pretty consistent," Weber said.

3. Barry Brown. Seven turnovers is rough, but he had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists. And do you think for a minute those turnovers shook his confidence at all? Nah.

4. Makol Mawien. A bumpy start, but the tools remain apparent. Not sure who's leading the race to be the starter in the middle on opening night - Weber said "Mak" had a great week of practice but the head coach seemed a little disappointed in his showing against Fort Hays. Still, he's the most gifted of the options available.

5. Amaad Wainwright. The number of athletic reserves on this squad is astounding. Wainwright, at his size, is surprising with his ability. His putback dunk in the second half was eye-opening.

A flashback to the days of traditional game stories.

Comfortably ahead 66-43, K-State coach Bruce Weber went to his bench for the final seven minutes and change.

Eleven of 15 Wildcats scored, including four in double figures. Every player on the roster saw action.

The Wildcats, now 2-0 in exhibitions, face Emporia State on Nov. 3 at Bramlage Coliseum in their final tune-up before the regular season opener Nov. 10 against American.

- Caleb Love, a 6-3 shooting guard from Christian Brothers College High in St. Louis, will be at today's exhibition against Fort Hays State. He's a 2020 recruit, a three-star prospect. Watch him in action:

- Nigel Shadd completely missed the rim on a fourth-quarter free throw attempt.

- K-State outrebounded Fort Hays State, 36-27, which is the good news. The bad news? The Tigers don't boast a player standing taller than 6-7.

Who won today's point guard battle, and why?

No idea who Fort Hays State's point guard was, but Cartier Diarra was better. I can guarantee that.

Starting in place of Kam Stokes (see above), Diarra impressed once again, logging 11 points, six assists and five rebounds in 23 minutes. The most impressive statistic, even beyond the 4-of-5 from the free-throw line? ZERO turnovers.

A collection of thoughts and observations from KSO's basketball analyst Chris Nelson.

1. With the exception of Barry Brown, the KSU guards struggled with on-ball defense in the first half. This led to 13 first-half three point attempts from Fort Hays State, most of which were unguarded. The Wildcats also chose to switch big-on-little ball screens, which either led to the posts not being able to stay in front of the dribbler or the guard fouling trying to defend the post. Against Missouri State and in the second half today, K-State defended ball screens by showing and recovering and was more successful with that approach. Any good defensive team is able to keep the basketball out of the paint, and on too many possessions in the first half, the Wildcats failed to do that. But the good news is KSU responded with a much better effort in this area in the second half.

2. Offensively, when Brown, Cartier Diarra, Xavier Sneed and Dean Wade were on the floor together, the Wildcats moved the ball fairly well and were efficient in the half court. One set in particular that generated quite a few good looks was a dribble weave with Wade as the trailer. Wade will have the advantage on almost any post when he gets the ball on the move. Today, he made good decisions on when to attack and made several nice passes when a second defender came.

3. The offense bogged down considerably when the subs were on the floor. One reason for that is the wings for K-State were letting the FHSU defenders push them too far out on the floor on ball reversal. This led to slow ball reversals and the wing catching the pass in a position where they essentially had to reset the offense. Ideally, you would like to catch the basketball free-throw line extended, just outside of the three-point line where you are a threat to either score or make a play.

20

Turnovers for Fort Hays State, a sum Tigers coach Mark Johnson lamented aftewards: "The biggest key to the game was that we turned it over 20 times - they had like 27 points off our turnovers. They did a good job pressuring us and we just could not handle the pressure and turned it over too much."