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GoPowercat publisher Tim Fitzgerald has posted a tremendous 54-minute podcast, focused mostly on K-State MBB. It comes up without being logged in, so I guess it's OK to link to it. Fitz points out much to be optimistic about. He's speaking about great potential... not saying that everything is going to come together this week. Here's the link.
Here's another must-read K-State Sports Extra from Austin Siegel on points of emphasis that led to the Jacksonville win, along with player quotes.
I transcribed an interesting quote from yesterday's The Drive on WIBW TV. Here you go... "K-State fans, I get it. You're gonna be really restless this basketball season. You're gonna be upset that the Wildcats are losing so many games, and there will be more games, probably, like what happened with Baylor. But again, there will probably be some times when this team pulls together and looks really good, and wins a game, like they did at Iowa State. I'm gonna make a bold prediction right now. This group of freshmen will have a larger impact on K-State Basketball than the Brown, Stokes and Wade group. How's that for a prediction? And that's it for this week's edition of The Drive."
Austin Siegel has a look at the pieces that came together, resulting in a win over Iowa State last weekend, in this K-State Sports Extra.
The GoPowercat crew have put together a set of interviews with K-State Football signees. Every fan should watch this. The festivities begin with Ryan Wallace interviewing future QB Jake Rubley. (YouTube)
Manhattan Mercury publisher Ned Seaton wrote this editorial and look back at low points in KSU athletics. It was inspired by recent dumpster fire games, and it recalls that were equally bad, back in the day. (link)
In today's K-State Sports Extra, Austin Siegel itemizes the accomplishments of Texan Deuce Vaughn in the Texas game on Saturday. He had 221 total yards, scored two touchdowns, caught four passes and served as a kick returner. One of the most fun things is that now that he's become a household name, including beyond Manhattan, Deuce has proven to be a very effective decoy.
This was unexpected. It's hard to imagine games without our PA announcer, Dave Lewis. I remember when he started, he had to learn a couple of beloved traditions that he'd inherited from Ivan Wilkerson, then he was good to go. Austin Siegel's K-State Sports Extra has Dave's reflections on memorable moments, spanning his 14 years. K-Staters wish him well, thank him and will associate him with so many pleasant memories. I have an idea that Mitch Fortner will follow in his footsteps.
Today's K-State Sports Extra is a look at our MBB program, which has only four returning players with scholarships. It's also a quick review of yesterdays opener with Drake, who have much more experience, and had 20 wins the past two seasons.
When Men's Basketball's Thanksgiving destination, the Cayman Islands Classic, was canceled, the program needed a place to play. There's no place like home... especially if home is MHK, so director of operations Drew Speraw started looking at options. This K-State Sports Extra is a step-by-step review of how Drew put it together. I've worked with him on housing details for team camps involving almost 1,000 players. I can tell you, he's very good at this kind of thing, and so is Bailey Bachamp, who works closely with him.
Austin Siegel has an enjoyable look back at various programs' successes in the fall, in today's K-State Sports Extra. Soccer, Tennis and Women's Golf are in there, Volleyball got three of them, and Football's 55-14 win over KU, and the awesome win over #3 Oklahoma took first place.
I thought it was time for me to understand more about the NCAA Transfer Portal, so I went straight to the NCAA. From the NCAA's point of view, it was created for efficiency in the transfer option, which already existed, and to accommodate hardship situations. What's still a mystery to me is why so many K-State Football players are using it.
This K-State Sports Extra is a look at both BB programs. The bottom line is... they're ready to play some games!
The latest K-State Sports Extra is a nice overview of this season's players. The theme is "Find your niche. Find a way to score."
The Athletic has a great profile on Deuce Vaughn. It's a hit with Cats fans. This is a pay site.
Today's 55-14 outcome marks 12 straight Ws vs. KU, which is a series record. Click right here for your highlights on YouTube. Phillip Brooks had a big day, with four punt returns, and 189 total yards. (photo gallery) (complete replay on YouTube)
This K-State Sports Extra includes comments on the obvious challenges faced in recent months, new players, injuries and the Little Apple Classic on Nov. 25 and 27.
Austin Siegel's K-State Sports Extra has a number of quotes, including Briley Moore, Noah Johnson and Chris Klieman, to preview the TCU game.
Austin Siegel's latest K-State Sports Extra has the latest on Deuce Vaughn's heroics, including a 70-yard touchdown play.
If you'd like to feel great about the future of K-State Football, watch Deuce for a few minutes. (video link)
Austin Siegel's latest K-State Sports Extra is a look back at the big OU victory, Skylar Thompson developing as a competitor as a kid and his next opponent, Texas Tech.
K-State has had some historic wins over Oklahoma over the years. How about the Big 12 championship win, 35-7, at Arrowhead in 2003, or last year's home win over #5 OU, 48-41? Here are some fun links, for future reference:
#22 was a big topic during the Arkansas State game. Here's a must-read K-State Sports Extra from Austin Siegel. It covers Deuce's family background, recruiting process and what led him to play for the Cats. (bio page)
Chuck Lillie has tweeted this recruiting / unity video, which was seen on the Bramlage video boards before every basketball game last season. I don't recall if it was in the Football pregame or not. I think it's tremendous, and could never tire of seeing it. You can right-click right here to download it.
Here's another good K-State Sports Extra from Austin Siegel.
Here's a good K-State Sports Extra.
Austin Siegel has an informative update with Coach Klieman.
Get acquainted with 6' 11" Carlton Linguard, with Austin Siegel's latest K-State Sports Extra. Bruce Weber was competing for him along with USC, New Mexico, Colorado and TCU.
It's never a dull moment when Taylor Braet is in the house! He is unequaled, if you need passion and energy in your recruiting operation. Austin Siegel's K-State Sports Extra is a must-read. Taylor is truly an important asset!
Austin Siegel has a great K-State Sports Extra featuring Luke Kasubke. It's a look at his recruiting process, his BB heroes and early experiences as a new Cat.
Greg Woods of The Manhattan Mercury continues with his series with head coaches. Chris Klieman's choice was a good one: the Cats over #5 OU on October 26, 2019. There was quite a crowd on the field after that one! (link)
Greg Woods of The Manhattan Mercury continues with his series with head coaches. Today he's posted a visit with Bruce Weber about the glorious victory over the Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament in March of 2018. Barry Brown, Jr. had a very big part in it, with 13 points and a fancy late layup. Xavier Sneed contributed 22 points. A fun fact is that our Cats played the final 74 seconds with all guards. (link)
Manhattan lost a nice one, as Pat Hartman passed away today, at the age of 94. She came to K-State with Jack, and stayed for 50 years. I hadn't seen her much this past year, but over the decades, she was a regular at K-State Basketball and Volleyball. She will certainly be missed. (K-State Mourns the Passing of Pat Hartman)
Don't miss this LIfe of Fitz Podcast with the 18-year Voice of the Cats, Wyatt Thompson! I have great appreciation for Wyatt's outstanding preparation, play-by-play and enthusiasm. He's a friend to all, and has received a number of awards for excellence in sports broadcasting. GoPowercat.com boss Tim Fitzgerald gives us another great interview. (link)
I recommend this K-State Sports Extra by Austin Siegel. Catch up on K-State's recruiting activities this summer, and modified approaches required by the current state of affairs.
These gents need no introduction! On Sunday, October 4, 2020, they'll be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. Here's the KSHOF release, and the release from K-State, which has much more detail on the Cats.
Austin Siegel has posted an interesting K-State Sports Extra. It's an interview with Lon Kruger, who needs no introduction in these parts. Jack Hartman, Lon and Bob Chipman coached Team USA for the Pan American Games, and about a week's practices took place in my favorite place on earth, Mike Ahearn Field House. (link)
What a nice surprise! Here's a download link. The audio podcast runs about 16 minutes, and as you'd expect, Stan Weber has all kinds of fun facts. This first podcast focuses on quarterbacks. Update: The link above is for the first podcast. In the left-side navigation column of this page, look for KSTATESPORTS.COM / Wildcat Podcasts 2020, where I have a current set of links to this year's podcasts. I'm downloading an MP3 of each week's podcast.
Chiefs Reporter BJ Kissel played Baseball for K-State, and you'll remember Megan Farr Kissel as a middle blocker for K-State Volleyball, who was All-Big 12. They're the subjects of today's K-State Sports Extra. After an act of kindness to their daughter, McKenna, BJ got the idea to provide meals from Jack Stack Barbecue for Kansas City health care workers during this challenging time for them, by way of a GoFundMe for Feed It Forward. One good act leads to more with these things. The Feed It Forward account has raised over $41,000, as of this moment. Jack Stack Barbecue is able to feed about 125 people for every $1,000, and has pledged to donate 200 additional meals for every 1,000 people fed. This brings the number of health-care workers fed through the campaign to well over 5,000.
Here's a free-content interview by D. Scott Fritchen, visiting with Jacob Pullen two days ago. Many Cats fans call this one of the best games K-State MBB ever placed. So many players sunk field goals and free throws. They played smart. They never got intimidated. As posted below, here's one YouTube video of the double OT, 101-96 victory! D. Scott went on to call this one of the greatest NCAA tournament games in history!
We'll play one at the Sprint Center in 2020 (if the world still exists), then in Lincoln and in the Octagon. This is fun news! (link)
What a game. K-State (spoiler) beat Xavier 101-96 in double overtime, enroute to the Elite Eight. Here it is, on YouTube. It's not HDTV, but it's still great basketball. Pullen, Clemente, Kelly, Samuels, Merriewether and others really stepped up. Frank Martin and Brad Underwood live tweeted during a replay of this game tonight.
Our Cats have tangled with the Kentucky Wildcats 10 times, but this was the first K-State win. Having led for 34 minutes, the Cats won, 61-58, after a Kentucky player missed a 3 FG. We advanced to the Elite Eight. Here's a link to the box score and highlights video. Don't miss it!
