K-State basketball team heads to Paradise Jam with championship-or-bust mentality

Before college basketball season got underway earlier this month, Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade compiled a bucket list of achievements they hoped to reach as seniors.

They can cross one off this week if they win a trophy at the Paradise Jam.

Since enrolling together three years ago, this group of K-State seniors has won at an impressive rate. They have 65 victories together, two appearances in the NCAA Tournament and one trip to the Elite Eight. But they’ve never won any hardware.

“I think it would mean something for all of us,” Brown said. “Me, Dean and Kamau kind of had a list of things we haven’t done as seniors with the program and one was winning any kind of championship, any kind of tournament. So this will give us the opportunity to come out and play three games in four days and hopefully come home with a championship.”

The Wildcats will need to win three games at the Paradise Jam to make it happen.

First up is Eastern Kentucky on Friday, followed by a game against Northern Iowa or Penn. If K-State wins both games it will meet Oregon State, Old Dominion, Kennesaw State or Missouri in the tournament final.

It’s not the most daunting lineup K-State has encountered, but the No. 12 Wildcats haven’t exactly looked dominant early on. Their 2-0 start featured a pair of lackluster wins against Kennesaw State and Denver.

The Wildcats have come close to winning early season tournaments the past three years, but they’ve always fallen just short.

K-State held a late lead over North Carolina in the 2015 CBE Hall of Fame Classic, but let it slip away. Same thing against Maryland the following year at the Barclays Center Classic. Last year, they finished third at the Las Vegas Invitational.

This time around, they are striving for more.

Don’t be fooled by the pictures K-State basketball administrators posted on social media on Thursday from the Virgin Islands. The Wildcats are having fun on their trip, but that’s not their main objective.

Unlike past years, K-State coach Bruce Weber doesn’t need to learn anything about his team from an early tournament. The Wildcats have a win-or-bust mentality right now.

“It’s something we have talked about,” Weber said. “Last year, obviously, we didn’t get by Arizona State but we had the championship game against Maryland, had the championship game against North Carolina in Kansas City. It would be a nice little step.”