Moral victory? Just another loss? K-State Wildcats can view KU loss in different ways

Kansas State’s 84-74 basketball loss at rival Kansas on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse can be viewed in two very different ways.

1. It was another disappointing defeat for the Wildcats, who have lost five games in a row in a season that keeps getting worse.

2. It was a moral victory and, potentially, a sign that better results are on the horizon.

Fans will debate those differing viewpoints and come to their own conclusions. This game was not black and white.

On one hand, it was disappointing for the Wildcats (7-10, 1-5 Big 12) to play poorly at the beginning of the afternoon and fall behind 14-0 in front of a sellout crowd on the road. On the other hand, it was encouraging that K-State fought back from that early deficit and outscored Kansas (13-4, 4-2 Big 12) the rest of the way.

“I feel like we should have won this game,” K-State forward Coleman Hawkins said after he led the Wildcats with 15 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. “We just got off to a slow start.”

Hawkins went on to say that “I’m not into moral victories.” He also said, “I want to win.”

But it’s clear he was upbeat about how K-State played for the majority of this contest.

“I feel like we’re right there and close to shocking a lot of people,” Hawkins said. “I think, very soon, we’re going to start winning basketball games.”

The reasons for K-State to feel optimistic about a performance like this are obvious.

Climbing out of an early hole and making Kansas sweat in the final minutes is not easy to do inside Allen Fieldhouse. But K-State did exactly that and gave itself a legitimate shot to win when it trailed 72-66 with 4 minutes, 1 second remaining.

Hawkins had a strong all-around game and nearly posted a triple-double. David N’Guessan gave K-State 13 points and Max Jones scored 11. The Wildcats also outscored the Jayhawks by 15 when freshman guard David Castillo was on the court.

Erase a disappointing start and K-State may have celebrated its first road win over KU since 2006.

“We don’t have guys who hang their heads,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said. “These are high-character dudes. Our last two practices were the best two practices of the year, and I expect the next ones to be better than the ones before. We’re just going to keep building and keep getting better.”

Now, let’s look at the other side of the debate.

Was this just another loss?

Sure, the Wildcats showed grit and fight, but they still lost by 10. The Jayhawks were nervous at the final media timeout, but K-State only made two shots the rest of the way.

Tang’s team never truly threw a scare into Kansas. It was also unsettling to watch a K-State team that had nothing to lose get blitzed in the opening moments. It lost this game before it even got started.

K-State struggles to play with poise at the beginning and end of important games.

“When you make scouting report mistakes,” Hawkins said, “and you allow them to get off to a hot start and let people see the ball go in it can be a long night. So we just have to come out with a good start and eliminate those mistakes.”

Moral victory or not, K-State must move on to its next game at Baylor. The Wildcats figure to be underdogs once again in that matchup. Perhaps how they play in Waco, Texas will ultimately determine whether there was a silver lining to this loss.