The Big XII's Around the Rim focuses on Makol Mawien, who's started all 101 games for the Cats. His path to the United States and citizenship is a real nice story. (video link)
Here's a must-see profile on #20 Xavier Sneed's parents, who over four years have attended almost all of his games with KSU MBB.
Here's great stuff, in two parts. Part 1, 32 minutes / Part 2, 34 minutes
Kaylie Mclaughlin has a nice story in the Collegian about the great Robert J. Lipson, and his nearly 50 years as an exceptionally loyal Cat fan. He goes anywhere in the country to support Wildcat Football and Men's Basketball. He is basically a professional fan! I've sat by him at games many times, and it is the ultimate K-State experience. No matter the sport, Robert likes to tie the situation at hand to football, like yelling, "Kick a field goal" if there are two players on bases, and a batter at the plate. Robert wants three runs. If he wants to cheer for a pitcher, he hollers, "Keep bowling," because bowlers get strikes, and Robert wants a strike added to the batter's count. This story is now 15 months old, and I don't think the plan is in place, but it's sure fun to add it to my page! Yes... I've gotten to hold Robert's "WE OWN THIS STATE" sign.
KMAN's John Kurtz has posted audio of the interview to YouTube.
As a result of the Sunflower Steel Cage Match® difficulties last night, the Big 12 has suspended James Love for 8 games beyond his medical unavailability, and Antonio Gordon for the next 3 games. The Squawks' Silvio De Sousa is suspended for 12 games, and David McCormack got 2 games. During this time, the players can be near the bench, can't be introduced in or part of pregame, and can't travel. (link)
Here's a must-read profile on Mitch, on the eve of the Chiefs' AFC championship game. I have the highest admiration for him. (link)
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra lists 2019 successes and situations in place for 2020 that are noteworthy.
Here's K-State's release of the exciting news. Some were wondering about Cartier, then he laid 25 points on Tulsa!
Dalton was given the keys to today's K-State Sports Extra. He grew up as a Cats fan, with a dream of being on the team. He offered his services as a receiver, but wasn't scooped up immediately. In fact, the process felt painfully slow. Eventually given the chance to be a walk-on, he embraced Coach Snyder's goal of No Self-Limitations, and became a three-year scholarship player, a team captain and Honorable Mention All-Big 12.
Jordan spent a fall with Navy, his opponent on New Year's Eve, and he took a visit to Memphis. He's played for several schools and coaches. I noticed in the graduation program earlier this month that he picked up an MBA. Here's his K-State Sports Extra.
Riley Gates of GoPowercat.com has just posted this awesome look back at the program's greatest wins in the 2010s.
From GoPowercat.com and Riley Gates, here's a fun look back at historic wins in the 2010s. (link)
This is free content from the great D. Scott Fritchen at GoPowercat.com. (link)
Taylor "Sped" Braet has been K-State Football's director of recruiting for seven years. His enthusiam is unmatched. The Collegian has a nice profile on him today. Follow him on Twitter. (@spedbraet) By the way, I and other Football fans saw him proposing to his beautiful wife, Leah, at center field in Bill Snyder Family Stadium, just after Coach Snyder's radio show, which was in the Big 8 Room of the former Vanier Complex, overlooking the field.
Today's K-State Sports Extra has a nice look at where the team is in mid December, and Coach Weber's goals and talking points.
Zaldy Doyungan has compiled an awesome Twitter video spanning various KSU sports. You'll see McGruder's winning shot vs. Baylor (2013), Thomas's winning TD pass vs. Iowa State (2017), Diarra's windmill dunk near the end of MBB vs. KU in 2019, Baseball's Big 12-winning run vs. OU (2013), Erik Kynard winning the Olympics Silver Medal (2012), Football's 21-point comeback vs. Iowa State (2015), Pullen scoring 38 points vs. #1 KU (2010), MBB beating OU to win the Big 12 (2019) and Football's win vs. Texas for the Big 12 championship (2012).
Today's K-State Sports Extra includes quotes from Coach Klieman and players on the foundation set by the eight-win first season.
Mr. Youngblood, the reigning Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week, is now the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year! This is the first time a freshman has earned Big 12 Player of the Year for offense, defense or special teams. A nation-leading three kickoff return touchdowns led to the award. Joshua joins Nick Lenners and Wyatt Hubert as First Team All-Big 12. Finally, Joshua had just won his second straight Player of the Week honor. (Manhattan Mercury) (K-State Football)
Yesterday's win over Iowa State will be remembered for a number of reasons: 24 MPH wind gusting to 40 MPH at 38° F, senior night, another Joshua Youngblood kickoff return, a 27-17 win over the #23 team, limiting Iowa State's time of possession, and seeing Chris Klieman's first regular season end with 8 wins. Reflect on the big day in the climate-controlled comfort of your home, with this K-State Sports Extra.
It seems that if you produce a 100-yard kickoff return, you're a strong contender for Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week. The Big 12 proclaimed that today for Joshua Youngblood! By the way, Tim Fitzgerald had "Block, you K-State Wildcats" as a key to victory, and that's just what we saw in this spectacular play, so congrats to all the Wildcats involved! The Big 12 said, "Youngblood is the only true freshman in the conference this year to earn offensive, defensive or special teams player of the week honors, while he is the first Wildcat to do so since Tyler Lockett picked up the special teams honor twice in 2011. It was Youngblood's second kickoff-return touchdown this year (98 yards at Texas)."(K-State's announcement) (video) (Twitter) (GoPowercat.com)
In his latest visit with Brian Smoller, Gene Taylor addresses some hot topics, including placement of the new indoor football practice facility, use of the awful Cats script logo on Football helmets (instead of the Powercat), expansion of teams in the Big 12, construction plans and compensating players for their likeness. (video link) (transcript)
Here's a must-read K-State Sports Extra.
On May 29, Cat fans were relieved, although admittedly selfishly, when they learned that Xavier Sneed had withdrawn from the NBA draft. In a front page story in today's Collegian, X says, "My focus is to do whatever I need to do to help us win." He was Academic All-Big 12 Second Team in 2018 and 2019, and Honorable Mention All-Big 12 in 2019. I know he's going to have a huge impact this season. (link)
As we learn from the Collegian, It's a bargain!
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra is a nice update on the new program.
I found this in the Manhattan Mercury. Ryan Black reports on former KSU president Jon Wefald's experience and guidance on making a good hire. Wefald is quick to take credit for hiring Bill Snyder, but it should be noted that Jim Epps discovered his work at Iowa. The first retirement of Bill Snyder in 2005 resulted in the selection of Ron Prince. The conventional wisdom is that Pres. Wefald was a major factor in his hiring. Then, in 2008, Wefald walked in the Cats' visitor locker room in Lawrence, to find Ron Prince berating his players after a loss to KU. That was on a Saturday, and on Monday, Prince was out of work... having been sent back to Manhattan with KSU Police, rather than on the team bus. Jon Wefald has some very interesting recommendations on hiring a head coach, and some strongly correlate to the Ron Prince era. I think there's merit to them. (link)
Here's Haley Dixon's visit in the Manhattan Mercury with artist Tom Bookwalter and Coach Bill Snyder about the creation of the Powercat logo. (link)
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra is a look at Bruce Weber's theme of duplicating championship DNA. The idea is to replicate the toughness and hard work we saw from Dean Wade, Barry Brown, Jr. and Kamau Stokes. A fun fact is that K-State held opponents to 59.5 points per game in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, the fifth-best mark in the 68-team field. Although they came into that tournament as a nine seed, they reached the Elite Eight.
I have to get this K-State Sports Extra on record here. This was Kansas State's first road win over an SEC team. The Cats ended behind the Bulldogs in a number of statistical categories, but never gave up. The 100-yard return by Malik Knowles, plus interceptions, helped immensely.
Corbin McGuire's latest K-State Sports Extra reviews Skylar's early season successes. It reveals opportunities for growth that he had during the summer, and how he's preparing for upcoming games. His passing efficiency, as of today, ranks 11th nationally.
We came to know Greg Grensing when he signed on with Lon Kruger in 1986-87, along with Dana Altman. He would work with Lon at K-State, UNLV and OU, and also with Dana Altman at K-State and Creighton. This feature by Mack McClure in the Manhattan Mercury is a real nice look back at those days. Don't miss it!
Super Bowl winner and K-State Ring of Honor member Jordy Nelson is coming home to Riley County. Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra has a look at his pro career, and plans for the future.
Big-time congrats to Bruce Weber and Shane Southwell, whose U.S. U19 team defeated Mali for the World Cup championship! (Manhattan Mercury)
Xavier removed his name from the NBA draft on May 29. Here's a K-State Sports Extra as he looks forward to his final college season.
Earlier this month, Shane Southwell was named MBB's Director of Student Athlete Development. Corbin McGuire's latest K-State Sports Extra looks at his time since he was a K-State player.
Jermaine has been named an assistant coach for Men's Basketball. Here's a K-State Sports Extra that looks at his path to the new position.
Kamau visits with the media about his quest for the NBA. Good luck to Kamau!
Barry visits with the media prior to the MBB banquet about the NBA, next year's K-State players, etc. We wish him the best!
Dean Wade visits with GoPowercat.com about his foot injury in the Big 12 championship win vs. Oklahoma, going pro, Texas Tech's success, etc. We wish him the best!
Bruce Weber gave a very open interview to GoPowercat.com, prior to the Men's Basketball banquet today.
BB&J wore a Reese's® Peanut Butter Cup uniform in the All-Star Game. He had 11 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes. (stats) I hope he gets his shot in the NBA. He's earned it!
Here's a nice feature in the Kansas State Collegian posted by Molly Hackett. She visited with the mothers of Xavier Sneed, Dean Wade, Kamau Stokes and Barry Brown, Jr.
This update on Dean Wade was posted by Arne Green of the Topeka Capital-Journal.
I already had a huge amount of respect for Barry Brown, Jr. after his four seasons. You must read Corbin McGuire's outstanding K-State Sports Extra, to understand how Mr. Brown, now #5 all-time in career points, became First Team All-Big 12.
