K-State Q&A: Basketball optimism and football reflections

It’s time for another K-State Q&A.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas a Happy New Year and everything in between. Let’s dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for asking them.

K-State should bounce back with a relatively easy win over Oklahoma on Saturday. The Sooners are not playing well right now and might be without Jordan Woodard.

The team seemed to leave Lawrence with a good mindset. The Wildcats should respond against the Big 12’s worst team and then take a clear mind into the rest of the month, which is filled with difficult matchups. Road games against Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Iowa State. Home games against Baylor and West Virginia. Nothing easy there. One way or another, we are about to find out how good Bruce Weber’s team truly is. But they should respond with a win before they enter that stretch.

E. “Travelin’ Man”

Why not?

The Big 12 seems wide open after Baylor, Kansas and West Virginia. And even the Mountaineers are coming off a loss at Texas Tech. The race for fourth could be more entertaining than the race for first. It will be very competitive and include K-State.

I liked what I saw from the Wildcats in nonconference games and really liked what I saw from them in Lawrence. They lost to Maryland by one on a neutral court, lost to Kansas by two in Allen Fieldhouse and won every other game. They still don’t have a signature win, but they are No. 30 (unofficially) in the national polls, No. 30 in KenPom and up to No. 55 in the RPI.

Reasons remain to doubt them, but they are also two plays away from being undefeated.

Until they lose a game they are supposed to win, fans should remain cautiously optimistic about what Bruce Weber has cooking right now.

Dean Wade is coming off back-to-back great games, and if he has figured things out there’s no reason why K-State can’t out duel Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU and Oklahoma State for fourth.

Lack of depth, in general, seems to be K-State’s weakness. The Wildcats believe in their starting lineup, plus Xavier Sneed and Carlbe Ervin. But after that ...

If foul trouble forces Bruce Weber to play Brian Patrick, Austin Budke or Isaiah Maurice major minutes at any point this season, the Wildcats will have trouble winning. That being said, Dean Wade and D.J. Johnson both battled foul trouble against Texas and K-State won. Johnson fouled out against KU and Iwundu had four fouls, yet K-State had a chance to take a lead on its final possession. Perhaps it’s not the biggest weakness in the world.

Budke played adequately against Kansas, and that really helped the Wildcats. Maurice needs to get to the point where he can play 10 solid minutes, if need be.

D.J. Johnson will be much harder to replace.

Iwundu, though very good, has Xavier Sneed waiting to step into his starting role. Sneed and Iwundu are similar players with similar bodies and Sneed has already flashed his upside. The Wildcats won’t lose much, if anything, from that switch.

I’m not sure yet who will take over for Johnson. The senior forward is unlike any other player on K-State’s roster. He hustles, he fights for rebounds, he scores down low and much of the time patrols the paint by himself. With the departure of Dante Williams, K-State will turn to Isaiah Maurice and James Love down low next year. Incoming bigs Levi Stockard and Nigel Shadd could also factor into the mix as freshmen.

There’s some uncertainty there, so Johnson leaves the biggest shoes to fill.

If K-State beats Oklahoma on Saturday, I could see the Cats receiving a few more votes than they received in the last AP poll. Maybe this week they could be 28th or 29th. It’s hard to break into the top 25 without a big win, but K-State won’t be penalized by a controversial loss at Kansas.

I expect Bill Snyder’s team to finish in about the same spot. Maybe it could sneak into the final top 25, given the number of teams that lost bowl games in front of it. A 9-4 record and a bowl win could be enough. Regardless, the Wildcats should be ranked in the 2017 preseason football poll.

Athlon Sports has them at No. 18 in its crazy early 2017 rankings.

The K-State loophole in his contract confirms what was probably obvious already: Jim Leavitt would love to return to Manhattan and take over as head coach when Bill Snyder retires for good.

This is something, I’m told, he had already made clear to Snyder and John Currie in private conversations over the years. I’m not sure the lack of a buyout will do much to help or hurt his chances, as K-State would happily pay half a million bucks to get the coach it wanted. But, again, it shows how much Leavitt thinks of the job.

If Snyder announced his retirement tomorrow, I think Leavitt would be on a short list of candidates along with fellow fan favorite Brent Venables and some up-and-coming head coaches outside the power five conferences. I would expect Sean Snyder and Dana Dimel to interview for the job, as well. Maybe throw Les Miles in the mix, too.

But Snyder should be back next season, and possibly beyond. Leavitt will need to fix Oregon’s defense the same way he fixed Colorado’s to remain a top candidate.

And I wouldn’t expect any new coach to retain Snyder’s entire current staff.

As long as K-State is winning and Bill Snyder is in good health, I expect him to keep coaching.

I doubt any other factors will influence his decision.

Bowl celebrations are hard to beat, so I’m inclined to say Jesse Ertz hoisting the Texas Bowl MVP Trophy while wearing the black cowboy hat that came with it. That was fun to watch. So was the game. K-State felt like a completely different team in Houston than it did when the season began at Stanford. The defense was improved, the offense was much improved and everyone on the team was overflowing with confidence.

It was nice to talk with the players afterward and see them speak so optimistically about the future.

Other moments that stick out: Alex Barnes taking over in the second half at Baylor, Jordan Willis dominating the whole year, Charmeachealle Moore wearing his dad’s number at Baylor, fan meltdowns after Winston Dimel touchdowns, Bill Snyder blaming a poor defensive half against Oklahoma on players reading my articles, players carrying Snyder off the field after his 200th victory and every interview with Dalton Risner.

The August trip to the bay area was also pretty great, probably the most fun I’ve had on a work trip.

You didn’t ask, but the worst moment would be spending eight hours in the press box to watch K-State beat Missouri State 35-0 in a game that was called at halftime.

That would be a significant loss.

Lee led K-State in tackles by a whopping margin. He made 110. Next in line was Charmeachealle Moore with 75. That’s a lot of stops to replace, not to mention everything else he does for the defense. As a junior, he had two interceptions, 6.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

He would be one of the best linebackers in the Big 12, if not the nation, as a senior.

Trent Tanking, Elijah Sullivan, Sam Sizelove and others seem like capable replacements, but Lee would leave big shoes to fill. If he returns, he would lead the defense while playing alongside one of them.

Not sure what he will decide to do. All I can say for now is he remains undecided. He seemed both intrigued by the NFL and motivated to help K-State win a Big 12 championship next season after the Texas Bowl.

It seemed like he only had eyes for Duke coming out of high school.

I don’t recall how much KU and Wichita State pursued him, but K-State recruited him and he was often in Manhattan to watch his older brother. Duke is simply where he wanted to be.

As a transfer, he wanted playing time and found it at SMU. As you point out, he’s having a good season. Would have been fascinating to see what he could have done playing close to home.

There are a few facility upgrades on the horizon. Not sure of the order, but here are the priorities:

1. New, bigger video board/boards on the south end of the football stadium.

2. Renovations and expansion at the baseball stadium.

3. Permanent soccer stadium and operations facility around the soccer field.

4. New roof at Bramlage Coliseum.

Interesting question.

Given the brief careers running backs now face, it is truly amazing to see the ageless Darren Sproles keep terrorizing NFL defenses. He’s put up good numbers and provided fans with many highlights. I can see him receiving votes for the Hall of Fame, but, as you point out, actually getting in seems like a long shot.

Fifty points, at least. Doubt Alabama even crosses midfield.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 10:01 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Basketball optimism and football reflections."