MANHATTAN, Kan. — Frank Martin was determined to stick with his new offense against Colorado’s 1-3-1 zone. Even as his team threw away the ball and struggled to get good shots, Kansas State’s coach didn’t back off his plan.
Martin is stubborn that way. He’s also smart enough to realize when he’s wrong.
Uncomfortable with Martin’s new offense in the first half, the ninth-ranked Wildcats reverted to their aggressive, effective style in the second to turn an ugly game into a 68-51 rout over Colorado on Saturday night.
“I was trying to force us to do something obviously they weren’t comfortable with because I’m stubborn,” Martin said. “These games are too big to continue to fail at something, so we had to go back to what we did well, what we understand well. That’s on me in the first half.”
Kansas State (20-4, 7-3 Big 12) seemed to get the hang of Martin’s new scheme with a week off to work on it in practice. Once live action started, the Wildcats seemed out of sorts, fumbling and throwing away the ball during a tentative first half against Colorado.
Kansas State pulled it together after switching to its old offense, starting the second half with an impressive run and dominating the rest of the way to win its ninth straight over Colorado (11-13, 2-8).
Jacob Pullen found seams in Colorado’s zone to finish with 15 points and 10 assists, and Curtis Kelly had 12 points and 11 rebounds to help Kansas State dominate inside. Jamar Samuels added 12 points to give the Wildcats 20 wins in four straight seasons for the first time.
Colorado was uncharacteristically loose with the ball in a sloppy first half and struggled defensively in the second to lose its 34th consecutive Big 12 road game.
Alec Burks had 21 points and Cory Higgins added 17 for the Buffaloes, who have lost 26 straight road games against Division I teams and seven of eight overall.
“We’ve got to play harder, play with heart and execute,” Burks said. “No more turnovers. We turned the ball over a lot today when we played one-on-one. We just need to regroup and get this out of our system.”
Kansas State clung to a 28-26 lead after a first half that featured three more turnovers than field goals — an ugly game that favored the Buffaloes.
“I thought we put ourselves in a good position after the first 20 minutes,” Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik said.
After that, the Wildcats got better. Colorado didn’t.
The Buffaloes kept throwing away the ball, finishing with a season-high 22 turnovers.
