No. 12 Houston brings the nation’s best defense on the road Saturday evening for a matchup with Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan.
Kansas State has mostly struggled on offense this season, and the chances to improve in that area don’t look likely against Houston (11-3, 3-0 Big 12).
The Cougars not only leads the country in scoring defense, they do so by a comfortable margin. Their 54.0 points per game allowed is more than three points better than the second-best team, Tennessee. They’re one of just seven teams nationally to hold opponents to less than 60 points per game.
Kansas State (7-7, 1-2) has not scored more than 71 points in any its last six games, a stretch in which the Wildcats have gone 1-5. Part of the problem has been giving up big runs to the opposition. In their most recent loss on Tuesday, Oklahoma State had a 15-0 run near the end of the first half to blow open a close game.
The Wildcats have also struggled with turnovers recently. They actually shot 51.1 percent from the field at Oklahoma State but committed 19 turnovers, which led to 31 Cowboys points.
“When you turn the ball over, there’s no defense for that, especially live-ball turnovers,” K-State head coach Jerome Tang said following the loss. “You can’t sprint back to your defense.”
The Wildcats’ turnover margin of 0.43 per game is 14th in the 16-team Big 12.
Nothing has gone well for K-State this season, and that must change soon if the Wildcats have postseason dreams. They know it’s going to take a team effort.
“I feel like everyone needs to do more as far as taking care of responsibilities,” K-State forward Coleman Hawkins said after the Oklahoma State game. “It’s as little as the way we warm up. I feel like today we didn’t warm up well enough. We came out flat with no energy. Everyone needs to take a bigger jump of discipline.”
Emanuel Sharp had a team-high 14 points in Houston’s 65-46 victory over TCU on Monday. Houston forced 19 turnovers that led to 16 points. The Cougars’ turnover margin of 4.86 is second in the conference.
Head coach Kelvin Sampson was pleased with the effort.
“I’m sure you’re asking questions metaphorically,” Sampson told reporters, “because you guys have seen it. Our defense is our defense. That’s the problem with taking it for granted. Nobody appreciates it. Other teams’ coaches and players realize how good it is, but there’s a lack of appreciation about it.”
Monday’s win marked the seventh straight game in which Houston held an opponent to 55 points or fewer. That is the longest such streak for the program since a stretch of 10 straight in 1948-49.
Still, Sampson found things that needed improvement against TCU.
“We kind of got too comfortable,” he said. “We’re not very good being comfortable. Our defense was OK, but our ball movement (wasn’t). In the second half we made some adjustments.”
Houston’s top scorer, L.J. Cryer (14.3 points per game), played through flu-like symptoms against TCU. He’s expected to suit up against K-State.
–Field Level Media