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra reflects on the Big 12 regular season, and the Cats' having been the team to beat for almost all of that time.. (link)
Here's a feature in the Manhattan Mercury.
Along with a conference championship, individual Wildcats received conference honors last week. Barry Brown, Jr. and Dean Wade are All-Big 12. Kamau Stokes and Xavier Sneed are Honorable Mention All-Big 12. (link)
Here's Twitter video of the championship celebration. (and here's another version on YouTube) Here's a Twitter photo of Dean Wade kissing the Powercat. Speaking of Powercat, GoPowercat.com has video of Bruce Weber's press conference, and also Barry and Dean's postgame press conference.
It occurred with 05:53 remaining in the OU game for the Big 12 championship. In postgame, Coach Weber stated that he didn't recall ever seeing Dean do a dunk like that. We have it for you right here (with six replays).
I completely supported and appreciated John Currie when he was in Manhattan, and I'm sure he will accomplish great things at Wake Forest. (Kansas City Star)
Here's a K-State Sports Extra that looks primarily at the emotions involved in the championship game experience.
Today's the day to tie the ribbons on an exceptional conference season. You have to feel good going into a championship game, led by Barry Brown, Dean Wade and Kamau Stokes. Here's Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra.
At the postgame press conference, Dean Wade describes a momentum-building dunk that started a 10-2 run vs. Baylor. (K-State Sports Extra)
Corbin McGuire collects our trade secrets from the Cats.
Here's a nice look at Bruce Weber and the Cats, in the Kansas City Star, by Sam Mellinger.
Ned Seaton has a must-read article in the Manhattan Mercury, making his case for Barry Brown being mentioned along with the gents with retired jerseys. Barry is now #5 all-time in scoring, and #1 in steals. Along with a fine look back at Barry's accomplishments, there's a great summary of accomplishments by other MBB greats.
Corbin McGuire's latest K-State Sports Extra has quotes from Dean Wade and Coach Weber. Coach has emphasized good passing as a key to victory. Coach Weber also compliment Barry Brown, Jr.'s decision making... for example, when he's starting a drive to the hoop. Because of Barry's success, opponents descend on him, which leaves a teammate open.
Greg Woods in the Manhattan Mercury has a detailed and interesting feature on feeding our MBB Wildcats. (link)
This K-State Sports Extra has input from Kamau Stokes after eight consecutive conference wins... the longest string of them since 1973-74.
Corbin McGuire's latest K-State Sports Extra focuses on the solid second half. The Cats trailed by three points at halftime. Coach Weber informed them he wanted a four-point margin in the second half. He got 10 points!
At 00:51 in the second half, Cartier Diarra stole a pass. Three seconds later, he delivered a spectacular windmill dunk, improving the Cats' lead to 69-61. Here's the story in the Manhattan Mercury, and a video.
Ryan Black of the Manhattan Mercury has the main recap of the glorious 74-67 victory over KU MBB. It was our seniors' first victory over the Squawks. Also, enjoy the game highlights video and game recap.
Here Corbin McGuire has interviews with our Cats on the eve of the home KU MBB game.
Corbin McGuire has posted a K-State Sports Extra reporting his visit with Hall of Famer Mike Evans during MBB's annual Legends weekend. Mike made quite a first impression on me. As I recall, he recorded 30 points in his first game as a Cat.
Compliments of Corbin McGuire, here's a link to another excellent K-State Sports Extra, focusing on defense, which has become the Cats' key to victory.
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra looks at this week's Big 12 Player of the Week, Barry Brown, and his winning shots in the Cats' last two games. We're certainly lucky to have him!
Men's Basketball, on Jan. 9, 2019, updated the all-time record for the most points scored in a comeback victory, as the Cats defeated West Virginia. Barry Brown, Jr. added 29 points to the festivities. Here's Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra.
Arne Green of the Topeka Capital has posted this fine game recap.
I was quite impressed with Coach Klieman's demeanor, communication and openness in his press conference, just a few days before NDSU plays for the national championship. (link)
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra has a top ten list of achievements in the various sports in 2018. (link)
In recent years, a group of K-State athletes from multiple sports have headed to Central or South America to do a construction project of lasting impact. Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra has the story, and a link to a video documentary. My compliments to the Cats who participated!
After the Vanderbilt game on Dec. 22, their coach said, "I think that was the best half-court defense that we've faced this year." Along with that, Barry Brown, Jr. passed Jacob Pullen's record for steals (210). Barry came into the season with 189 steals, and obviously there are many games to go. Have a look at Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra.
I highly recommend this feature in The Manhattan Mercury, by Justin Toscano. (link)
K-State's own Brian Smoller has a seven-minute visit with Coach Klieman. They discussed his relationship with Gene Taylor, how he got into coaching and his approach to recruiting. Something of no relevance whatsoever is I noticed that he talks about four times faster than Coach Snyder. Kenny Lannou and Gene Taylor co-star.
K-State's Football recruiter, Taylor Braet, stars in this comedy video... a spoof of Home Alone, playing the Kevin McCallister role. (Twitter video) Do not miss it!
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra looks at the injuries, only minutes apart, of Dean Wade and Kamau Stokes, and how MBB plans to respond. Related: Wade Out Due to Injury
This sounds very familiar to me, as I was in a group doing this in Ahearn, 40 years ago. My group started the tradition of reading newspapers during opposing player introductions, although we didn't tear them into confetti. We also started the tradition of "opening remarks," which 40 years ago were "Who's he?" "Who cares?" "So what?" "You're kidding!" "Big deal." We didn't have cue cards for this, but I printed them on 1/4-sheets to hand out. We also worked with an assistant director of athletics to help manage the non-reserved line, because in those days the line for a specifc game could last up to one week! (Kansas State Collegian)
Here's an update from K-State Athletics. (link)
Brian Smoller visits with Gene Taylor about the processing of hiring our new coach. (link)
The Manhattan Mercury has two complimentary articles on K-State's A.D.: Who Is Gene Taylor? and Quote Roundup: K-State AD Gene Taylor through the eyes of those he worked alongside.
Voice of the Cats Wyatt Thompson and "The Game" host John Kurtz reflect on Bill Snyder for 01:16, looking at his impact on their lives, and K-State, of course. Here's audio of it on Soundcloud.
The K-State Alumni Association has commissioned a six-minute YouTube video that looks back at and celebrates Bill Snyder's leadership during the greatest turnaround in college football history.
Here's Gene's 10-minute visit with John Kurtz. The impression I got was we would learn something in the next few days... maybe by the end of the week. (Soundcloud)
In Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra, we learn that Coach Weber wants to continue the momentum after the championship of the Paradise Jam. He wants a great non-conference record, and he wants Dean Wade to shoot!
Rodney McGruder went through not getting drafted, to getting dropped, to Europe, to his status as a key player for the Miami Heat. The basketball world has learned what we at Kansas State knew about him! (link)
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra tells our seniors' combined story, as they got acquainted, and later put together a list of what they want to accomplish in 2018-19.
You know I'm never in favor of a KU victory... well, unless they're playing Baylor, I guess, but I wanted to link to Tom Keegan's final column, in his role as sports editor for the Lawrence Journal-World. I've seen him once a week, along with Fitz, on The Drive, which seems to have stopped getting updates to its web site. From The Drive, I learned that Tom is a real straight-shooter as a reporter, and extremely knowledgeable. He's been a great broadcast partner to Tim Fitzgerald, and I'll miss hearing from him.
Area media are keeping us up-to-date with a federal court case in which Adidas® is accused of funneling $$$ to influence basketball recruits to play at certain schools. • The Kansas City Star: Bill Self's 'aw-shucks' answers about shady Adidas deals won't cut it • Associated Press: Jury hears closing arguments at college hoops fraud trial • Topeka Capital-Journal: Defense at hoops trial argues Bill Self, KU knew about illicit payments • Kansas City Star: How will KU hoops fight potential NCAA violations? • Lawrence Journal-World: KU could be facing several NCAA code violations • Lawrence Journal-World: KU Can't Quit Adidas This article includes 25 links to coverage of this subject by the Lawrence Journal-World. • Sports Illustrated: Bill Self Should Be Suspended if KU Is Serious About Following the Rules • 610 Sports: Bill Self's Press Conference "An Absolute Waste of Time" • The Associated Press: Self denies ever offering improper benefits • The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: KU coach Self benches player, denies wrongdoing • The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Guilty verdicts expose NCAA corruption, despite Self denials • Yahoo Sports: Feds give NCAA go-ahead to begin investigating schools
Don't miss this fun video.
Vahe Gregorian in has posted an extremely complimentary story in The Kansas City Star about Bruce Weber's national reputation for doing things the right way.
Coach Jackson did a fine job of recalling Tex's Hall of Fame career, and his character as a man. I'm sure everyone present greatly appreciated having him with us. (Kansas City Star)
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra has an informative look at Dean's recovery from the foot injury, and aspects of the game he's been working on during the off season.
The great Rodney McGruder is with the Miami Heat, but was unable to play most of last season, because of a stress fracture. In the latest K-State Sports Extra, we catch up with him, and learn how he has stayed involved with K-State Men's Basketball.
K-Staters far and wide mourn the passing today of legendary Men's Basketball coach Tex Winter. He coached the cats for 15 seasons, to 1968, and was an assistant with the Bulls and Lakers until his mid 80s. Here's the announcement of his passing from Athletics, and a link to his Wikipedia page. Here's an excellent tribute to Tex by ESPN. K-Staters are very proud to have Tex as a major part of our basketball history.
OK... Mitch isn't 400. He's 61. He's called 400 Chiefs games, however. Here's a must-read profile in the Kansas City Star on Mitch, a K-State Hall-of-Famer (inducted in 2016), and Voice of the Wildcats from 1983 to 1996... but you knew that!
Here's an encouraging story and video from Kellis Robinett for The Wichita Eagle!
David Hall is going in K-State's Hall of Fame at the end of this month. Today he's the subject of Corbin McGuire's latest K-State Sports Extra. I remember distinctly being in the Ahearn crowd on January 25, 1971, when he set the record of 27 (which still stands) of Most Rebounds in a Game, as we played Oklahoma.
