You’re awake. Now that you’re up, here are a few links to help you start your day:
– George Schroeder wrote a feature on Collin Klein for SI.com.
– Here’s my story from today’s paper about senior defensive back Nigel Malone. He is coming off a big year and has a reputation to uphold for the first time in his life. But he’s not letting that change his approach.
– Rather than move all his belongings with him to his new home in Phoenix, former K-State basketball star Michael Beasley had an estate sale at his former Minnesota home.
Joan Niesen, of Fox Sports, checked it out and came away wondering why Beasley owned so much strange stuff.
Why does Michael Beasley need a copy of the Physicians’ Desk Reference? Or a book of Ingmar Bergman screenplays? Or giant glass grapes? What use does Beasley have for a floral headboard? Why does he love tasseled pillows so much? Whose handbags are those?
– Around the Big 12, Steele Jantz is once again the starting quarterback at Iowa State. He started off hot last year, but served as the team’s backup as the season came to an end.
– Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby stopped by Ames, Iowa yesterday and talked about the status of the league. According to this story he suggested the best way to ensure long-term stability for the league is to make it into a conference so strong no school will ever want to leave again.
Jon McGraw will be asked to fill in at safety for the Kansas City Chiefs while Eric Berry recovers from a season-ending knee injury. The task will be difficult. Berry was the Chiefs’ top draft pick a year ago, and has become one of their top overall defenders.
Good thing McGraw went through a similar situation while playing for Kansas State, when he replaced Lamar Chapman in 2000.
From a story in today’s Kansas City Star by Kent Babb:
In McGraw’s fifth game as a starter, he had two interceptions against Colorado. He returned one for a touchdown in a 44-21 win. He went on to be a second-round pick of the New York Jets in 2002, months after taking his own place on the All-Big 12 team.
“A great feeling for K-State fans to realize that this guy is a big-time player,” (Stan) Weber said. “… Everyone felt comfortable with him playing, but then he just kept going and going. He just keeps improving slightly.”
More than a decade later, McGraw has another chance to show that he’s capable, but more than that, a chance to ease fans’ fears that there won’t be a colossal dropoff from McGraw to the player he’s replacing.
– One of the advantages of K-State opening the season against an injured Eastern Kentucky team and then practicing during a bye week? The Wildcats currently have the best numbers of any defense in the country. K-State defenders will be out to prove themselves, and hand on to their lofty status, against Kent State.
– It looks like Bill Snyder has picked up a new tight end/defensive end from Cypress, Texas.
– Monday should be a big day in the conference realignment saga. Oklahoma’s regents are scheduled to meet and discuss the issue.
Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton spoke with the St. Louis Dispatch about Oklahoma and the future of the Big 12 yesterday. As the chairman of the Big 12 board, it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the current conference realignment situation.
He told the newspaper he expects the Sooners to make a decision about their future conference affiliation within the next “10 to 14 days,” but expressed hope that the Big 12 could rebuild even if they decide to look to the Pac-12 with Oklahoma State coming along for the ride.
“I don’t want to go too far there, (but) there’s a legal basis for the Big 12 to go on and, certainly, I would expect that to continue,” he said in a phone interview.
Not that Deaton is expecting Oklahoma to go.
“If things change, we’ll try to keep it together and move forward with other members,” he said, later adding, “I’m a little more optimistic certainly today than I was maybe a week ago, but that’s based on the fact that I think good, careful reasoning and analysis of what’s in the best interests of each of our institutions will continue to bind us together as a conference.”
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When recruiting guru Dalonte Hill left Kansas State for Maryland, he did so for a number of reasons. A pay increase was not one of them.
The Baltimore Sun, according to sources, reported today that Hill will make a salary of $300,000 with the Terps. That will make him one of the highest paid assistant coaches in all of college basketball, but he will no longer be the highest paid.
While at K-State, he was making $423,750 annually before bonuses.
– It seems like I get a Google News update every few hours about current Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger. The former K-State player and coach has people feeling optimistic about Sooners basketball again, and the Oklahoman recently looked back at the impact he had with the Wildcats.
– Tom Keegan, of the Lawrence Journal-World, is still shocked that K-State went 13-1 against Kansas in athletic contests this season. Here’s his take on what it means for the Jayhawks.
– This ESPN blog takes a look at what former K-State assistant football coach Ricky Rahne is facing this season at Vanderbilt.
– Daniel Thomas made a guest appearance at a junior football camp in Pratt. According to The Pratt Tribune’s Grant Guggisberg, who caught up with the former K-State running back in a short interview, the NFL lockout hasn’t slowed his development with the Miami Dolphins.
“I’ve been working out with the team and I’ve got the playbook and everything. I’ve worked with the quarterbacks to learn the system and everything, so there’s ways of working around it. Hopefully we can get started more in July.”
– After a strong year in numerous sports, K-State put out this article on its successes.
– Some good quarterbacks came out of college in 2009. Has Josh Freeman become the best NFL player of the bunch? Two ESPN experts debate the topic.
– K-State fans who still haven’t gotten over the penalty issued to Adrian Hilburn at the end of the Pinstripe Bowl had to be throwing their hands up in disgust when they saw this celebration from the United States Men’s National Soccer Team yesterday.
After scoring the first goal of a 2-0 win over Jamaica, Jermaine Jones ran to midfield and celebrated with — what else? — a salute. In soccer, you have to go WAY overboard to earn a celebration penalty, so it comes as no surprise that the game continued without incident. But when Jones later said it was, “A nice little gift,” to his dad on Father’s Day and a sign of respect it certainly reminded me of what Hilburn said in New York.
– Baseball America came out with its new NCAA Tournament projections today, and after a three-game sweep of Kansas last weekend the Wildcats have done enough to be included.
K-State heads into the Big 12 Tournament tomorrow as the No. 6 seed. With a RPI in the mid 40s and a 34-21 record, it is on the bubble. How the Wildcats play in Oklahoma City will likely decide their NCAA Tournament fate.
– Sticking with baseball, K-State closer James Allen was honored by the Big 12 this morning. The league announced its all-conference team, and he was a first-team selection. Brothers Jason King and Jared King both were second-team selections, and Nick Martini earned honorable mention honors.
– This has to be a sad day for two current, and one former, K-State basketball players. New York’s Rice High School, which Jordan Henriquez-Roberts, Shane Southwell and Curtis Kelly all attended before coming to K-State, is closing because of financial difficulties.
– Blair Kerkhoff, of the Kansas City Star, points out that K-State went 12-1 against Kansas this season. The Sunflower State rivals compete in seven sports, and the Wildcats’ only loss to the Jayhawks came at Allen Fieldhouse in men’s basketball. Jacob Pullen helped K-State avenge the loss two weeks later by scoring 38 points in a blowout win on Valentine’s Day at Bramlage Coliseum. I guess that 59-7 football victory in Lawrence was a sign of things to come.
New uniforms are always met with mixed reactions from a team’s fan base, and Kansas State’s new gray unis were no exception Monday night.
From what I could see on twitter and fans at the game, it seemed like most approved of the new look. But at least one national blogger and our own Bob Lutz gave the new home colors a big thumbs down.
K-State players said they liked the new uniforms and coach Frank Martin called them “big-time.” Personally, I thought they were an improvement on the purple uniforms debuted Saturday at College Station.
If you are a fan of the old white and black unis don’t fear. K-State informed me last night the purple and gray are only the Wildcats’ new alternate colors. Nike has sent white and black unis in the new style to Manhattan, too, and they will be debuted soon.
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