Tremendous energy and intensity for 40 minutes. That’s the blueprint. Frank Martin said his Wildcats played as hard against Oklahoma, but shots just didn’t fall.
Not much to gripe about.
This post was intended to be brief, anyway. But I’ve stumbled into a pair of tickets and a parking pass for the remaining games at Bramlage – except for KU, of course – and I want to give them away to whoever is interested.
Free tickets, people. In this economy, that’s a heck of a deal.
But there’s a catch – I want to be entertained. Tell me why you deserve these tickets, or why I should give them to you, or what you’ll do with them once you have them, or anything that might make me chuckle. Use the section field below to respond, and also list which game you’re most interested in, followed by your second choice, etc.
Be creative.
Eagle high schools reporter Joanna Chadwick has information on Bill Snyder’s visit to Wichita this week. It’s on the VarsityKansas blog.
The 6-foot-10 power forward from LeFlore High in Mobile, Ala., is the No. 2 ranked prospect in the Class of 2009. He’d been committed to Mike Davis at UAB for a while, but when he refused to sign his letter of intent because the school refused to guarantee Cousins that Davis would be his coach, he decided to re-open his recruitment.
Recently, he told Rivals.com that he planned to take visits to Memphis, N.C. State and Kansas State.
We caught up with his coach, Otis Hughley, Wednesday morning.
“He has some interest (in K-State),” Hughley said.
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From the Kansas State sports information department:
Kansas State Director of Athletics Bob Krause announced Tuesday that the Wildcats will retire the jerseys of basketball greats Willie Murrell (1962-64) and Mitch Richmond (1986-88) in a halftime ceremony during the Nebraska game on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009.
“We are excited to announce the selection of Willie Murrell and Mitch Richmond for jersey retirement at Kansas State,” said Krause. “Each of these individuals played a tremendous role in the development of our storied men’s basketball program. They represent much more than just All-America honors, victories and NCAA Tournament appearances for K-State. They have each enjoyed very successful careers beyond the basketball court and have served as great ambassadors for this university.”
In addition to the retirement ceremonies at the Nebraska game, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Bramlage Coliseum, the two men, along with this year’s women’s retirees, will be honored at a public luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 28, at the Clarion Hotel. Tickets to the luncheon can be purchased for $20 by calling the K-State Athletic Ticket Office at (800) 221.CATS.
The duo becomes the fourth class of jersey retirements at Kansas State following those of Bob Boozer, Ernie Barrett and Jack Parr in February 2005, Mike Evans, Lon Kruger and Chuckie Williams in February 2006 and Rolando Blackman and Dick Knostman in February 2007. The criteria for determining the honor includes statistical achievement, conference and national records, honors received (i.e., all-conference, All-America, Academic All-America, etc.), character and sportsmanship. Murrell and Richmond become the first players with junior college ties to earn jersey retirement.
SInce it’s about three days old – I took Monday off to observe the holiday – I’ll keep this brief:
Kansas State will win again this season. This, I’m certain. When? February 17 against North Carolina Central is a lock. Outside of that, though…
I’m obviously kidding. But the Wildcats have some issues. Can they be sorted out? Of course. Will they be? We’ll have to see. I’m not one to point the finger at Frank Martin, but this 0-3 conference start has undoubtedly given his detractors and critics another occasion to gloat.
Instead, and I’m going to write about this tomorrow, there has to be some accountability by the players. Who is the leader of this team? Who is the guy who might be construed as an extension of Martin on the court? Talent isn’t an issue – not this year, anyway, in the Big 12. Nebraska has loads less talent than K-State, and we saw what just happened in Lincoln.
Maybe I’m woefully naive – and if so, I’m sure you all will point it out – but the message doesn’t seem to be getting received.
Twenty-five turnovers? C’mon – take care of the ball. Be deliberate. Play with confidence. Compete.
And Baylor is up next…
NOTE: This is a new feature that is designed to be light while also revealing something about the personalities of the Kansas State Wildcats and the opposition’s star players.
This week’s subject, Nebraska sophomore point guard Cookie Miller, is a 5-foot-7 dynamo who grew up in West Virginia and played AAU basketball with former K-State star/enigma Bill Walker. He was an especially good sport about all of this, so we thank him for his assistance.
The Wildcats face Miller and the Cornhuskers Saturday at the Devaney Center at 5 p.m.
K-STATED: Kansas State?
CM: Physical.
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She’s kind of a big deal these days, but Fatima Smith, also known as Michael Beasley’s mother and “Mama Sayz” around these parts, is back. She wanted to stay connected with the Kansas State community, and you can’t say no to family, can you?
So here’s the format – this week, we lobbed her a few softballs, just so she could work her way back into the groove. But this is supposed to be interactive, so the questions in the future will come from you. Here’s the catch – if you don’t ask questions, you won’t see her ‘Bag, which is short for mailbag. Get it? No mail, no answers, no Fatima.
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Frank Martin summed it up. For the third year in a row, for the third time he’s been part of a Kansas State coaching staff leading the Wildcats into Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks jumped out to a huge lead, putting the visitors in a major hole.
They didn’t dig out in Bob Huggins’ first and only year. Last year, Mike Beasley’s 39 points weren’t enough. And last night, they fought back but that, too, wasn’t enough.
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Thanks to DirecTV, Pops (and my mother) watched Saturday’s game. He had some interesting thoughts, some I’ll share here as a means of getting into what I took away from the conference-opening loss to the Sooners.
He likes Denis Clemente’s energy, which I agreed with. It’s funny – we’d heard for so long about how fast he was that when we saw him early in the year, we were underwhelmed. But he puts so much pressure on the defense in transition, and his on-ball defense is really impressive.
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NOTE: This is a new feature that is designed to be light while also revealing something about the personalities of the Kansas State Wildcats and the opposition’s star players.
This is essentially word association, and the subject – this week, it’s Griffin, the 6-foot-10 man-child whom many believe will be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft – has the option of explaining his rapid-fire response.
K-STATED: Kansas State?
BG: Consistent.
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