You're sure to enjoy this in-depth article in The Manhattan Mercury, by Jeff Chapman. (link)
Chris has graduated from The Wharton School of Business with an MBA, and now will begin his chosen career. I knew him throughout his K-State years. He is a true gentleman, and was always a hard worker. Here's Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra.
This is what the coach of a scandalous football program got. It's disgusting. (link)
Our Men's Basketball program exceeded expectations in the 2017-18 season, which ended at 25-12, with a .676 winning percentage. The Cats ended in 4th place in the Big 12, having been predicted for 8th preseason. They beat Oklahoma State, Texas, Baylor and Iowa State twice, and they played KU to one point in Allen Field House. (2017-18 schedule) NCAA Tournament! The Cats finished the Big 12 Tournament at 22-11, 10-8 Big 12, making a strong case for an NCAA Tournament invitation, which they received. When doubters wondered if they would advance without the 16 points-per-game of Dean Wade, they began with a 10-point win over Creighton. (recap) Next up in the bracket was the previously unheard-of UMBC... unheard of, that is, until this #16 seed beat #1 seed Virginia in the opening round. It turned out they can play basketball, but the Cats opened with a 13-1 run, and ended with a seven-point win over the Cinderella team, drawing amusing commentary from the basketball fan nation like "selfish" and "mean." Too bad! (recap) Sweet Sixteen! The NCAA South Regional bracket then brought a meeting with Kentucky (26-10). The other Wildcats, among other things, are the winningest team in NCAA Division I MBB history, both in total wins and winning percentage. In a hard-fought game vs. noticeably taller players, and with Dean Wade only available for eight minutes, the Cats recorded a three-point win over college basketball's most elite program! (recap) Elite Eight!! The Cats' Elite Eight draw was Loyola-Chicago, who entered the game at 31-5. The Cats, without Dean Wade, unfortunately had a cool shooting night (.348) and lost by 16. (recap) While some wondered if they would play past the Big 12 Tournament, Kansas State, with all starters returning, looks forward to the 2018-19 season knowing they're capable of great things, and certainly can be very competitive in the Big 12 race. With all this said, here's Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra. Go Cats!
This Sweet Sixteen win was so meaningful to Mr. K-State, because he was unable to play in the national championship game vs. UK in 1951, and we had never beaten them before. (video)
Corbin McGuire has an in-depth K-State Sports Extra on Shane Southwell's path to being a graduate assistant, and how he looks at the game in a different way from the sidelines.
Maryland-Baltimore County is the talk of the NCAA tournament after knocking off #1 seed Virginia two days ago. Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra gives us the thoughts of our players as we count down the hours to this critical encounter. The Cats played KU, another #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, to one point on January 13.
I'm not sure why Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra came out the morning after the big win over Creighton, but we sure appreciate Mike's 17 points off the bench. Also, here are Mike McGuirl's postgame interview and the box score.
Blair Kerkhoff has a positive feature on Bruce Weber as the Cats face Creighton in the NCAA tournament. (We now know the Cats won convincingly!)
Corbin McGuire's latest K-State Sports Extra is a must-read about Drew Mount, who has just earned three straight Big 12 Newcomer of the Week honors – a first in Big 12 history. He eats turnips, and before batting, he warms up with a sledgehammer! I think it's safe to say that lots of guys will be copying him very shortly.
This release from K-State Athletes has the good news about Drew Mount and Will Brennan, the Big 12's Newcomer of the Week and Player of the Week.
Years ago, senior Mason Schoen was up early to work on his basketball skills every day. He had a very successful high school career at Blue Valley Northwest, and ultimately was able to walk on with Kansas State. (K-State Sports Extra)
You're going to have to deal with a fluorescent yellow Iowa State uniform to read Corbin McGuire's fine K-State Sports Extra on our versatile NBA prospect, Mr. Dean Wade.
Tim Bisel of The Topeka Capital-Journal has a well-done interview with Gene Taylor reflecting on Bruce. (I'm all-in for Coach Weber, by the way.) Gene is thankful to have a coach who doesn't cheat, and thankful to have fans who care enough to debate on their coaches.
Riley Gates of GoPowercat.com looks back at January 30, 2008. It's free content, and you have to read it. The "streak" was 24 straight years of losing to KU MBB on our courts. This was the Michael Beasley / Bill Walker season, by the way. (link)
It was announced today that the Cats' junior, Dean Wade, is the Naismith Trophy National Player of the Week! The release linked here has a nice review of his impressive stats, and his part in our Cats defeating two ranked teams last week. While we're at it, it must be mentioned that Dean is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Week!!
Gene responded to fan questions sent via Twitter. Brian Smoller hosts the video. (link) I sent in a question, wanting to know why all the historical pictures were removed from the Coliseum concourse. Other questions were about Bill Snyder's annual return-or-not drama, media coverage in the Kansas City area and the next MBB jerseys to be retired.
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra puts a historical perspective on the 91-75 road win at ISU. It was the first time to have three 20-plus scorers since 2010, and the first trio of 20-plus that included one with 30 or more in 41 years. (link)
Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra looks at Xavier Sneed's early season success, including his 15-point / 8 rebound evening vs. Tulsa, and recent experiences that have changed his mindset. (link)
After a season with tremendous kick returns, D. J. is currently second nationally in kick and punt returns, and now is Second Team All-American! Also, D. J. is now first in Big 12 history in single-season kickoff-return average. (story)
It was awesome to have alums back for the American U. game. Here's a K-State Sports Extra with comments from Schyler Thomas, Luis Colon and Bob Chipman. Coach Chipman was highly complimentary about Bruce Weber's coaching.
Some of the examples in these videos are not being well-received. video #1 video #2
Matthew McCrane ranks first in school history and sixth nationally for career field goal percentage, and first in school history in extra-point percentage (99.1). With three more made field goals, he will tie Ring of Honor member Martin Gramatica for most in K-State history, at 54. If McCrane makes one more field of 50 yards or longer, he will become K-State's single-season and all-time leader. Corbin McGuire's K-State Sports Extra updates us on Matthew, plus other special teams successes, including D. J. Reed's. I'm sure it helps to have an All-American punter and Ring of Honor member, Sean Snyder, coaching them!
Corbin McGuire has a must-read update on our hero, Jacob Pullen, who's now with the Philadelphia 76ers. (link)
This is an interesting announcement. I don't know if it will benefit me, as I can't get cable TV anymore, so I guess I don't have access to ESPN3. It's nice to have a new provider for K-STATEHD.TV, as the last one was awful. Brian Smoller will call the K-State Football games on this medium, which will be great.
Here's a good get-acquainted interview with Gene Taylor, by Timothy Everson of the Dodge City Globe.
If you don't look at anything else on this page, read Jordy's story, as told to Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel!
Sean has been widely praised for his handling of this conference. (video)
Kellis Robinett has a good story on the 2016-17 MBB season, and goals for the next one.
A close game was expected, which was supported by a 33 - 28 final score in favor of 9 - 4 Kansas State. Jesse Ertz was named MVP. He passed for 195 yards and ran for 67, ending the season with 1,012 rushing yards... third-best of all K-State quarterbacks. Memorable plays included a first-quarter pass to Byron Pringle, the second-longest pass play in K-State bowl history, and Dominique Heath's 52-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. (box score) (K-State Sports Extra) (game notes)
The 42-21 stomping of Baylor sealed the deal officially, but we knew we had a bowl game two weeks ago, with KU still to play. Here's the link to Athletics' tickets page, a tickets pre-order page and the Alumni Association's k-statesportstours.com. Bowl games and opponents will be announced on December 4.
I saw every varsity game Lon Kruger and Bob Chipman played or coached at K-State, and have always had tremendous admiration for both of them. Their exhibition game was played tonight, and OU defeated Washburn 84-64. Lon has coached five different teams to wins in Final Four games. Bob has won a national championship at Washburn, and will retire from Washburn in 2017 with around 800 wins. It's no accident that Lon, who last coached here 26 years ago, is still pictured at the top of this page. Here's the story from soonersports.com.
Corbin McGuire has done it again, with an outstanding K-State Sports Extra on Coach Bob Chipman. He looks back at his days playing for Jack Hartman in the early 1970s, and tells us how he uses what he learned playing here. Coach Chipman has collected a national championship at Washburn, and he and Carol gave us our outstanding Volleyball middle blocker, Kelsey Chipman Stringer, who helped cover a match for K-STATEHD.TV two days ago. I saw every game Bob played at K-State, and would have been very happy if he'd been K-State's coach. He will retire from Washburn in the spring.
I think any Cat fan will enjoy reading this interview with Steve Henson, who is beginning his first year as a head coach, at UT San Antonio.
Corbin McGuire, in another excellent K-State Sports Extra, visits with K-State great Jacob Pullen about his basketball career.
At last we learn the origin of "The Band Is Hot" on its 30th anniversary. Jeff Alton, a former drummer in The Pride of Wildcat Land, created it while a member, and on Sept. 17 he conducted the band along with daughter Natalie, an assistant drum major. Here's the story in the Collegian.
Coach Weber was honored on Sep. 6 by Wartburg College for his charitable contributions. Have a look at this K-State Sports Extra, and the announcement from Wartburg College.
Countless K-State fans are delighted with the announcement that 580 Radio, WIBW Topeka will again be carrying Cat games. I've complimented Ben Boyle, now of Learfield, personally for his success in bringing this about, and want to repeat that here. Read the good news from K-State Athletics.
Adding value to the university and the community is one of John Currie's goals. The experiences students are getting from working for K-STATEHD.TV lead to prime internships and jobs. (link)
John Currie and Dr. Frank Tracz host this video tour of facilities for The Pride of Wildcat Land, officials and visiting teams. What John Currie has accomplished in his seven years at Kansas State is amazing: the West Stadium Center, Ice Family Basketball Center, Rowing facility, Mike Goss Tennis Stadium and a completely new Vanier Football Complex are individually so impressive, but together are an unparalleled achievement.
