Tonight in Wichita, Kansas fans of college basketball will get a future Big 12 preview when West Virginia takes on K-State in a for now non conference battle. The fact that the two teams will soon be in the same conference is obviously not the main draw though as it will pit West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins against his former assistant in Frank Martin.

The story is familiar to most everyone, Huggins getting a second chance at Kansas State and then promptly ditching Manhattan after one season. Huggins did go back home and supposedly he left for the one position he couldn't turn down but it still was a blow to Wildcat fans at the time.

Both K-State and West Virginia have experienced a good portion of success though since Huggins left and Martin took over the program. K-State has elevated its program into a consistent NCAA Tournament contender while West Virginia has reached the Final Four under Huggins.

As for the present time, tonight's game will feature two teams not ranked in the current Top 25 of college basketball.

Continue reading this post »

How will the Kansas State Wildcats fare this season? What will their overall and Big 12 records be? Will they make a postseason tournament?

We'll answer all those questions, plus guess which teams they'll upset and which will upset them after The Jump.

Continue reading this post »

 The 2011-2012 schedule for Kansas State features not only the new round robin schedule of Big 12 play but games against opponents from the ACC, SEC and Big East. All three of those games will be outside of Bramlage Coliseum.

While that sounds hard only one of those games is a true road game with the other two games being in K-State friendly environments of the Sprint Center in Kansas City and the INTRUST Arena in Wichita, KS.

Besides those games are some fairly easy contests against the typical early season opponents you see on any Big 12 basketball teams schedule. This should be good for K-State as Frank Martin and his staff will be needing to determine rotations and simply how his team will look this year now that players like Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly are no longer in the fold.

The Wildcats tip off the season in exhibition play on Nov. 6^th against my alma mater, the Fort Hays State Tigers.

Our projections for the season will go up tomorrow but see the complete K-State 2011-2012 schedule down after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

By now everyone knows the general story of K-State head basketball coach Frank Martin. A quick rehash: former high school coach in Miami, assistant under Bob Huggins and highly criticized hire when named Kansas State head coach a few years back.

He has led the Wildcats to three trips to the NCAA Tournament in his four seasons with one Elite Eight appearance in 2010. His 95 wins in his first four seasons rank as the highest amount of wins for a K-State coach in their first four years coaching at the school.

Maybe the most impressive fact for Martin is that Kansas State has been one of only two teams in the Big 12 to finish in the Top 4 of the league standings the last four seasons and receive a bye in the Big 12 tournament. The other team to do it is obviously Kansas.

Despite his success though, Martin still has a large amount of doubters. They question his coaching style of yelling at the players and getting as angry as he does. They question the large amount of transfers either coming in or out of the program. Many now question or wonder how his recruiting will suffer without top assistant Dalonte Hill still in the fold in Manhattan.

This season though could be the most revealing to K-State fans and the rest of the conference about Martin's true ability to lead a Big 12 program for the long haul.

With the exception of Jamar Samuels, every player who either played for or was recruited under the Bob Huggins/Frank Martin era is now gone from the program. The team that K-State has on the court this season will be strictly Martin's group of players.

The early predictions don't seem to favor Martin and his squad as the Wildcats are picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big 12 this season. This is coming off last season where K-State was picked first in the preseason voting.

If the Wildcats do not gel as a team this season and finish where predicted then Martin will be put under a microscope for his building of the roster.

On the flip side if K-State can once again finish in the Top 4 of the league standings and make another NCAA Tournament then the doubters will have less ammunition to fire against Martin and his overall coaching ability.

The last thing to say about Frank Martin is no matter if you are a K-State fan or not, he makes watching a Wildcats game a fun experience.

Rodney McGruder should feel disrespected entering the 2011-2012 season as his name was omitted from the preseason All Big 12 team and even the honorable mention list.

How one gets voted in by the coaches at seasons end last year and then left off by the coaches the following season is somewhat interesting.

K-State fans should hope that McGruder takes this as a personal slap in the face since he is coming off a sophomore season where he started all 34 games and was named 3^rd team All Big 12 by the leagues coaches. He was a model of consistency for Frank Martin and K-State as he was the only Wildcat to start every single game last season.

His stat line was not overly monstrous as he averaged 11.1 points per game along with a team leading 5.9 rebounds per game but he did average over 40% from behind the three point arc.

These stats though sound more impressive now that Frank Martin revealed that he was playing last year with severe tendonitis in his knee. It is expected that he is now healthy and ready to go this year.

An area it has been reported that Martin would like McGruder to work on is his ability to break defenders down off the dribble. In his first two years at K-State, McGruder has been more of a catch and shoot player and not at his best when having to try and make a play taking his defender off the bounce.

If he can made defenders respect his ability to get to the bucket off the dribble that should only open things up for his outside game as the season progresses.

One would suspect that with Jacob Pullen now departed that McGruder's stat line should only increase as he appears to now be a team leader along with fellow upperclassman Jamar Samuels.

In somewhat disturbing news there was word that McGruder considered leaving K-State after assistant coach Dalonte Hill departed for Maryland but in the end he will be back to presumably finish out his final two seasons as a Wildcat.

If McGruder would have left the program, K-State would have been in a world of hurt for this season and in the publics eye as the amount of players transferring out of the program would be disturbing.

In my opinion if K-State is to be successful this year it will be mostly on McGruders back as he will have to pick up the scoring slack with Pullen now out of the program.

