3 takeaways from Kansas State's basketball loss against Houston

Kellis Robinett, The Wichita Eagle on Feb 14, 2026

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HOUSTON — For a few minutes, the Kansas State men’s basketball team punched above its weight class on Saturday at Fertitta Center.

The Wildcats responded after head coach Jerome Tang said his players didn’t deserve to wear K-State uniforms following a dreadful loss to Cincinnati earlier in the week. They played with maximum effort and took an early lead over the Houston Cougars. Spirits were high on the visiting bench.

But the good vibes didn’t last.

Houston imposed its will as the game continued and the No. 3 Cougars won 78-64.

The fact that K-State took a 15-6 lead at the 11:35 mark of the first half didn’t end up meaning much in the grand scheme of things. Houston finished the half on a 27-4 run and sent the Wildcats back to the Little Apple with yet another loss. The Cougars kept their foot on the gas and extended that run to 41-8 in the second half, which game them an insurmountable lead at 47-23.

The Wildcats battled back to pull within 10 later in the game behind 23 points from PJ Haggerty and 12 points from Nate Johnson. But it wasn’t enough.

Emanuel Sharp led the Cougars with 23 points. But ten of his teammates scored.

K-State (10-15, 1-11 Big 12) has lost six straight games. Houston (23-2, 11-1) has won six in a row.

The Wildcats are next in action on Tuesday against Baylor.

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

The Wildcats play without names on their jerseys

K-State players did enough over the past few days to earn back their uniforms, but there was a noticeable change made to their purple jerseys ahead of this game.

When the Wildcats took the floor they did so without names on the back of their jerseys. The only letters on their uniforms were “K-State” on the front.

That move was an obvious sign of unity.

Tang has said several times this season that K-State players have been trying to win as individuals rather than as teammates. A few days after Tang ripped his roster for not playing with enough school pride, they made this game all about the team.

It seemed like a good move, especially in the early going. The Wildcats played admirable defense and put up several good hustle stats against the heavily favored Cougars. The Wildcats played harder than they have in recent home losses.

But it wasn’t enough to make up for the talent discrepancy between these teams. Houston is a national title contender. K-State is in last place of the Big 12 standings.

Skill beat effort on this day.

K-State struggles mightily on offense

There is no shame in scoring below your average against Houston.

Kelvin Sampson has built the Cougars into a defensive juggernaut over the years. Scoring against them isn’t easy.

That being said, the Wildcats frittered away several opportunities to put pressure on the Cougars by missing open shots. K-State finished the day with nine misses on layups and nine misses on free throws.

The Wildcats also didn’t make many shots from three-point range when it mattered. K-State went 8 of 26 from beyond the arc with almost all of those makes coming in the early moments, before Houston locked in, and in the final moments, after the game was already decided.

This game could have truly been interesting with better execution in those areas.

Foul trouble once again an issue

The Wildcats were fortunate that only one player fouled out.

Dorin Buca was sent to the bench with five fouls after just 14 minutes of action. But Khamari McGriff, Nate Johnson and Haggerty were also in foul trouble.

Those fouls added up for K-State in the front court, as Tang had to juggle his lineups throughout the game.

McGriff picked up his fourth foul early in the second half. Johnson picked up his fourth as K-State tried to cut the lead to single digits later in the game.

Buca and Tang both picked up technical fouls, which complicated matters.

It’s hard enough for K-State to compete with Houston even with its optimal lineup on the floor. But things become more difficult when the Wildcats have to look deep into their bench for extra players.

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