I was at every home game in Lon's three seasons as a varsity Cat, and just short of 44 years later, he's still my favorite player. Lon was Big 8 Player of the Year for two years. Here's a must-see feature on Lon from CBS Sports. Yes... his basketball nickname was Slick. You had Dan-o (Danny Beard), Gene-o (Gene McVey), Hobbs (Larry Williams) and Slick (Lon). Those were the days!
Here's a nice story in the Los Angeles Times.
Kellis Robinett has an article in the Kansas City Star that's an analysis of the season, and a look toward the next one.
There's a smart move by OSU. I know Brad will do very well there. He has a .864 winning percentage after three seasons at SFA, and went 53-1 in the Southland Conference. (announcement)
Having received $180,000,000 worth of construction over five years, including a brand new Vanier Football Complex and West Stadium Center, our facilities are up for Sports Business Journal Facility of the Year 2016. (story)
That's the title of an opinion piece by Tim Bisel for the Topeka Capital-Journal. While he concedes that commentary by fans should stay PG, he's not campaigning for political correctness. Bring on the hatred and hostility!
During his 11 years as Voice of the Wildcats, Mitch Holthus was not only an exceptional broadcaster, but as fine a representative of Kansas State University as anyone has ever been. His thorough preparation for broadcasts brought a wide range of current information, and his unequaled memory of past events brought a perspective that added so much to his coverage. Mitch also added humor, fun and excitement in a way that made the broadcast, whether a game or coach's show, completely enjoyable. He told me years ago that his goal as a broadcaster is to inform, entertain and inspire. That he does! Here's a personal example of Mitch's brain power: My friend Jerry and I were visiting with Mitch after he did an ESPN broadcast for a Cats game in the Octagon in 2014. Jerry and I went to Midway High School, a consolidated rural high school outside tiny Denton, Kansas. Somehow or other, Jerry mentioned our school, which was built in 1959, being consolidated. Without prompting, Mitch chimed in "from Denton, Bendena, Leona and Severance." He grew up several counties away, was two years old when this happened, and correctly recited this obscure bit of trivia that occurred 55 years earlier. How, I don't know to this day. While broadcasting K-State games, we often heard Mitch's ability to recite the city and mascot of every high school in Kansas. Links:
Here's a well-done profile by Seth Davis for campusrush.com.
Everyone should read Stanton's story of his journey from growing up as a Wildcat fan, to a walk-on for Bill Snyder's team, to team captain.
In this YouTube commercial for Dove® Men+Care®, K-State Football Ring of Honor member Jordy Nelson tells about growing up as a farm kid in Riley County, to being a walk-on for K-State Football, to his current life as a parent and a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers.
Kevin Haskin in the Topeka Capital-Journal has a great story about Jack Hartman reassigning Ro from forward to guard. As usual, Jack was right, and it worked out great, leading to a Sports Illustrated cover and an invitation to the Olympics. Here's a Sports Extra by Kelly Stewart, with Ro's comments on playing for K-State.
Rosalyn Durant, the senior vice president of ESPN, visited with our athletes, and delivered the Huck Boyd Lecture on Nov. 5. She had valuable advice for them, as reported in this Sports Extra.
To be exact, the corner is the next phase of Bill Snyder Family Stadium renovation... the northeast area. Dr. Tracz and student government have been in on the planning all the way, and are on board. Still, it concerns me that the band members are headed to corner seats, instead of more like 40 yard line seats. I think they should have the best seats in the house. The stated goal is for the band to be more equally audible. They may be pointed toward more people, but they're sure going to be farther away. I just don't know. (link)
Here's a brand new YouTube video... some of it recorded with a drone... of the latest in John Currie's $195,000,000 in new construction since 2012, for Basketball, Football, Tennis and Rowing, including facilities and services that can be used by all of our athletes.
Dean Wade, 6' 10" MBB superstar recruit, was here all summer, and will soon be on the courts for the Cats. (story) (video)
Here's the announcement on kstatesports.com. Carl and Mary have been exceptionally generous to the university. Football fans are awestruck by the new video board at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, which has been named for them. (K-State Sports Extra) (video)
The $68 million Vanier Football Palace is complete, but don't move out the trailers. It's time to raise the last $6 million to do the $15 million corner project and video board. (link)
Jordy's upcoming addition to the Kansas State Football Ring of Honor completes his journey from walk-on to legend. (Collegian feature)
In this video from the Green Bay Packers, Jordy discusses his recent injury with reporters, and what lies ahead. His matter-of-fact, positive approach is inspiring. (video)
That's the title of a very complimentary feature on local hero Jordy Nelson. It covers his annual summer return to Riley to work on the Nelson family farm, even though his multimillion-dollar Packers contract has him set for life. link
I don't know who made the decisions on this group of 10, who will be officially inducted on January 29, 2016, but talk about some slam-dunk choices! Personal heroes of mine include Mitch Holthus, Dawn Cady, Kendra Wecker, Nicole Ohlde, Michael Bishop and Martin Gramatica. (press release)
Men's Basketball signee, 6-foot-9, 225-pound forward Dean Wade of St. John, has made the prestigious Parade All-America team... one of 30 to be named. (link)
Andrew Hamor will replace Chad Weiberg as the top fundraiser, and I think he's a natural choice. He knows K-State Athletics and its supporters. I found him quite approachable and helpful when I've interacted with him. (press release)
It's great news that Kansas State's exceptional director of athletics, John Currie, has agreed to a contract extension and upgrade. John's accomplishments with facilities have been astonishing. He has led with a wonderfully positive attitude, is a tremendous communicator, and from my own experience, remains quite approachable. (announcement)
This is an in-depth, 30-minute interview.
Jevon has decided to transfer, and Marcus and Tre have been dismissed from the team, according to this announcement from Kansas State Athletics. I don't know all the facts, but I do know that our coaching staff have faced tremendous challenges with some of our players this season. Obviously Marcus was never the same after his NBA summer camp. I had told many people last year that he would be the "next big thing" in our MBB program, and was destined to have his jersey retired. In our last game vs. TCU, Marcus added 0 points in 19 minutes. In the previous game vs. UT, he added a solid 15 points in 36 minutes. You never knew what you were going to get. For the season, Marcus averaged 12.5 points per game in 28 minutes per game, and Tre averaged 3.8 points per game, but we all know this wasn't about stats. I'm sure this decision was not made without extensive thought and consultation. I wish all three of these gents the best, and I am 100% behind Coach Weber.
Dean, a 6-9", 225-pound forward, is the state's Gatorade Player of the Year. He signed with Kansas State on November 12. Many Cat fans made a special trip to the Kansas 2A championship game to watch Mr. Wade help St. John to the title. Read all the details from Sports Information.
Jordy tells Dan all about the wonders of Manhattan, Leonardville and Nelson's Landing. (story) (YouTube)
As we all know, K-State students stormed the court at the Octagon o' Doom after the glorious victory over the Squawks on Feb. 23. Today, two days later, Big 12 Commissioner Bowlsby issued a reprimand to the university for allowing it to happen. Because the game was an ESPN Big Monday broadcast, the network ran a clip of the Catstorm time after time the next day. I don't approve of the students storming the court. It's usually only done after an emotional victory, which of course is the most dangerous time for it. Eventually a serious injury or fight will result, and the fact that only a minimal effort was made to prevent this happening will be a big liability. Naturally, KU will play up even the slightest negative aspect of it, as Roy Williams did some years back when a K-State fan lobbed a penny at him when he was in the tunnel. Also, I don't approve of organized use of profanity in our games. It's not necessary, and not appropriate, because there will always be someone in the crowd who is offended by it. We all need to consider that if the university doesn't fix the issues, the Big 12 might. Didn't the conference force us to move the team benches to the opposite side of the court - away from the students - some years back? What do we do? I don't think simply reasoning with the students will work. Sure, it will persuade a percentage of them, but not all. I think the only response that holds any promise is to announce that if there are any unacceptable behaviors in the future, the students will lose either Section 19 or 20 for the next season. After a season of watching games from Section 24 or 25, there should be enough peer pressure to prevent future indiscretions. Do we can Darude's "Sandstorm?" No! If the students are determined to engage in profane chants, they could decide to do so when the ball is live, and NCAA rules prohibit PA or pep band music (that would help mask the language) during live ball action. Finally, John Currie did a masterful job of addressing the situation in his phone interview with ESPN's Dan Patrick on Feb. 25. John gave a humble and realistic response to the issues, while interjecting talking points heralding K-State's many positive accomplishments. He also posted an appropriate apology to the Squawks. John truly is the best in business.
(edit, Feb. 28): After a stern scripted warning by PA announcer Dave Lewis with two or three minutes to play vs. #12 Iowa State, five days after the Catstorm, no students stormed the court following the 70-69 win. Maybe the thought of the promised trip to jail was enough... this time. No one can predict the future, but a couple of dozen hired bouncers, plus all the ushers and custodial workers on the Bramlage Coliseum staff, helped make the point that the university meant business. I think the players returning to their old practice of circling the court for high fives was also a good move. (edit, Mar. 1): Here's a viewpoint in USA Today, posted on March 1, in which the author understands that students want to celebrate a big win, but warns against the potential risks.
K-State Sports Information tweeted the good news today, which of course is no surprise. Here's K-State's full coverage of Tyler's honors. The question isn't if Tyler will be in the Ring of Honor, but when it will be announced!
Here's the good news from K-State Sports Information.
It's like being there! (link)
There's lots here: (link)
Kelly McHugh has posted a Top 10 of her favorite Sports Extras from this year. Part 1 Part 2
Kelly McHugh has turned in yet another fine Sports Extra about Coach Keady's visit with Bruce Weber and Ernie Barrett.
I'm not much of a fan of the NCAA these days, and this feature by Sharon Terlep of the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the causes of its ineffectiveness.
Here's a real nice feature on K-State's own Robert Lipson. I have the highest respect for his commitment.