We'll see at the end of the season how smart the Big 12 coaches were or weren't when they did not select him in the preseason.

Welcome to Five Questions for... Kansas State Wildcats

Here you'll see five of the most pressing questions for the Wildcats and our response to them.  Feel free to contribute your answers in the comments section.

1.       Is Jamar Samuels the most frustrating player in the Big 12?

2.       Rodney McGruder was named 3^rd Team All Big 12 by the coaches last season averaging 11.1 points as a sophomore. Can he make it onto either the 2^nd or 1^st team this season?

3.       Kansas State takes on West Virginia this year in a game in Wichita in the brand new INTRUST Arena there and now WV is joining the Big 12. If you were an athletic director and could hire either Bob Huggins or his protege Frank Martin who would you go with?

4.       Which K-State player do you expect to have improved the most from last season?

5.       Here is a link for K-State's men basketball roster. http://www.kstatesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/ksu-m-baskbl-mtt.html - Do you see any player who will ever step onto an NBA Court?

See the answers after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

With the recent commitments of James Watson and Jeremy Jones to Frank Martin and Kansas State it was somewhat apparent that someone was going to heading out the door simply due to a numbers game. Instead of only one player leaving though word has come down now that two players will not be back next season in Manhattan. Reserve guards Nick Russell and Juevol Myles both have decided to leave the program.  

Russell as most K-State and Big 12 fans know started out last season as a starter but has been a somewhat frequent visitor into Frank Martin's proverbial doghouse. His statistics last season reflect a disappointing season as he averaged only 4.2 points a game while collecting a few DNP's coaches decision along the way. He came in as part of the 2009 recruiting class as a 3 star prospect but could never find his way into playing consistent minutes with his defense often times being mentioned by Frank Martin as the reasoning for lack of playing time. No word has come down yet on where Russell will transfer but he has said it will be a place where he can continue to grow as a player.

Juevol Myles came to K-State last season after transferring in from Tallahassee Community College. He averaged 2.1 points a game in a total of 19 contests. His high water mark of the season came on New Year's Eve against North Florida as he scored 12 points and dished out 3 assists in the Wildcats 100-76 win.

Unfortunately the act of players "deciding" to transfer at BCS programs is commonplace and happens all around with many recent examples within the Big 12.  As for K-State itself the departures of Russell and Myles represent the third and fourth transfers since the start of this past season with Freddy Asprilla and Wally Judge who both quit on the team mid-way through the season.   

2010-2011 Record: 23-11

Big 12 Conference Record (Standing) 10-6 (4^th)

Our Preseason Predictions:

Joe: 2nd in the Big 12

Evan:1st in the Big 12

Matt: 1st in the Big 12

Season MVP: Jacob Pullen (Senior)

While he may not have had quite the season to live up to the Preseason All-American hype, Pullen finished out his career in solid fashion. For the season he averaged 20.2 points per game and he was the epicenter for the KSU offense, in addition to his offensive game Pullen played solid on the ball defense as well. He saved his best games for possibly the Wildcats two biggest contests of the season. In a home game against Kansas in mid-February he scored a career high 38 points and then in his final game during the NCAA Tournament against Wisconsin he almost single handily led KSU to a victory as he scored 38 points again. No other player in the Big 12 will be as sorely missed for one team as Pullen will be for the Wildcats.

Season Recap:

The 2010-2011 season for K-State can really only be described by a cliché, it was a roller-coaster ride. Too high of expectations put a burden on K-State early and when the team struggled the grumbling and disappointment came out in full force. In season suspensions of Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly just before the UNLV game (a loss) did not help the cause. Following a 1-4 start in conference play the Wildcats changed their offense and combined with Pullen and Kelly back contributing finished the year on a strong note. While they did not reach the heights expected of them it turned out to be a solid season in Manhattan as the Wildcats once again had a bye in the Big 12 tournament and won an NCAA Tournament game. The biggest possible disappointment of the year may have been not being able to beat Colorado once in three opportunities.

2011-2012 Outlook:

The Wildcats will be like a lot of college programs next year as some players are going to need to step up and evolve from role players into something more. The loss of Pullen creates a scoring void along with someone who could be counted on to take the shot when the shot clock was winding down. The person who will be most counted on next season is Rodney McGruder who started every game as sophomore this year and averaged a solid 11.1 points per game. He will need to be a more consistent scorer next year. Another player who will be counted on heavily will be Jamar Samuels who had a disappointing season this year. A look at the rest of the roster shows many returning players coming back but no true superstar possibilities. KSU welcomes back a glut of guards in Will Spradling, Martavious Irving, Devon Peterson, Shane Southwell, Nick Russell and Nino Williams. Out of that group Spradling is the most likely choice to take over the point guard responsibilities but he might get a challenge from incoming recruit Angel Rodriguez from Miami whom according to rumors, Frank Martin is very fond of.  Currently the Wildcats look thin in the frountcourt as only Jordan Henriquez-Roberts and Samuels return from last year. The Wildcats have two post players in this years recruiting class in 7'0" center Adrian Diaz and 6'7" PF Thomas Gipson. While Gipson may get an opportunity to get some minutes Diaz is listed at only 205 lbs so it may be wishful thinking to think he can bang in the Big 12 at this point in time. At this point in time the Wildcats will definitely be under the radar for next season in comparison to this past year. Also at this time it appears Frank Martin will not be leaving K-State so that is a good sign for this club.

See our schedule for Season Recaps after the Jump.

Continue reading this post »