K-STATE'S A BASKETBALL SCHOOL NOW

There's no question the story of the Big XII North non-conference men's basketball season has been K-State.  The Wildcats stormed into the AP poll at #17 this week after capping off an impressive run against quality teams with a demolishing of former K-Stater Lon Kruger's UNLV squad in Vegas.  Win tonight against Alabama, and with a couple of easier foes to finish off the non-con, the Cats could be Top 15 headed into conference play. 

The Cats also sit very high in the projected RPI--currently #1 in RealTimeRPI's daily RPI.  What a difference a year makes.  The RPI woes that ultimately kept the Cats out of the NCAA tournament last year are nowhere to be found this year.  Barring a complete meltdown in conference play--unlikely thanks to the easy pickings presented by the Big XII North other than KU--the Cats are now playing for seeding.

Watching this K-State team play calls to mind the Bob Huggins Cincinnati teams that used to be featured regularly  mid-week on ESPN.  Like those teams, this K-State squad plays tough, ball-pressuring defense that keeps it in the game even when its offense is struggling.  Eventually, someone starts hitting some shots, K-State opens up about a 10-point lead, and keeps the opposing team at arms-length the rest of the way.

Like those Cincinnati teams, it ain't usually pretty: 

K-State plays the ugliest games in D-I.
And while we’re on the topic of impressively-located wins, Kansas State stomped on previously undefeated UNLV 95-80 in Vegas on Saturday night. Jacob Pullen scored 28 points for the Wildcats while hitting a Juan Fernandez-like 7-of-10 threes. Note additionally that Frank Martin’s team needed just 74 possessions to flirt with the century mark. Highly-efficient ‘Cats of Manhattan, I salute you!

Now, about the fouling, both your own and your opponents’. Wow. I remember two seasons ago when Michael Beasley was still in residence and in occasional foul trouble, Martin was borderline-brilliant in how he used each and every whistle to either yank Beasley or put him in the game on a possession-by-possession basis. It was like the coach had discovered how to make basketball more like baseball and make Beasley the equivalent of a designated hitter, at least when he was in foul trouble. Fast-forward to now and I sometimes wonder if the K-State coach simply got into that habit and has been instructing his team ever since to draw a foul on every offensive possession and commit one on every defensive trip.

 
K-State is now being touted as the third-best team in the Big XII this year by many observers.  It will be interesting to see how the Cats respond to the positive attention they've been receiving and if they can continue their success as the favorites, rather than as the chip-on-the-shoulder underdogs.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EATING CUPCAKES

There's not much to wrap-up for the K-State football season.  The Cats followed up their performance against Mizzou with a similar performance against Nebraska, and now get to spend the holidays celebrating in a way that's become increasingly re-familiar to K-State fans:  watching football from the couch.

The strides made by the program this year and the .500 conference record therefore yielded little in the way of tangible rewards for the team.  The anemic offensive performances in what seemed to be two winnable games at the end of the year cast a pall over the accomplishments of the season and raised some of the doubts that, for a time, had been quieted with the team's mid-season resurgance.

New questions were also raised.  How could a team led by an acclaimed offensive mind like Snyder be shut out of the end-zone for the last two games...particularly when four of K-State's offensive players were named first team All-Big 12 by the leagues' coaches?  Perhaps this had to do with the lack of a dynamic playmaker at the QB position.  While Grant Gregory played with a ton of heart and managed the games well, he was generally unable to make some of the game-changing plays that Snyder's offense usually relies upon from the QB position.  The running QB in Snyder's offense has often served the purpose of a short-passing game, taking some pressure and attention off the running back and enabling the running game to get on track early. Defenses were forced to account for Michael Bishop and Ell Roberson on every play, as either one could break a long run as easily as their running backs.   

At any rate, the season showed the importance of Snyder's old and much-maligned scheduling strategies for a rebuilding team.  Had the Cats played Louisiana at home and played, say, North Texas in Manhattan rather than UCLA in Pasadena, they would likely be 8-4 and getting ready for a trip to San Antonio or El Paso.  Despite the results of the last two games, there would be generally positive feelings surrounding the program as it prepared for the bowl trip.

To be sure, it has become difficult, if not impossible, for a team like K-State to schedule the same way it did during the first 2/3 of Snyder's first run.  As programs like Texas and Nebraska have followed K-State's lead, the smaller cupcake schools have found increased demand and therefore higher paydays and 2-for-1 deals.  Thus, schools like K-State have found themselves on the road in places like Louisiana or else priced out of the cupcake market.  Already, there are rumors that one K-State opponent next year, at North Texas, is trying to buy out of the game so it can play a bigger program with a bigger payday.  Going forward, it is likely that the most K-State can hope for will be schedules similar to this year's, with three cupcakes and one or two road games in each non-conference schedule.

While next year's schedule appears to be harder for the Cats, there are still reasons for optimism.  Daniel Thomas returns.  The Wildcats will have multiple playmaking options at QB, including Oregon transfer Chris Harper.  The turmoil at Kansas makes it seem that the game in Lawrence may be more winnable than originally believed.  The Cats should have a shot at getting to at least .500 in conference play once again, so, with the right non-conference wins, they may be able to look forward to bowl preparations a year from now, even if they don't get to fatten up on cupcakes. 

BRANDON BANKS LETS ONE SLIP AWAY

"Whoops. I probably should have held on to that."

Look, we try to not get too down on college athletes.  So with that in mind, let's remember that Brandon Banks has been an offensive star for K-State over the last couple of years, often providing a spark with a kick return, reception, or run just when it's needed. 