We ought to honor DeLoss. He did fine work here, and while at Texas, saved the Big 12 Conference. (story)
Kelly McHugh did a Sports Extra on @sam_ponder's latest visit to Manhattan. Why didn't I see her? I follow her on Twitter, and she didn't announce her upcoming visit.
Here's the Master Plan.
Dustin Yoder, K-State Men's Basketball Video Coordinator, has overcome all kinds of obstacles in his quest to become a D-1 basketball coach. Sean Frye of the Bleacher Report has his impressive story.
Sports Illustrated doesn't understand that Claire's a Classy Cat, but they like her, regardless. They have over 60 photos of her on Classy Cat duty. She's about to begin her fourth year on the team.
The Bleacher Report has an awesome feature on Thomas Gipson, and the injuries he's faced.
In this Sports Extra by Kelly McHugh, we see another example of John Currie and Kansas State Athletics caring for the future of our athletes. There's also a video version.
We look back at Aaron and Kevin, then see some of Tyler's career accomplishments. Don't miss this YouTube video.
Mark Janssen reminds us of the contributions of the legendary coach and athletic director in this Sports Extra.
Kellis Robinett has posted a very enjoyable feature on Bruce Weber's two seasons at K-State.
Dennis Dodd of CBS has filed a highly-complimentary feature on football and basketball in our awesome conference.
The Kansas City Star has a nice feature on Tex, in honor of his birthday on Feb. 25.
Kelly McHugh posted a top-notch Sports Extra, featuring K-State's own Wyatt Thompson.
Kelly McHugh has another fine Sports Extra, featuring Coach Weber.
I never thought I'd link to anything written by Kevin Kietzman, but here you go. He agrees with me that Coach has answered every possible question in his second season with the Cats. (link)
The naming of Marcus Foster as National Player o' the Week doesn't count last night's 20-point performance vs. the Squawks. (link)
The Kansas State Collegian has the latest feature on Coach Weber's basketball background.
Here's a Sports Extra featuring Thomas Gipson.
Kellis Robinett has posted a fine feature on Thomas Gipson in The Wichita Eagle.
Sean Keeler of Fox Sports Kansas City has posted a very interesting feature on Coach Lowery.
This is a must-read feature on Marcus by C. J. Moore of the Bleacher Report.
Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star posted an opinion piece today that explains why Coach Weber was such a good hire.
Wyatt has been named the Kansas Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. (We knew he was the best already!) Here's the announcement from K-State Athletics.
Legendary writer Mark Janssen has a two-part K-State Sports Extra on Coach Weber. Part 1 Part 2
The band's YouTube page now has high-definition videos of the pregame and halftime performances in Tempe. Don't miss them!
The signing of John Currie through the next six years is the best news since the return of Bill Snyder. I don't think anyone on earth could have done a better job as our director of athletics. Read the announcement.
The Bobby Dodd Foundation has named K-State's own John Currie as National Athletic Director of the Year, the Wichita Eagle reports. Also, here's the write-up from K-State Athletics.
A KU alumna wrote this opinion piece in The Washington Post, calling Charlie Weis a "boorish blowhard." Her main complaint is Charlie throwing his players under the bus.
Our All-American and Heisman finalist has collected a very fine honor. Collin did everything the right way. K-Staters couldn't have asked for a finer representative. (announcement)
Everyone should read this Sports Extra from Mark Janssen. Here's a bulletin: Coach hasn't picked the quarterback yet.
Athletics has released The Year of the Wildcat, a nice-looking compilation of stats and photos reviewing individual and team success throughout 2012-13. What a year it was!
Kellis Robinett has a nice feature in the Kansas City Star on John Currie and K-State's successes in 2012-13. We're extremely fortunate to have John here. His accomplishments as athletics director are unequaled.
Larry Weigel has written an awesome feature in the Manhattan Mercury, revealing how Mike Evans learned from Dean Smith that the legendary coach had recommended him to our legendary coach, Jack Hartman. I'll never forget Mike Evans, and neither will anyone else who was around K-State during the Mike and Chuckie era. 33 years later, I remember Mike making 30 points in his first game as a freshman Cat.
Kansas State Baseball posted yet another come-from-behind victory, this time 6-2 over Oregon State in the 10th inning. As many times as I've looked at Rolando's Sports Illustrated cover, I didn't think of it as Baseball prepared to play the #3-ranked team. Fans there sure haven't forgotten The Shot, as we see in this story in The Oregonian from June 6.
Mark Janssen, as you know he would, has written a wonderful eulogy for Fred White. Be sure to have a look. I sat near him at K-State football, and a couple of years ago approached him to give my personal thanks for all that he did for K-State. After his years of broadcasting K-State games for WIBW radio, he did a great job in his role as an objective play-by-play man for TV coverage. Fred was enough of a friend of K-State that he was asked to conduct the memorial service for Jack Hartman, in Ahearn Field House in 1998. Here's a tribute from the Kansas City Royals.
The Royals have announced the retirement of Fred from their organization, citing recent health issues. First, I wish Fred the best in his recovery. I have so many memories of him hosting Jack Hartman and Vince Gibson TV shows, covering K-State games on 580 WIBW, and in more recent years, as a TV play-by-play man for men's basketball. He's the Royals' release. Here's Fred's coverage from the last basketball game in Ahearn.
"Kansas State's really good. I mean, really really good. I love what they're made up of. I love their make-up. I love what the way they do a lot of things. They play extremely well together as a team. They understand their roles. They compete. I mean, they go get balls, they get their hands on balls, they come up with it. And Rodney McGruder's a tough, tough, hard-nosed basketball player that I've really watched develop over his time, and he's really active... does a lot of things. But... they're really good. They're really good, and I thought we did some things early, but we helped 'em too much... just turnovers that you can't have, you can't... a team that is not gonna beat themselves. You can't fuel that fire, and we fueled that fire."
An Associated Press feature looks at the interest in our athletic programs President Schulz is encountering across the nation. Don't miss it!
Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star posted this interesting feature on Coach Weber.
An Associated Press feature looks at the interest in our athletic programs President Schulz is encountering across the nation. Don't miss it!
The Big 12 Conference has announced good news for Cat fans. Rodney McGruder is First Team All-Big 12. Angel Rodriguez is Second Team All-Big 12. Bruce Weber is Big 12 Coach of the Year, with 25 wins (and counting). Here's the news from Sports Information. Here are Twitter pictures of the team and staff and Coach of the Year Bruce Weber with the Big 12 championship trophy.
 Here's the Big 12 champions video released by Athletics on March 10. The music choice is not good, but you'll want to see it, regardless.
Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star reviews K-State's recent achievements, and upsets the birds a bit.
This is a feature by Kellis Robinett of the Kansas City Star. It shows how much the two coaches are in sync.
In this story, Curtis Kitchen is trying to figure out what many are puzzled by: why K-State students aren't coming to men's basketball games. I'm proud that K-State has for decades been so good to students in terms of prime seating. I know agreements are in place. But... maybe it's time to re-evaluate. We all know students are beating the system to ensure seats for the KU game. If that's all the majority of them care about, I'm at a point where I think Athletics should set some expectations on attendance. Any performance required should span more than just a few games, or the students will rally temporarily. By the way, during the West Virginia game, the Rec Complex was stuffed with students.
"Angel Rodriguez is phenomenal. That is an All-American out there. He is as good as you will find in college basketball. He controlled the tempo, and with 22 points, 10 assists and two turnovers. That is amazing." Edit Feb. 18, 2013: Angel was named Big 12 Player of the Week today.
Jason King of ESPN filed this story, which might help explain the 20-point win over a strong Baylor team.
Here's a nice feature on Coach Tex Winter from the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
John said there were 175 workers on site at the time the tour was recorded. (video)
Veteran Topeka Capital-Journal writer Kevin Haskin has posted Surging Cats can extend KU's misery. Don't miss it.
Kansas State announced today that President Kirk Schulz has been asked to serve on the NCAA Executive Committee. I'm sure Dr. Schulz will ask the right questions, and represent our institution and the Big 12 Conference tremendously. Here's the announcement from the Big 12 office.
ESPN's Jason King has a nice evaluation of Bruce Weber's first season.
Rodney's Big 12 Player of the Week for the 4th time in 7 weeks. Here's the announcement.
The Heisman Trophy voters awarded the 2013 Heisman to a scofflaw freshman, Johnny Manziel. The first thing you know, he's photographed in a casino, flashing a wad of currency. (Where did that come from?) Now, as openly admitted by Texas A&M, the director of athletics has felt to need to call in Johnny's mommy and daddy to help teach him how to behave. Is there one chance in a billion that this would have happened if the trophy had gone to K-State's gentleman quarterback, Collin Klein?
The men's game vs. Texas on Jan. 30 in Bramlage Coliseum has been changed from an 8:00 to 7:00 P tip.
Apparently a reported salary of $210,000, plus the opportunity to coach with the legendary Bill Snyder, is not enough for Joe Bob, so he's taking Coach Snyder's playbook and strategies to Oklahoma State. I could live with a transfer if he weren't moving to a school we play every year. There are other ways to achieve professional advancement than working at defeating your alma mater. I am not impressed.
These are the two young Cat fans who were seriously injured while in a pedicab in Arizona. As I understand it, they are still hospitalized in Arizona. A fundraising site has been established to assist family with the costs of supporting them as they recover. Here's a related story from WIBW-TV. Don't miss this Jan. 17 update on Michael Tysver from KWCH in Wichita.
The game will be played in Florida on January 19. Here's a full announcement from Sports Information.
I think we saw this coming down Kimball Avenue. The Big 12 Conference announced today that K-State's own Rodney McGruder is the Big 12 Player o' the Week. This is the third time in five weeks that Rodney has been honored, with previous selections on Dec. 10 and 24. Here's the corresponding announcement from K-State. This is a nice addition to being ESPN's National Player of the Week.
