Kansas State Expects Dug McDaniel To Continue Recent Trend

Jan 25, 2025; Manhattan, Kansas, USA; Kansas State Wildcats guard Dug McDaniel (0) dribbles between West Virginia Mountaineers guard Jonathan Powell (11) and guard Sencire Harris (10) during the first half at Bramlage Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Scott Sewell-Imagn Images | Scott Sewell-Imagn Images

Kansas State wants point guard Dug McDaniel to create scoring opportunities for others.

The Wildcats also have no problem with him scoring, too.

They want that to be the case moving forward after McDaniel had a team-high 15 points in Saturday's 73-60 victory against West Virginia. The win stopped a six-game losing streak.

"He's one of the guys on the team who can create his own shots and can make tough shots," Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said. "Because of we knew how they were going to play us, I needed him to think score first." 

Saturday was the most aggressive McDaniel has played in a while. He finished 5 of 13 from the field. With him as a the primary scorer, the Wildcats had five players score in double figures. David N'Guessan finished with 14 points while Max Jones had 12 and Coleman Hawkins (11 points) and C.J. Jones (10) were also key contributors.

"I was actually thinking coming into the game, the last time we won was Cincinnati and Dug had a big game and Coleman had a big game," Tang said. "We need Dug to be more aggressive offensively. That's probably on me that I have to give him more freedom, more license to do it so that he feels comfortable. I know he's trying to please me and trying to please teammates and get people involved but we need his scoring."  

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Kansas State Wildcats On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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