Five takeaways from Kansas State’s 71-56 basketball victory over the Nebraska Huskers

Jerome Tang put on a dancing display at midcourt after the Kansas State men’s basketball team defeated Nebraska 71-56 Saturday night at T-Mobile Center.

The first-year coach was understandably happy about leading the Wildcats to a convincing win over their former Big Eight and Big 12 rivals. He swayed along with the K-State pep band and cheered along with the student section as if he was fan who paid for a ticket to the game.

That kind of enthusiasm has helped the Wildcats get off to a 10-1 start this season.

K-State defeated Nebraska with a mixture of three-pointers, high-flying dunks and defense. Keyontae Johnson led all scorers with 23 points and 11 rebounds, Nae’Qwan Tomlin added 15 points and seven rebounds while Markquis Nowell had 13 points and seven assists.

It was one of the team’s most impressive victories of the season.

Nebraska (6-6) had been playing well in recent weeks. But the Huskers were no match for K-State on Saturday.

The Wildcats will try to continue their winning ways in their next game against Radford on Wednesday in Bramlage Coliseum.

Until then, here are five key takeaways from Saturday’s action:

Another gem of a game from Keyontae Johnson

Does Kansas State’s leading scorer ever have an off night?

It is starting to feel like no might be the answer. The senior forward led the Wildcats to a comfortable victory by scoring 23 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

But that stat line only told part of the story about his impressive game. Johnson did a little bit of everything against the Huskers. He drained a pair of three-pointers, threw down two high-flying dunks and made several smart plays to give his team an advantage.

“Doesn’t he make it look effortless?” Tang said. “That’s what it looks like to me. He actually asked for a sub at one point, but before I could sub him out he hit a three from the corner.”

One of Johnson’s best plays of the night actually came after a mistake. Late in the first half, he tossed an inbound pass directly into the arms of a Nebraska player for a turnover. Not good. But Johnson responded by immediately running onto the court and stealing the ball back. That led to an easy bucket for him in the paint, almost as if the entire sequence was planned.

That is the type of season it has been for Johnson. Even when things seem to be going bad, things turn out good.

He has scored double-figures in all 11 games for the Wildcats and is looking like an All-Big 12 player.

Dunk city

Which one was your favorite?

There were plenty of excellent dunks from K-State for fans to choose from in this game.

Maybe you liked the tomahawk slam that Keyontae Johnson threw down late in the first half over a Nebraska defender while in transition. Or perhaps you fancied the long pass that Markquis Nowell sent to Johnson from midcourt and led to an alley-oop jam.

Nae’Qwan Tomlin also fittingly ended the first half with a slam dunk that gave K-State a 39-26 lead. That’s not to mention the two-handed jam he athletically converted earlier in the night.

There is no wrong answer in this debate, because the Wildcats had five dunks before halftime and six overall.

“It’s all about the crowd,” Johnson said. “Once we had the crowd behind us it just gave us more energy and more excitement. A lot of people came out to see us tonight, so the best thing to do is just have fun out there and give the crowd what they wanted to see.”

K-State showed off its length and athleticism against the Huskers by getting to the basket with ease and delivered a throng of highlight plays. That was one of the main reasons they won so easily.

Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg had no answers for it.

“They came out,” he said, “and exposed us with their length.”

No problems with Nebraska’s big man

Derrick Walker is the main reason why Nebraska has been playing well of late.

The senior forward, who is originally from Kansas City, has been scoring and grabbing rebounds at an impressive rate for the Huskers after missing the first few games of the season. At least he was until he ran into K-State’s defense on Saturday.

The Wildcats held Walker to seven points and six rebounds.

Much of that can be attributed to foul trouble, as Walker sat much of the first half with two fouls. But you have to give the Wildcats some credit for that, as well as the game plan that Tang deployed on defense.

K-State has encountered issues against quality big men in other games this season, such as its lone loss against Butler when Manny Bates had a double-double against the Wildcats. But that wasn’t an issue against Nebraska.

Back to a small rotation

It’s beginning to feel like there are only seven players on the K-State basketball roster that Tang trusts in big games.

The Wildcats only used seven players against the Huskers, with Desi Sills and Tykei Greene coming off the bench as the only two reserves.

Ismael Massoud and Abayomi Iyiola both appeared healthy and active as they went through warmups. Tang simply chose not to play them.

Using a small rotation isn’t a bad thing. But it’s not exactly a good thing, either. When K-State can avoid foul trouble and injuries, the Wildcats like try and win with a core group of seven players. When fouls and injuries pop up, or the opponent is overmatched, the rotation expands.

Tang has said his goal is to limit his starters to about 32 minutes per game. Three players topped that number on Saturday.

The plan is for Iyiola to play some minutes next time out against Radford as he works his way back from injury. Massoud needs to prove he is worthy of a role moving forward. Freshman guard Dorian Finister could also be an option against certain opponents. But none of them were needed on Saturday.

Good crowd in KC

T-Mobile Center wasn’t sold out on Saturday night, but there weren’t many open seats with an announced crowd of 13,184.

Thousands of purple-clad fans filled up the lower ball of the arena and some of the upper deck. And they were loud.

A decent contingent of Nebraska fans also made the trek into town from Lincoln and made noise when the Huskers made a late push to pull within single digits.

This past week, Tang seemed ambivalent about how often K-State should return to T-Mobile Center for regular-season games in the future. He said he would continue playing games in Kansas City if that’s what K-State administrators advised him to do. His preference is to play neutral-court games in areas that boost recruiting.

But this crowd seemed to prove this game is worth keeping on the schedule in most seasons.