This was an important win, for confidence, postseason play and fan support. The Cats have struggled to make shots in some games. Seeing Rodney McGruder make 26 points in one half will be remembered. McGruder's drawn lots of attention from the press. ESPN.com's Player of the Week, K-State's McGruder finds his stroke, Rodney McGruder leads K-State, McGruder's big half propels K-State, McGruder mistakenly leaves arena, CBS Sports: Cats at #12 Nino Williams played a huge part in this victory. He hit 7 of 11 (64%) from the field, and 3 of 3 on free throws. He had five rebounds and 17 points. Without his contributions, we would not have won.
Thanks to K-State Athletics for the awesome 24" x 36" poster, and the best fan experience in the Big 12.
 Click for the full-size picture. (3.4 MB) Here's the link for more from the magazine. They're going to sell a few hundred thousand of these in the state of Kansas.
I don't pretend to cover every single game here, and I'm up to my ears with Volleyball right now, but I want to link to some of the OU game write-ups or features that I think are keepers.
In a release from Sports Information, we read, "Thanks to grass-roots support of Ahearn Fund members world-wide, a record $25.8 million was contributed to K-State Athletics in 2011-12, reflecting a jump of 45 percent from the previous year's total of $17.8 million, while the number of K-Staters participating grew by 12 percent to an all-time high of 7,866 members. In just three years, outright contributions to the department have now doubled compared to fiscal year 2009's $12.7 million mark."This good news represents unparalleled leadership by John Currie, and tremendous work by his development staff. The generosity of K-State fans nationwide is the other part of the equation. Athletics at K-State is headed toward a whole new level. We all should show our gratitude for their accomplishments.
A YouTube account holder, musergocats, has recently uploaded a tremendous highlights video from 1991 - 2011. Don't miss it!
Here's something you just can't miss. This is 3½ minutes of video, set to Bruce Springsteen's 1992 "Better Days," that reminds us what a tremendous conference we're part of. Wasn't it just a year ago at this time that we justifiably wondered if K-State and the Big 12 had a future? Thankfully, leaders like John Currie and Kirk Schulz worked tirelessly to stabilize the conference. There's some mischief in this video. Thanks to some fun editing, at 2:20, when Bruce sings, But it's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin...we see clips of Texas A&M and Missouri players moping after losses. Soon after that, clips of Texas Christian and West Virginia crowds are shown. We have some big-time rivalries, but sometimes it's nice to remember that we're part of something great.
The Kansas City Star, if you can imagine it, has an interesting story about K-State's recent dominance over KU in athletics. The story includes a game-by-game chart. As of today, the current breakdown is K-State: 20, KU: 5.
John Currie seems very upbeat about the hiring of Mr. Bowlsby, a 60-year-old Iowa native who has been the AD at Stanford for a few years. Here's the announcement from the Big 12.
businessinsider.com has a fun chart that shows Kansas State #5 on the list of most profitable athletic departments last year. John Currie explained to WHB the other day that this was due in part to the $18,000,000 basketball facility and the upcoming $75,000,000 football facility, but still... we're a far cry from where we were not that many years ago.
Hmm. It seems Jason takes the same dim view of the NCAA that I have. He's filed a story for FOX Sports, Samuels a victim of NCAA sham. I don't agree with every point he's made, but as usual, a Whitlock column has some interesting points.
I have long held that no institution in an NCAA division is in full compliance, simply because there are so many rules (many outside the influence of an institution) that no school could possibly be in full compliance. The latest NCAA Division I Manual is 439 pages long! With that said, I do believe that universities should comply with the rules, and should work to get them changed if they don't agree with them. This is not really about Jamar's situation, but rather about the inequity of the billions of dollars taken in by the NCAA vs. the limits placed on rewarding student athletes for their efforts. I don't believe in doing away with the idea of keeping amateur athletics in college, but I have long believed that athletes should be able to receive a reasonable amount of money for incidental and unexpected expenses. The NCAA doesn't allow scholarship athletes to have a job during the school year, and they hold a magnifying glass to what they're earning during the summer. Realistically, a Big 12 student athlete doesn't have time for a job during the school year, anyway. Our conference is so competitive that any school that wants to succeed has to have their athletes in training and unofficial practices all year. For example, our #22-ranked volleyball team members volunteered to spend the summer of 2011 in Manhattan, in order to get better. (Thanks, Cats!) This entry carries the title of this article by Dave Zirin in The Nation on March 19. Zirin paints an interesting picture of the $10,800,000,000 to be taken in by the NCAA this March Madness, vs. what goes to athletes.
Barry Tramel of The Oklahoman has an interesting column on the new deal that will pay each Big 12 school about $20,000,000 per year. Combined with income from FOX, the Big 12 will bring in about $2,500,000,000 over the next 13 years. That sounds like a tidy sum to me.
Or should I say one not won? Should we as Cats be taking such pleasure in another school's Mizzery? That's what you get for almost destroying the Big 12 Conference, Missouri. I couldn't be happier.
We lost a beloved coach and colorful character this week, as Vince Gibson lost his battle with ALS. Kevin Haskin of the Topeka Capital-Journal remembers Vince. I never met Vince, but my friends and I never missed one of his pep rallies, held in Aggieville before each home football game. Because of his leadership we have our football stadium, and unforgettable (and improbable) victories over Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Pete Kotz in the Dallas Observer has written a well-researched and important article. You can see the original or the printer-friendly version. Kotz points out what I've seen for years. There are so many people with their hands in the cookie jar that only the government or the NCAA will ever straighten out this mess. Lots of schools are suffering a net loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the highly-debatable prestige of playing in a bowl game, many of which the average American couldn't name to save their lives. How are universities being lured into this?
This article doesn't address the unfair good-old-boy selection process for the most prestigious bowls; e.g., the Sugar Bowl's snubbing of Kansas State this fall. I don't advocate a playoff system, but I do believe the NCAA could rent stadiums in nice locations and have its own bowl system, guiding a much greater percentage of the bowl jackpots to the universities who play in them.
Mark Janssen has a must-read interview with Jacob Pullen in today's Kansas State Sports Blog.
Since I live about 150 feet from the groundbreaking site, I moseyed over there to take pictures. The indoor activities were "invitation only," but the dignitaries came outside for five minutes to dig some dirt that had already been plowed. I made a modest little photo gallery.
J. Brady McCollough has a tremendous story in the Kansas City Star related to Tex Winter's induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame today, and his place in K-State history. Today, Sam Mellinger has How Frank Martin won over Kansas State. (Thanks a lot, Brady and Sam, for blabbing all our trade secrets! He he.
That's right. After four games, KU football has improved in the Big 12 from 159-24 to 187-40. We're proud of you, Squawks! Here's what one of their fans wrote: "KU has officially become the perennial cellar dweller of the Big 12 AGAIN. Our program is now the worst college football program in the Big 12 by a LARGE margin. Heck, we may currently own one of the worst football programs in all of Division 1. Our homecoming game today was effectively a funeral march for the football program. If we keep Gill as our head coach, we might as well bulldoze down Memorial Stadium and erect a headstone for the program tomorrow."
K-State Sports has a new Web site to introduce plans for the project, and request donations. It appears that $12,000,000 of the needed $20,000,000 has been pledged, with $15,000,000 needed to proceed. Here's a story on the facility from the Kansas City Star.
Mark Fagan in the Lawrence Journal-World reports that KU currently has $93.67 million in athletics department debt. It sounds as if they sure could have used that $1,000,000 that was embezzled. Silly birds!
If anyone still wants to think about the $3,200,000 secret Ron Prince buyout, my posts on that topic are archived here.
"People talk about pressure of beating KU. That's nothing compared to knowing you have to cook a $17,000 meal," Frank Martin observed at the annual Powercat Auction tonight. The auction was such a hit that Frank offered to auction a second and third home-cooked Cuban meal to two other $17,000 bidders.
Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports writes this time about our coach. Here's his column. You don't want to miss it, even though he's reviewing for America what we already know.
Jacob Pullen makes 34 points to lead the Cats to victory in Oklahoma City over a very fine Brigham Young team. The mythical poultry will have about eight months to peck on today's events.
 Good stuff to read keeps rolling in, so here we go:
K-State Sports Information has set up 2010 NCAA Tournament Central. It's billed as everything you need to know. As usual, the NCAA has produced a lame Web site to cover the men's tournament. While everyone and his brother has a bracket out, the NCAA can't manage to be first to release it. For example... less than an hour after the selection show ended, look at all these other sites that have detailed tournament information. Enough whining. Let's go win some games. The all-time record of 25 wins is now history. Edit: HDSportsguide.com has complete information about CBS coverage of the tournament. This link seems to be CBS's main page for their coverage. Also, don't miss CBS's K-State Confidential.
One other thing (swiping a paragraph from Sports Information): Frank Martin was named today the Big 12 Coach of the Year by both the Associated Press and the league's coaches. Martin has K-State off to its best start since the 1958-59 season, while the current 24 victories and 11 conference wins are the most for the Wildcats in the Big 12 era and most since the 1987-88 squad won a school-record 25 games. The team earned its first Top 5 ranking in nearly 50 years last Monday when it rose to No. 5 in each poll. It marked the fifth straight Top 10 ranking this season, including the fourth in both major polls. He has guided the school to four wins over Top 25 teams, which is the most-ever by K-State in a regular season, including just its third-ever over a No. 1 team and first since 1994 with its 71-62 victory over Texas on Jan. 18.
Our pal Jason Whitlock has a nice commentary on the Cats' victory over Missouri today. Jason says, "K-State fans, take a bow. You kept the Wildcats' title hopes alive for at least four more days, and you pretty much ensured that Martin will be conference coach of the year and the favorite for national coach of the year."
On March 7, 1962, K-State was ranked #3 in the AP poll. Now, almost 48 years later, we've come in at #6 in the poll released today. Our coaches and players have worked very hard for this, and for the most part, the fans have done a great job this season. The next month is going to be an amazing time.
