K-State Q&A: Cartier Diarra, the Big 12’s best NFL QBs and some good basketball news
I usually try to get K-State Q&A started with some clever thoughts or a quick thank you to everyone for providing questions, but I’m going to try something different this week and lead with some good, old fashioned news.
Here it is: Bruce Weber and the K-State basketball team are going on a trip to Europe this summer.
College basketball teams are allowed to travel internationally and play exhibition games against foreign competition during the summer once every four years, and it is once again time for the Wildcats to go on tour after visiting Brazil in 2012 and Italy/Switzerland in 2016.
This summer’s trip will be to Germany, according to sources, and possibly one or two other nearby countries. Full details will be announced in the coming weeks or months.
Why is this important? Well, it’s hard to think of a better time for K-State to have a handful of overseas games on the schedule. The Wildcats are in the middle of a disappointing season that will leave them in rebuilding mode next year. But there is hope that process won’t take long with a top 25 recruiting class on the way.
A summer trip could help speed things up. Nijel Pack, Luke Kasubke, Selton Miguel and Davion Bradford should all be on campus, ready to participate, along with UTEP transfer Kaosi Ezeagu and any other recruits Weber adds to the roster between now and then.
They will all benefit from 10 extra summer practices and then from a handful of games against real competition.
The last two times K-State went on a summer trip it found success the following season. The Wildcats won 27 games and shared a Big 12 championship with KU in 2012-13, Weber’s first year on the job. They won 21 games and reached the NCAA Tournament with Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade as sophomores in 2016-17.
Perhaps a new group of incoming players, along with current freshmen DaJuan Gordon, Montavious Murphy and Antonio Gordon will benefit from taking a trip of their own.
Nine games remain in the regular season, and Weber has spent a lot of time recently talking about the importance of finishing the second half of Big 12 play strong, especially with a friendly schedule upcoming. So that is where his focus will remain for the foreseeable future. But whenever he shifts his mind to next season, a summer trip to Europe might help jump start things.
And with that … It’s time for another K-State Q&A. Thanks, as always, for providing such great questions.
If Cartier Diarra isn’t playing for Kansas State next season, I think he will be playing somewhere professionally more so than at a different college.
Loyal K-State Q&A readers know that I think there’s a strong possibility he turns pro after his junior year, even though he doesn’t appear ready for the NBA. Diarra is a redshirt junior who has been in Manhattan for four years. He has played on teams that have advanced to the Elite Eight and hoisted a Big 12 championship trophy. Returning as a senior to help lead a rebuilding effort next season when he’s not even currently in the starting lineup doesn’t seem all that likely to me.
It’s becoming common for players to turn pro early without the likelihood of a NBA contract, and Diarra is a candidate to join that group.
Maybe he has a change of heart, but, for now, I agree with Fran Fraschilla that at least part of his struggles this season are due to focusing too much on impressing pro scouts instead of helping his college team.
I suppose it’s possible Diarra could test the pro waters, discover there isn’t much of a market for his talents and then elect to finish out his college career elsewhere as a graduate transfer. He wouldn’t have to sit out a year. But I think it’s much more likely that he turns pro or returns to K-State as a senior.
Still, when Bruce Weber said he planned on signing as many as seven new players during the 2020 recruiting cycle when only four scholarships were available, I think he was including Diarra in the group of players that are likely to depart the program after this season.
1. Patrick Mahomes.
2. Michael Bishop.
3. Everyone else.
I’m joking a bit there with No. 2 and No. 3, but I really do think Mahomes is already the best NFL quarterback that the Big 12 has ever produced. He’s definitely the best if you only go by Big 12 quarterbacks produced during the Big 12 area and you don’t include passers from the old Big Eight or SWC days.
For as good as the Big 12 is at putting up video-game numbers in college, its quarterbacks have rarely gone on to great things in the pros. Mahomes already tops the list by earning MVP honors and winning the Super Bowl in his first three years.
Who is legitimately second? Maybe Sam Bradford. He at least started for a few years in the NFL. Same with Robert Griffin III. Baker Mayfield will probably end up No. 2, but he hasn’t proven himself yet. I guess Kyler Murray is also a candidate.
Vince Young and Colt McCoy never did anything in the NFL. Josh Freeman didn’t last long. Brandon Weeden and Michael Bishop came and went. Seneca Wallace was around forever as a backup. He’s probably in the mix. Chase Daniel has lived a sweet life, collecting millions to watch games and throw passes in practice. I envy him, but that’s not going to earn him a spot on this list.
The Big 12 has produced countless terrific college quarterbacks. It would be hard to put a top 10 list together based strictly on college achievements, but it would probably start with Young. Oddly, Mahomes wouldn’t be on the list at all. He wouldn’t even sniff that list. His Texas Tech teams were mediocre at best.
But when it comes to NFL success, it’s Mahomes and then everyone else.
