Kansas State basketball struggles mightily without injured forward Coleman Hawkins

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MANHATTAN — Kansas State’s basketball team learned the hard way Sunday, what life is like without Coleman Hawkins on the floor.

With Hawkins, their do-it-all forward sidelined by a knee injury, the Wildcats struggled mightily at both ends of the floor against an Arizona State team they already had beaten on the road, falling 66-54 to the Sun Devils at Bramlage Coliseum.

It was the third straight loss for K-State (13-14, 7-9 Big 12), which saw its slim hopes for a NCAA Tournament at-large bid all but disappear with just four regular-season games remaining. Not having the versatile 6-foot-10 Hawkins directing traffic on both offense and defense proved to be too much to overcome.

“I felt like we had to change what we were running in order to cause the other team to put two on the ball,” said K-State coach Jerome Tang, who switched to smaller lineup with backup point guard CJ Jones’ taking Hawkins’ place. “We tried to put in some things that looked good on film and looked good in practice, but I felt like our guys were shooting shots that weren’t in rhythm.

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Kansas State forward David N’Guessan looks for an opening against Arizona State center Shawn Phillips on Sunday at Bramlage Coliseum.

“They were good shots. They were open shots, but we had learned where we’re going to get our shots from, and how we’re going to get them, and then this was a little change. It was just tough to turn it around quick enough, and that’s not on our players. That’s on me.”

Tang said the immediate prognosis for Hawkins is not good. He hurt his knee last Monday in the Wildcats’ 74-69 loss at Utah.

“He’s not close, as far as I understand,” Tang said. “When Luke (Sauber, team trainer) tells me and (the doctor) tells me, I’ll know.

“Until then I’m just pursuing every day like we don’t have him.”

It is unlikely that Hawkins…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/kansas-state-basketball-struggles-mightily-144043034.html

Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2025-02-24 14:40:00

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