Massey: ‘Cats ‘were terrible’

Jeremiah Massey found no solace in playing Kansas University tough on Senior Night.

“We weren’t tough enough,” Massey said after the Jayhawks’ workmanlike 72-65 basketball victory over the Wildcats on Wednesday night in Allen Fieldhouse. “The better team won.”

Massey, a 6-foot-7 senior and one of the Big 12 Conference’s leading scorers, felt he had let his teammates down.

Massey scored 17 points, but he misfired on eight of 12 shots, and more than half of his point total (nine) came at the free-throw line.

“I take it on my back,” said Massey, who had been averaging 17.6 points a game. “I missed a lot of easy shots. I was hyped, but I couldn’t get it to go.”

Massey wasn’t alone in tossing bricks, particularly in the first half when the Wildcats shot just 37.5 percent and lagged, 32-26, at intermission.

“The first half we didn’t run our offense at all,” Massey said. “We were pretty bad. We were terrible.”

KSU coach Jim Wooldridge also pointed to the ‘Cats’ patchy point production.

“Offensively, we played in spurts. Some of our shot selection really hurt us,” said Wooldridge, who never has beaten KSU’s in-state rival in 11 tries. “From where I was sitting, offensively it was really difficult.”

Kansas State used a zone defense — primarily a 2-3 — throughout, and it was effective at times.

“The zone helped us,” Wooldridge said, “but you’re not going to stop Kansas from putting the ball in the hole.”

Wayne Simien in particular.

“He’s a great player,” Massey said. “He found a way to get the ball against our zone, and he found ways to score.”

Massey, KSU’s leading rebounder at 6.9 per game, settled for three boards, while Simien finished with a career-high 20 rebounds.

Kansas State, now a loser to Kansas 30 times in a row, will play its last home game Saturday against Nebraska. KSU is 5-11 in Big 12 games and 15-12 overall.

“Nebraska is a hot team right now,” Wooldridge said. “We’ll have to come out ready to play.”