Feel free to use this in your next Q&A. I want to know why Kansas State isn’t having a spring game again this year. Also, why is the open practice they have scheduled on a Friday? That is not a convenient time for me or most fans to attend. — Brent H. via email.
Chris Klieman is not a fan of spring games. He never had one at North Dakota State, and it doesn’t seem like he wants to have one at K-State, either.
Last year, the Wildcats shifted away from their traditional spring game in favor of what they called a spring showcase, which was a glorified open practice. K-State play-by-play man Wyatt Thompson interviewed coaches while fans watched players practice from seats at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The team scrimmaged a little, but it honestly wasn’t anything more than a standard practice with fans in attendance.
This time around, it sounds like all they want to do is hold an open practice. No gimmicks or interviews for fans. They are going to practice, and if fans want to come watch them practice they can do so. Maybe they find a way to make things more exciting between now and then, but I’m not expecting that.
I asked a K-State staffer why the Wildcats were holding the open practice on a Friday instead of a Saturday and he answered matter of factly by saying that’s when the final practice of the spring was scheduled. They want to maximize practice time and not make a big deal out of it by holding a spring game.
Spring practice begins on March 18 and end on April 17, a Friday. If you want to watch any of it, I would recommend taking off work on that day.
That’s a leap I’m not ready to take.
If the XFL is successful … And the XFL proves itself as a training ground for the NFL like the minor leagues in baseball … And a handful of college players make it big by leaving college early to play in the XFL … Then maybe I can see the XFL damaging college football in some way.
But that’s a lot of ifs.
The last time the XFL came along it lasted one season and no one watched beyond the first game.
The Alliance of American Football died quickly, the USFL didn’t last and neither did NFL Europe.
I hope the XFL sticks around, because it provides a home for talented football players like former K-State stars Ryan Mueller and Matthew McCrane who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to step foot on the gridiron right now. But it’s got a long way to go before it threatens to take players away from college football or put a dent in its popularity.
I didn’t love the final season of BoJack Horseman.
Perhaps that was to be expected. Pretty much every show that lasts for more than five seasons ends with a thud. I still hate myself for watching the final few seasons of How I Met Your Mother. House of Cards, the OG of Netflix shows, was a travesty by the end. Even Seinfeld went out with a stinker.
BoJack did a better job than those shows at wrapping things up, but things got a little too dark for me leading up to the final scene. The beauty of BoJack Horseman is that it balances humor with drama better than any animated show I’ve come across. Some episodes are all silly and laughter. Some episodes are all drama. Some episodes are dark. Some episodes are light. They were never afraid to take chances. What other show would send its main character under water for an entire episode where no one can talk? Or what about the episode where BoJack talks at his mother’s funeral from start to finish?
You never knew what you were going to get, and I loved that. Unlike other great animated shows like The Simpons (in its hey day), King of the Hill and Rick & Morty, the laughs and story intertwined. BoJack Horseman was always going someplace.
The final season was too heavy on drama, for me. Some episodes were just plain sad. There wasn’t enough silliness to balance things out. Way too much Diane.
I can’t really go into much more detail than that without dropping spoilers. So I won’t.
Hopefully we can get a spinoff about Vincent Adultman or Mr. Peanutbutter.
Here are the 12 K-State football players that are already on campus and ready to participate in spring practice as freshmen:
- Offensive lineman Dawson Delforge
- Defensive back Tee Denson
- Defensive end Kirmari Gainous
- Linebacker DeMarquesse Hayes
- Defensive tackle Robert Hentz II
- Quarterback Will Howard (read up on him!)
- Tight end Christian Moore
- Defensive tackle Derick Newton
- Offensive lineman Sam Shields
- Defensive back TJ Smith
- Tight end Will Swanson
- Offensive lineman Carver Willis
K-State does not publicize its yearly list of walk-ons. All I can tell you is, based on Twitter announcements, there are a lot of them.
Xavier Kelly is from Wichita and was once committed to the Wildcats, so it makes sense that he would have at least some interest in transferring from Clemson to K-State. But the Cats like what they have coming back on the defensive line and Arkansas is the only school Kelly has visited thus far.
Point guard: Steve Henson.
Shooting guard: Jacob Pullen.
Wing: Cartier Martin.
Forward: Dean Wade.
Forward: Michael Beasley.
Sixth man: Wesley Iwundu.
Coach: Lon Kruger.
I feel bad leaving guys like Barry Brown, Rodney McGruder, Jamar Samuels, Curtis Kelly and Bill Walker off the team, but there’s only so much room. Choosing a coach was very difficult, as Frank Martin, Bob Huggins, Dana Altman, Weber and Kruger have all reached the Final Four. But I trust Kruger to get the most out of this group offensively.
It will need all the offense it can muster to hang with an opposing team that features Trae Young, Klay Thompson, Paul Pierce, Blake Griffin and Joel Embiid.