Mark Smith had one of his best games of the season in the loss Saturday. He recorded 20 points and 16 rebounds. 18 of those points and 10 of those rebounds came in the second half, alone.

To put it bluntly, he was one of the only bright spots in the second half from an offensive standpoint. The senior hit as many shots from the field as the rest of the team did, combined. He was 50 percent from the field, while everyone else was a combined 20 percent in the second half.

Bruce Weber challenged Smith after he struggled the last two games and told him to rebound and worry about the things he can control. Smith answered that bell in the second half. He crashed the glass and pushed the ball up the court and attacked the basket.

With Selton Miguel injured and Davion Bradford limited, a new starting five of Markquis Nowell, Mike McGuirl, Mark Smith, Nijel Pack and Carlton Linguard was deployed by Weber against the Rebels.

It was a bit of a surprise that Linguard ended up receiving the nod over Kaosi Ezeagu.

Saturday was the second start of the season for the junior from San Antonio. One of the main reasons he was Weber's pick was due to being more bouncy and seeing if his athleticism could spark Kansas State a bit.

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Markquis Nowell was far from effective versus Ole Miss. It was one of his poorest performances of the year. He only had five points on 2 of 11 from the floor and was just 1 of 6 from beyond the arc.

He has been frustrated by some of his poor shooting games recently and Weber has reminded him not to worry about his shooting and to just worry about being a playmaker for the Wildcats. His defense is an asset, too.

But the Rebels' bigs affected some of his shots in the lane due to their length. Opponents have defended him differently the deeper into the season we are, too, and have begun to pick up on some of his tendencies.

That has caused them to be more aware of what he does well, and his shooting percentages have dipped as a result.

But it wasn't just him that struggled. The problem is that he's only one of about two or three that have shown to be consistently reliable on the offensive end this season. It'll be difficult for K-State to come out on the winning end when he's not an offensive weapon.

Weber spoke a lot about the Ole Miss length and how it caused problems for Kansas State. The Rebels out-rebounded K-State 44-33, which comes as no surprise, and held the Wildcats to 30 percent shooting

That included only making 9 of 33 on two-point buckets. It comes out to a 27 percent performance from two-point range against an Ole Miss team that had been allowing teams to bury 52 percent from two-point distance this season.

After being out-rebounded by the Rebels, K-State is still winless this season when being out-rebounded.