The Big 12 Conference has named senior guard Denis Clemente the Player of the Week. The conference says, "Clemente averaged 26.5 points and 4.0 assists as Kansas State recorded road victories at Nebraska (76-57) and Iowa State (79-75). The senior guard started play with a 23-point effort versus the Huskers, connecting on 7-of-14 shots from the floor. He then followed with his third career 30-point performance by scoring 30 points on 9-of-18 shooting against the Cyclones. For the week, he hit 50 percent (16-of-32) of his shots from the floor, including 64.7 percent (11-of-17) from 3-point range. He also totaled seven rebounds and averaged 36.0 minutes. Clemente is tied for fourth in the Big 12 in 3-point field goals made (51) this season." Here's the official announcement.
GoPowercat.com has a great story on College Game Day at our house. This story is free content.
K-State MBB had a fine 88-65 nationally televised win over Texas A&M tonight. Denis Clemente was on fire, ending with 24 points, and Jamar Samuels added 19. Here are some fun quotes from an Aggies message board. They didn't like the referees much, either!
I'm watching the Mike Leach firing with great interest, and also wondering if we (the public) will ever be confident that we know the full and true facts. I believe that many problems facing our nation come from our historical quest for fairness. It's a noble-sounding concept, but it also carries a high price. Fairness in our justice system has cost people's lives, as criminals have been released, only to steal or kill again. Fair international trade has seen other countries take ridiculous advantage of us. However well-intended our national values are, we have to be alert to finding the breaking point between fairness and outright stupidity. The customer service model has crept into our education system, from kindergarten through graduate school. Educators wrestle every day with "student development" vs. "customer service." Along with that is the increased willingness of students and parents to file a lawsuit whenever they don't get exactly what they want. Did Mike Leach go too far by isolating a player who, by most reports, was not respected or liked by his teammates? He could have found a more appropriate response than solitary confinement. Leach has a law degree. He ought to have sense enough to know that while most of his motivation for isolating the player may have been lazy performance in practice, the player and family would link the isolation to the concussion, thereby making Leach look like an insensitive monster. On the other hand, I believe that we've got to keep parents and administrators out of head coaching decisions as much as possible. What's happening at the college level began with little league and soccer. We've seen it here, too, for example when Jackie Stanley's dad pulled her from K-State for insufficient playing time (behind Shalee Lehning, I might add) as a first-semester freshman. We should let coaches do their job. What they're asking their athletes to do is not far removed from soldiers going into war. It's hard, it's often painful and it calls for giving every bit of effort humanly possible. Some people aren't up to that, and different people respond in different ways. Coaches know their players, their abilities and their attitudes. We have to trust our coaches' judgment, because they have behind-the-scenes information we don't have. In conclusion, here's what I think. For one thing, insufficient time was allowed in the Mike Leach investigation to get the full picture of information needed for a sound decision. Is it OK to punish players? I think so, and I've seen it personally on our own campus, as players have gotten some special assignments involving bleachers. I just think coaches need to take that extra moment to consider whether the punishment is teaching something, if it leaves the athlete with dignity intact, if the media and the public would consider it reasonable under the circumstances, etc. Head coaches at big-time universities are often making huge salaries, and they just need to remember that their high pay doesn't confer immunity from public opinion. A helpful guideline would be, what would Bill Snyder do?
The Cats' MBB program is #1 in the RealTime RPI today!
Andy Katz of ESPN has named the Cats as the ESPN Team of the Week!
The Cats are playing UNLV this week, and they're coached by two of my all-time favorite MBB players, Lon Kruger and Steve Henson. Here's a fine article in the Las Vegas Sun on the connections Lon's staff have with K-State. I really appreciated Lon's and Greg's contributions to the Men's Basketball History DVD that came out last year. By the way, Coach Neil Crane, mentioned in the article, gave me two semesters of A in physical education at Highland Community College, which anyone who knows me would find hard to believe.
Here's a column from the Kansas City Star which reports a study done in 2004-05 on the tendencies of NCAA referees in calling fouls. The professors involved concluded that referees are very aware of the balance of fouls on the scoreboard, and big picture, they try to even them out.
This series was started in 2007 to up the level of nonconference play. Here's a Wikipedia link. As of today, it's Big 12 - 8, Pac 10 - 2.
Here's the link to the Wall Street Journal article about Robert as a K-State football fan.
John Hoover of the Tulsa World has a nice story on the impact of Coach Snyder on his former assistants. Here's the link.
I took four hours over the holiday weekend to watch all of this documentary. It has segments on teams, coaches, facilities and memorable moments. It has commentary from a number of former players and coaches. When they refer to a great game or moment, the DVD will then go to footage of the game. Some of the former players with commentary are Mr. K-State, Ernie Barrett, Jack Parr, Bob Boozer, Rick Harman, Larry Weigel, Lew Hitch, Wally Frank, Howard Shannon, Steve Douglas, Dick Knostman, Roy DeWitz, Bill Guthridge, Don Matuszak, Lloyd Krone, Bob Chipman, Carl Gerlach, Scott Langton, Steve Henson, Chuckie Williams and Lon Kruger. Former coaches Lon Kruger and Greg Grensing were interviewed at length at UNLV, and the legendary Tex Winter had all kinds of stories from his 15 years at K-State. Current coach Brad Underwood has great stories about the Hartman era. Journalists and broadcasters we hear from include Fred White, Steve Physioc, Wyatt Thompson, Ben Boyle, Steven Farney, Kevin Haskin, Greg Sharpe, Tim Fitzgerald, John Dodderidge, David Smale and Mark Janssen. This would be great for serious newer fans to see the level of talent and commitment necessary to have teams that played in the Final Four, and routinely went to the NCAA tournament. Here's the direct link. Sometimes with productions like this, you look at it once, and that's it. I see myself going back to it often. As I write this, I'm already on my second pass through.
Since we learned that Ron Prince would be moving on, I've been telling people that I wouldn't be surprised if our next head coach is Bill Snyder, but I wasn't positive he would accept. I've also said all along that if I'm correct and Bill Snyder would replace Ron Prince, we absolutely wouldn't know it until the season is over. After spending an hour a week with Coach Snyder at his radio shows for 17 years, I know him well enough to state that he would consider it rude to be announced as coach while Ron Prince was still officially our coach. He would also worry that the announcement would be a distraction to the team, and should not occur prior to the last game. Along with his brilliance as a coach, Bill Snyder is a gentleman. He would want Ron Prince to have full authority and respect while still employed. The unattributed reports from anonymous message board posters that Gary Patterson's wife has been in Manhattan finalizing the purchase of a house carry absolutely no weight with me. I haven't seen a single conclusive piece of evidence that Coach Patterson wants to come here, and his alleged denials to TCU team members, if true, fit a consistent pattern of response from him. I think that hopeful fans are putting entirely too much on the fact that he is an alumnus. He was here about 25 years ago, and to my knowledge has not kept close ties. He has not even taken the opportunity, over the past three weeks, to wish us well in our search. What about the search committee that Bill Snyder was supposedly a member of? Well, if he were seen meeting with Jon Wefald and Bob Krause, people would just assume it was a committee meeting. Or not. Mark Janssen of the Manhattan Mercury, who I consider the ultimate source on K-State football, seems to agree with me. Mark wrote today that, "The silence and privacy of the last two-plus weeks looks and feels very Snyder-like." That much is certain. I think I'm right, and I definitely hope I'm right.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the Cats in the latest version of Jack Hartman's lavender-over-purple road uniforms. If you'd like to see what these uniforms mean in terms of our program's history, look here. If you're not aware of the Hartman era and K-State's winningest coach, you may enjoy reading up on it a little bit.
The Pride of Wildcat Land rolled out of Manhattan at the crack of dawn to make it to the KU football game on Nov. 1. They performed extremely elaborate marching maneuvers to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," and by all reports blew the roof off the dump. A band member told me yesterday that they may perform it again this Saturday to show the Nebraska band a few things. I promise you you'll be filled with pride if you take 7:16 to watch this YouTube video of the performance. Notice the cheering from the Hawk fans at the end of the performance. Here's another YouTube video of their performance of it for the Central States Marching Festival on October 19 in Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
K-State Fans: November 4, 2008 Former quarterback Zac Burton has an opinion piece in the Manhattan Mercury on our coaching situation. It's time for a resolution. As it stands now, the uncertainty about the state of K-State fooball is a soap opera for boys. Fans want answers. I don't predict any action until the end of the month.
I'm on this again because someone's not listening to me. I don't know anything about football, but after 38 years I know a lot about K-State athletics. This is not about game strategy, or whether there should be personnel changes after giving up 626 yards. This is about fans. We fans must provide absolute support to our coaches and players at games. Fan support is going down fast. This is detrimental to the motivation of our players, and the income Athletics needs to compete in the Big 12. It's sure to damage recruiting. I saw the same thing happen in men's basketball during the Asbury and Wooldridge eras. How can you recruit top players with the kind of fan support shown on regional ABC coverage today? If you don't like what's going on, write a letter with your ideas to Dr. Wefald or Bob Krause, but don't cast your vote by not showing up. Potential players and coaches need to see that even if our winning percentage is down, K-State is a great place to be, and a great place to play.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on the expenditures on athletic recruiting. The article includes a chart which lists K-State as #5 in the nation in spending for 2006 - 07. I wonder whether that was before the ban on private aircraft that KU got put into place. K-State was the biggest spender in the Big 12, although not far above NU and UT.
Look at this article in the American Statesman on the $107,600,000 budget of University of Texas athletics.
Once again, controversy has developed over the Cat Band's playing Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Pt. 2, or as the band sometimes calls it, Time Lords. I've never noticed it, but apparently this past year the students have substituted the item that we're going to beat out of our opponent. It's not a good choice for our younger and more conservative fans, but that's not why I called you here. Whether at football, basketball or volleyball, every time the band plays that tune, the students stick their arms up and wave them back and forth. Stop it! Why don't our students understand that they're waving the wheat, which is a decades-old KU tradition? It makes me sick every time I see it. The bands have to stop playing that song if our students don't realize they're participating in a highly disgusting KU tradition.
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Athletics director John Currie 
