MANHATTAN — To Coleman Hawkins, pinpointing the reason for Kansas State basketball’s resurgence is not rocket science.
That the Wildcats are red-hot over the past two-plus weeks has less to do with what they are doing than what they’re not.
“I feel like we’ve just kind of simplified things,” Hawkins said of the Wildcats’ current five-game winning streak. “Every person’s being able to make plays, and we trust everyone out on the court.
“We just kind of kept it simple, and it’s more of a free structure. We simplified it with just setting ball screens and picking matchups, really, rather than what I feel like was forcing guys to fit a mold. Everybody’s kind of played to their strengths right now, so I feel like it’s been working for us.”
The Wildcats (12-11, 6-6 Big 12) have another chance to gauge their progress when they play host to conference co-leader Arizona (17-6, 11-1) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum. No. 13-ranked Arizona has the league’s longest winning streak at six games and has won 13 of its last 14.
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“They’re a great program, great team,” K-State coach Jerome Tang said of the other Wildcats, who after posting a 7-6 nonconference record have dominated in league play.
But K-State is not the same team that lost six straight games before flipping the switch. The Wildcats are playing with some swagger of their own, outscoring opponents 78-63 on average during the streak, which includes victories over three ranked teams, including an 80-61 blowout of then-No. 3 Iowa State on the road and Saturday with a solid 81-73 decision against No. 17 Kansas on Saturday at sold-out Bramlage.
“I feel like we’re very confident, only because we’ve been there before,” said K-State point guard Dug McDaniel, who scored 15 points with six rebounds and 11 assists against KU. “We’ve been on the other side of things. Close games. At the beginning of the season, we would lose those types of games.
“So, I feel like it’s just guys manning up and realizing we’re not going to keep going through this. We found a way to win games at the end, and we’ve been doing a great job of keeping that going.”
The five straight Big 12 wins are the most since 2019, and the best conference stretch in three seasons under Tang.
“I don’t know how to gauge confidence, but I know that we’re having really good practices and we’re making good basketball plays, and so I think they believe in what we want to do and what we’re doing,” Tang said. “And I believe in them.
“Confidence is a crazy thing. Hard to get, easy to lose. I hope, all of our guys have great confidence right now, but you’ve still got to go out there and execute.”
Just as important has been the Wildcats’ balance. While Tang has shortened his rotation, all five starters are averaging in double figures. Forward David N’Guessan, the Big 12 player of the week after scoring 22 points at Arizona State and 20 against Kansas, has averaged 14.2 points during the streak and leads the team for the season at 13 per game. Hawkins is averaging 11.2 points, but a team-best 13.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.1 assists in conference.
McDaniel, who has started all 12 league games, is averaging 13.4 points and 7.4 assists during the winning streak, Max Jones 13 points and Brendan Hausen 12.
“When you have five guys out there who are weapons, it creates spacing, and it really distorts the defense,” Tang said. “And the fact that we’re not really running a lot of plays for people, we’re just trying to get into actions to gain advantage, and then what they’re doing is finding the open person.”
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball team’s confidence level at an all-time high
