The Kansas State coach was riding the exercise bike in his office when reached Friday morning. Every day, he alternates between the bike and an elliptical machine for an hour, in case you were curious. Anyway, I figured the perfect way to dust off the “Five” would be to bring back Martin, who was featured Sept. 6, 2007, and is passionate about everything — including his cardio.
1. Some of the fan base has grumbled about the perceived lack of competition in the non-conference schedule. Explain the strategy.
Our schedule is ranked as the 35th-toughest schedule in the nation (Rivals’ pre-season strength of schedule rankings). When we play 16 Big 12 games, that’s 16 better games than everybody but two or three conferences that are competitive with us… When you put games on your schedule, you do so to get on television and to chal-lenge your team. If I was concerned with going 12-0, we wouldn’t play Oakland, Cleveland State and Gardner-Webb. We’d play someone else. Sometimes, the sexy games are difficult to schedule… We’re playing Southern Miss, which is coached by Larry Eustachy, one of the better coaches in country, and he has a point guard who will be in the NBA next year… Last year, Gardner-Webb went into Lexington and beat Kentucky… I know I’m extremely happy with our schedule.