I called it. Yep, I’m that guy. Seriously, I told some of the veteran writers gathered here in Omaha that I thought K-State would win by double figures. Did I think that would happen? Nah. But I knew they’d practiced hard and they were believing in themselves and their ability to win a couple of games - at the least - in this tournament.
Best performance I’ve seen by the Cats. And while I don’t think they need to duplicate that tomorrow against No. 3 Wisconsin, they need to play with the same energy and effort to be successful… and I think they will.
Haven’t spoken with my Dad today, but he’s all fired up about Ron Anderson. Heck, Ron Anderson is fired up with Ron Anderson. I thought the freshmen were tremendous. That tired adage about freshmen no longer being freshmen rang true last night.
All that said, I thought hitting 3s and rebounding was the difference.
Funny story about rebounding: I was talking to director of basketball operations Andy Assaley - one of the best guys in the business, just a fantastic guy - and trainer Scott Greenawalt - one of the most intense guys in the business. I offered congratulations, and Assaley pointed to the rebounding totals - 44 to 27. He nodded towards Greenawalt and said, “That’s because of him.” I laughed, but I could tell they were serious so I stopped. Assaley said, “Last year, when we lost and were out-rebounded, Huggs would let Scott have it.” Greenawalt said, “Yeah, I couldn’t sleep for three days afterwards… There were times I wanted to fight Huggs.” Ah, Huggs… None of this is possible, you know, without Bob Huggins. Sorry to rain on the parade, but give credit where it’s due. But make no mistake - Frank has been tremendous.
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great to meet you last night, jmart… and you totally called the intensity. back in january i was thinking this was a team that could make a run, and then that intensity disappeared. it was so great to see it back last night.
wisconsin’s bigs look like they can give us a lot of trouble. how do so many giants end up on one team? at any rate, we bring that intensity again, and we’re going to detroit…
While this may not be possible without Bob Huggins. He left, and is not doing anything for us now, so I’m done giving him credit. And the resurgence of his career, would not have happened w/o KSU.
Absolutely right! Huggs is to thank for bringing back the fight to the Cats. The KSU Administration gets props too for putting up the $$$$ to get a winner. Huggs was portrayed by the media like a villain long before he arrived at K-State, so I was a little nervous what my University was getting into. What I found was Huggs had assembled a team of coaches that were first-rate and bound and determined to get things turned around with a program that had settled for mediocrity.
Coach Martin is cutout of the same mold of Huggs with his own style and I respect him for the discipline he’s brought to the team. His ideals that these young men are just that - young men - who need to learn - that they can sit the bench when they don’t want to play the way he wants them too - to basically sit a great player when games are close and yes, sometimes lose a game with these players on the bench has gained my respect. Although he’s intense, he treats them with respect and has learned a great deal this year in his debut as a coach. I hope he continues to coach this way and that his career at K-State will be of the long-tenure variety.
So, if there are K-Staters out there mad at Huggs think of what he put in motion and revived in our storied program. I think of all the greats - Barrett, Boozer, Parr, Blackman . . . and how their stories haven’t been told to the next generation of K-Staters - people listen when you win and it’s great they are able to see the resurgence of the program and see that their foundation is still intact and can be continued to be built from - don’t get me wrong we had great players over the past 20 years but we just settled instead of letting the fire grow and pushing ourselves to the limits. When a champion makes a comeback, look out they are hard to bring down. We have history on our side - it’s time to make K-State dominant again in the world of college basketball. - sorry for the long post but I was on a roll.
I wish Greenwalt did fight that “guy.”
Hugs may be a fat drunk hillbilly but at least he was our fat drunk hillbilly for a year. Oh and thanks Bob for Bill, Mike, the nation’s #1 recruiting class, the DC Assault pipeline, and all the excellent coaches; there’s a Mason jar of shine on my tab for you next time I’m up your way.
In the words of the immortal Dave Armstrong, “WOW.”
Say what you want, Huggins turned us around and caused a chain of events that has resulted in the Cats being much better today than we were before he came.
He deserved to go back home and I wish him well. I’ll always root for him.
your huggins commentary was sad.
Huggs gets no love from me. If he had his way, he would have left us destitute. He wanted Martin, Hill, Beasley, Greenawalt, Walker, and as many other recruits as he could to follow him to WVA. The heroes are the guys that stayed, not the guy that left.
Right on, mcook83. The current coaching staff might have had its origin with Huggins, but this team with its WON/LOST record is distinctly Frank Martin and company.