Bruce Weber hopes to work through ‘growing situations’ in K-State’s exhibition opener
Bruce Weber says growing pains are in store for the Kansas State basketball team this season.
That’s less of a warning than it is a statement of fact. Without Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade to lead on the court and in the locker room, the Wildcats are certain to look and play much differently than they have in the past.
For those reasons, Weber is hesitant to commit to a starting lineup or even set rotations for Friday’s exhibition opener against Emporia State at 8 p.m. inside Bramlage Coliseum.
“We have to go through some growing situations as a new team trying to figure out roles, who is going to get the extra minutes, who is going to to be the guy putting the shots,” Weber said. “I think my biggest fear is the gut-check part of games, the close games, who is going to make those plays. The last two, three years it went to Barry Brown, Dean Wade, Kamau Stokes. They stepped up, made shots. Now we have to have some other people do that.”
The good news for Weber: K-State should have plenty of options.
Xavier Sneed is back as a senior and appears ready to lead the Wildcats in scoring. Cartier Diarra seems poised to take another step forward, along with Makol Mawien and Mike McGuirl. Freshman guard DaJuan Gordon also seems ready to contribute immediately.
“I wouldn’t say we’re as much a young team as we are a new team,” Weber said.
Weber and K-State fans will learn more about these Wildcats in their first exhibition game. Last year, Weber opted to play a scrimmage against Oregon rather than host a pair of warm-up games. But he thought this was a better route to take with a new team.
He said it was a great experience for K-State players to practice in front of a live crowd for one hour last week.
It will be fascinating to see which lineups Weber experiments with in an exhibition setting. He will almost certainly use Diarra, Mawien and Sneed in the starting five. But what about the other two spots?
Will he play Gordon or McGuirl at shooting guard? Might he try Shaun Williams or David Sloan at point guard? Will he use a big lineup that features Levi Stockard and Mawien together inside? Or will he play freshmen forwards Montavious Murphy and Antonio Gordon at the four?
It’s also possible K-State could slide Sneed to power forward and play three guards in a small lineup.
“There are a lot of possibilities,” Diarra said. “We are confident in all of them. We’re ready to show everyone what we’re capable of, starting this week against Emporia State.”
K-State won’t officially begin the season until North Dakota State comes to town on Nov. 5, but its exhibition games will be worth monitoring until then.