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| Kansas State head coach Frank Martin yells out a call to his team during the cats’ 92-54 win over Loyola Chicago on Friday night. Staff photo by Michael Schweitzer. |
But there was one glaring stat. The Wildcats, who ranked 18th nationally in rebounding margin last season (6.2 per game), were out-boarded by Loyola 51-41 — including 25 offensive rebounds.
So it wasn't surprising that Martin didn't feel like putting a public relations spin on this one. There were no positives to talk about for the K-State coach; no feel-good stories to grasp onto.
Not even Curtis Kelly. The junior forward knocked down 9-of-11 from the floor en route to scoring a career-high 22 points in his first college game in 18 months.
But Martin, nor Kelly, were in any sort of mood to brag about the performance.
"(Kelly) had one defensive rebound," Martin said. "That's not a very good performance in my opinion. He shot layups — heck I can make layups."
An overmatched Ramblers team seemingly grabbed every loose-ball rebound in its domination on the glass.
"That's something that's really stressing me right now to be honest," Kelly said of the rebounding performance. "That's one thing that's really bothering me a lot. Jake (Pullen) had more defensive rebounds than me — that's messing with me a little bit.
"I'm not happy with my performance tonight. The scoring is not really my biggest concern because I know that God-willing, if I do the right things, I'm going to be able to score the ball, that's gonna come. But I expected to rebound way better than I did."
K-State got off to a sluggish start early on, making just three field goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. With 8:57 remaining in the first half, the Ramblers knotted the score up at 13 on a Ryan Sterling 3-pointer.
But from there on the Wildcats would pull away, outscoring Loyola 24-5 the rest of the half to take a 37-18 halftime lead.
Despite the 38-point victory, there wasn't much the Wildcats could take from Friday night.
"I told Frank I'd take full responsibility about it," Pullen said of Thursday's practice. "We were sluggish, weren't really energetic about practice and it kind of carried over today.
"Looking at the beginning of the game, just lazy things were going on. It was real slow and stuff. Second half, we really just tried to pick it up and leave everything on the floor."
The performance left much to be desired. Now it's up to the Wildcats to get ready for a quick turnaround as they battle Western Illinois today at 3:10 p.m. at Bramlage Coliseum.
"They came out and played exactly the way that they prepared to play," Martin said. "They created the environment that they're in so it's up to them to be responsible, take ownership of the team and come out and perform better."
Spradling, Williams take in game
Will Spradling, who signed his letter of intent on Wednesday with K-State, was on hand to take in the victory. The 2010 commit sat behind the bench with 2011 verbal commitment Nino Williams. Both play for the same AAU organization, Mo-Kan-Spiece.
Shane Southwell, a 6-foot-6 combo guard out of New York, also officially became a part of the 2010 class, sending in his signed letter of intent.
POINTS FROM BEHIND THE ARC
• Luis Colon and Justin Werner once again did not dress due to injury. Colon suffered a injury to his shooting hand in September. Werner suffered a shoulder injury in the first week of practice in October.
• Eleven of the 12 Wildcats who played Friday scored. The only player held scoreless was freshman guard Martavious Irving, who played only four minutes in the game.
• Rodney McGruder led the Wildcat freshmen with 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range, while 7-foot freshman Jordan Henriquez blocked four shots in his college debut.
• Denis Clemente and Pullen combined to shoot just 6-of-24 (25 percent) from the floor, including 1-of-9 from 3-point range.