That being said, there was no one in Bill Snyder Family Stadium yesterday, not Bill Snyder, not Gary Pinkel, not the players, not the fans, who didn't recognize how costly Banks' second-quarter fumble into and out of the endzone was. 

K-State's formula for success this year has been to use its ball-control offense to take a lead before halftime and then to run the clock with the lead during the second-half.  It was poised to do this again yesterday, driving with about 13 minutes left in the second quarter with the game tied 3-3, when Banks, inches away from scoring a touchdown, allowed a Mizzou defender to slap the ball out of his hands and could only watch helplessly as the ball trickled through the very corner of the end zone.

The air was sucked out of the stadium, the momentum shifted in a huge way--with a long touchdown pass a few plays later by Mizzou--and it never really felt like K-State was in the game after that.  Snyder and Pinkel both spoke in the post-game about the turning point that play provided.

Instead of having a shot at going into the second half ahead or tied against a Mizzou team that had been unable to find the endzone in the second half in recent weeks, K-State wound up having a two-score deficit.

As big as Banks' play was, there were other factors in the loss yesterday that shouldn't be forgotten.

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THAT'S ONE WAY OF PUTTING IT

Perhaps the best summary of Bill Snyder's insistence on sticking with "the formula" and running the ball against a Top 10 (or close) running defense today instead of throwing the ball against a pass defense ranked 80-something:

Face it, Bill was going to 'dance with the one that brung him', just so happens the gal he came with was high on meth and drank a fifth today after behaving really well the last month or so.

Our own thoughts on the game later today.

SHOTCAST: SUNFLOWER SHOWDOWN EDITION

In the latest Shotcast, we sit down with "football first" KU fan Gavin to talk Jayhawk football and preview this weekend's Sunflower Showdown between K-State and KU.

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MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES

Sometimes we just don't understand the media in this town.

KU goes through a rough few weeks playing at Colorado, against a talented OU team at home, and then on the road at Texas Tech.  Tech somehow becomes a "must-win" for KU, and when they don't win, people are ready to write them off when it comes to the Big XII North race...even though if they win their remaining games against their North opponents (1 home, 1 road, 1 neutral site), they're pretty much guaranteed the division crown thanks to tiebreakers.

MU, after going through a similar tough stretch against their South slate, goes out to Colorado and wins convincingly at the same place KU lost, but doesn't get much play the Monday after, even though they are in a similar situation as KU, with games against K-State, Iowa State, and KU left that, if won, will virtually guarantee them the crown.

Nebraska this week has the opportunity to seize the North race by the throat if they find a way to beat OU at home.  Even if they don't, they have games remaining against KU, K-State, and Colorado that would lock up the North should they win each one.

Finally, K-State, after beating the pants off what appears to be a decent aTm team, and then just throttling down on a Colorado team that had just knocked off KU, barely gets mentioned in the division race until they manage to only lose by 12 at Oklahoma.  While there were certainly encouraging aspects of that performance, there was plenty to cause concern...such as the three easy touchdowns given up by the defense at the beginning of the game, and the inability to stop OU's offense at a crucial point in the game on 1st and 45 and 3rd and 24.  A large part of the reason K-State stayed in the game was a huge kickoff return and several unconventional plays.  Let's not forget that K-State used this formula just recently to knock off Texas in back-to-back years, only to have losses to KU follow closely behind.  The opponent this week?  KU.

In reality, we are no closer this week to determining the North champion as we were last week.  The stasis that is the Big XII North standings and upcoming schedule remains in place.  If KU and Oklahoma win this week, that stasis will remain.  However, K-State or Nebraska could help their causes tremendously with a win.  A K-State win would also eliminate KU from the discussion, as they could finish no better than K-State and would lose the tiebreaker to the Cats.

K-State has a golden opportunity over the next few weeks.  They can go out and win themselves a division championship by winning two home games.  They would be well-served to do so, because next year will be tough sledding, even with the improvement that Snyder can be expected to bring in his second year back.  The conference schedule features only 3 conference home games, and those are against Texas, Oklahoma State, and Nebraska.  K-State has to go on the road to KU, Mizzou, Colorado, and Baylor (who should have the electric Robert Griffin under center).  At this point, none of those games looks to be a sure win.

Meanwhile, this season K-State finds themselves in first place and in control of their destiny with three conference games remaining, against their three biggest geographic rivals, including two at home.  If Bill Snyder has any tricks left in the bag this year, this is the time to pull them out.  A division championship for K-State in the first year of his return could jump-start his re-resuscitation and recruiting efforts and allow K-State fans to legitimately hope for another conference crown sometime in the next few years.  Losses in the last three games, however, will likely cause the rebuilding road to be a longer haul.  

TODAY'S HELPING OF WHAT THE...?

Last weekend was just a big steaming helping of WTF! in the Big XII North, so let's keep with the theme for this post.

ITEM #1:  

You know how a few sports teams had those pre-game videos starting about 10-15 years ago featuring a train or some other object in motion smashing into something representing the opponent?  And then every other team ran out and got a video made that was almost exactly like it?

Well, these types of videos have become pretty passe as a result of their overuse.  But check out this one.  It's got a polar bear from outer space, and it's easily the most genocidal version of any of these videos we've ever seen:



If that doesn't get you ready for a hockey game, then nothing will.

ITEM #2:

As you know, we're big fans of Nebrasketball coach Doc Sadler's Tweets...but we're a bit concerned about the latest out of Lincoln:

What's Doc doing up there?  Waterboarding recruits?  Training agents for the CIA?  Yikes.  Maybe Doc just ate a really juicy peach right in front of Lance without letting him have any.