K-State Q&A: Bruce Weber’s next starting five, junior-college transfers and football
We should be watching The Masters right now. We should have just got finished with three delightful weeks of the NCAA Tournament. We should be preparing for the NBA playoffs and lots of baseball.
Instead, we got none of those things as four weeks have passed since the coronavirus pandemic paused sports everywhere.
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to miss sports enough that I am downright giddy about watching Bundesliga games in empty stadiums next month, and I can’t say I’m much of a fan of German soccer.
With that in mind, this week’s classic K-State game recommendation is one that fans of all ages can enjoy: The 2003 Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma.
Some thought the Sooners were the best team in college football history going into the game and a sure-bet to win the national championship.
Darren Sproles had other plans.
Now that you’re in a good mood, let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
This is a question that will be debated until whenever the heck K-State plays its first basketball game during the 2020-21 season.
For the first time in years, a case could be made for and against multiple players starting at most positions.
Returning players like Mike McGuirl, DaJuan Gordon, Levi Stockard and Montavious Murphy have seniority on their side. But incoming recruits like Selton Miguel, Luke Kasubke and Davion Bradford might have a talent advantage.
Bruce Weber will probably try several combinations before he settles on a permanent starting group. It’s highly unlikely he will start the same players 30-plus times next season.
That being said, here’s my guess at a starting lineup for opening game.
Point guard: Nijel Pack.
Something tells me the first member of K-State’s 2020 recruiting class will win the job over Rudi Williams, similar to how Kamau Stokes beat out Carlbe Ervin when they came in at the same time. Either way, both will play significant minutes.
Shooting guard: Mike McGuirl.
He will be the team’s senior leader next season, and he came on late for the Wildcats as a junior. He’s a decent shooter and a good defender. No way Weber starts a freshman over him.
Small forward: DaJuan Gordon.
The Wildcats are going to need newcomers like Selton Miguel, Luke Kasubke and maybe Donovan Williams to shoulder some of the scoring load next season, but they might not be ready to start immediately. Gordon brings leadership and more experience to the lineup.
Power forward: Montavious Murphy.
As long as Murphy is healthy, he will start and split time with Antonio Gordon. I do wonder, though, if Seryee Lewis could help here when the Wildcats go small.
Center: Levi Stockard.
Kaosi Ezeagu and Davion Bradford both have more upside, but Stockard gets the nod as a senior.
We will see lineup evolution next season. No doubt.
The obvious problem with the starting five listed above is that none of those players averaged more than 6.9 points per game last season.
Weber could also elect to go small and take Stockard out of the lineup in order to get an extra wing on the floor like Miguel. Or maybe Kasubke makes enough three-pointers to warrant a starting spot. Or maybe Bradford is more college-ready than expected.
K-State may ultimately lean on newcomers, but I think Weber starts off conservative.
It wouldn’t shock me if K-State’s lineup looks more like this near the end of the season:
Nijel Pack, Luke Kasubke, Mike McGuirl, Selton Miguel, Montavious Murphy.
Keeping up with all of the comings and goings with Kansas State’s basketball roster has been difficult over the past few weeks.
As of now, five players are returning and seven new players are coming in. Three seniors are no longer allowed to play college basketball and eight former players decided to transfer.
Eight new players is a record for Weber at K-State.
Here’s a simple look at things:
One thing to note: Nigel Shadd might not end up at Arizona State. After briefly announcing his commitment to the Sun Devils, he said he is once again considering other options.
K-State has one scholarship remaining. Its main target is four-star guard Donovan Williams, who will announce his college choice next week.
My main takeaway from Mike Gundy’s ridiculous hope of returning football players to Oklahoma State and other campuses by May 1 was a little different.
Instead of lampooning him, I was left wondering why he was given the platform to speak about the coronavirus pandemic in the first place.
Why are we asking any football coaches to talk about it?
They aren’t qualified to do so.
Gundy said several times during his rant that he’s not a doctor and he basically doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but that didn’t stop him from spewing nonsense or journalists from passing along every word he said. He got it wrong. Public safety should be more important than football. But I’m not sure his comments opened a can of warms.
Other than making himself look foolish, which was already the case because of his mullet, I’m not sure his rant did any real harm.
There are plenty of other questions we can ask football coaches right now. How are you coaching your team remotely? Will missing spring practice hurt your team? What are your players doing to stay in shape? How much time will you need to prepare your team for the upcoming season once sports resume?
Football coaches are authorities on those topics.
I would rather hear from medical professionals on bigger-picture topics.
Bruce Weber’s recruiting of the junior-college ranks is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, shrouded by fog as drizzle falls from the sky. Plus, anyone trying to make sense of it forgot to wear their contacts that day and just finished their second Tank 7.
OK, it hasn’t been that wild. But you get my point.
I’m not totally sure what the Wildcats look for in junior-college players. It certainly seems like they are very interested in stats, though.
Austin Trice was one of the nation’s top juco rebounders before he committed to K-State, David Sloan led all juco players in assists before he arrived in Manhattan and new pledge Rudi Williams did the same last season while playing point guard for Northeast Oklahoma A&M.
K-State landed all three of them late in the recruiting process as spring signings, so they weren’t considered priorities until the coaching staff assessed all the players they were losing and started to look for replacements.
We will see how Williams plays in a K-State uniform, but both Sloan and Trice were disappointments that left the program after one season. Amaad Wainright followed the same path as a juco addition.
The last true junior-college transfer that stayed two years at K-State was Carlbe Ervin, who interestingly came in with less hype but ended up being by far the best addition. He ranked fourth in the juco ranks in assists as a sophomore with 8.2 per game, but helped his team win 30 games.
I suppose you could say Makol Mawien and Stephen Hurt were also junior-college transfers. That’s technically true. But they were both bounce-back recruits that began their careers at Division I schools and opted to play juco ball rather than sit out a year as a traditional transfer.
It would seem K-State has had better luck targeting that type of junior-college transfer than one that spent two full seasons in the juco ranks.
So what went wrong with Wainright, Trice and Sloan?
Wainright was a fine role player that made some bad decisions and encountered legal trouble. Trice never learned Weber’s system on offense or defense and left after displaying knucklehead behavior off the court. Sloan wasn’t a great defender and left after his playing style didn’t mesh with Weber.
It would have been interesting to see how differently last season could have gone for K-State and Sloan had Weber handed him the keys to the offense on Day 1 instead of asking him to split time with Shaun-Neal Williams and Cartier Diarra. Sloan’s defense was always an issue, but he could distribute better than anyone else in that backcourt.
I think he could be an impact player in the right system.
For the record, I liked the additions of Wainright, Trice and Sloan when they were first announced. They just didn’t work out.
I am hopeful that Williams will be able to come in and help K-State for two seasons. Then again, K-State recruited him under trying circumstances. So he’s a question mark. But he is a gifted scorer, and the Wildcats will need someone to split time at point guard with Nijel Pack next season. Williams is the guy.
Just don’t expect him to duplicate his juco stats.
Some of us tend to think junior-college players are more prepared for Division-I basketball than high school recruits, but that’s rarely the case. For every Pierre Jackson, there are 100 juco transfers who struggle to find roles with their new teams.
My three Manhattan recommendations:
- So Long/Taco Lucha, because you can finally eat their delicious food without waiting for a table or feeling cramped inside those small restaurants.
- AJ’s Pizza, because it’s better than the pizza you buy from the grocery store.
- Cox Bros BBQ, because it’s been way too long since I’ve had their barbecue spaghetti. I’m not even sure it’s on their normal menu. But it’s the best thing they make.
My three national recommendations:
- Chick-fil-a, because no other food gets my kids more excited than a 30-pack order of nuggets.
- Texas Roadhouse, because I’m jonesing for a bottomless basket of dinner rolls for some reason.
- Cheesecake Factory, because my wife would call me a hero if I brought home a slice of her favorite cheesecake tomorrow.
Baylor = Judah
He’s the best personal assistant in the business, and the Bears have the best women’s basketball team in the conference.
Iowa State = Paparazzi Birds
Every time they think they have taken some amazing photos, something prevents them from gaining national noteriety.
Kansas = Sarah Lynn
KU is a basketball sensation who throws caution to the wind and struggles in other areas, much like musical-sensation Sarah Lynn.
Kansas State = Princess Carolyn
She’s a purple cat. Enough said.
Oklahoma = Hank Hippopopalous
The Sooners always seem to win the Big 12 in football, much like Hank Hippopopalous beat BoJack Horseman and Mr. Peanutbutter at the 1994 Animals’ Choice Awards.
Oklahoma State = Mr. Peanutbutter
The Cowboys are the fun, less successful versions of OU and Texas. Mike Gundy is also always up to some antics.
TCU = Todd Chavez
The Horned Frogs more or less slept on the couch inside their former SWC rivals’ homes until they were invited to join the Big 12 as full-fledged members. Now they are so What Time is Right Now?
Texas = BoJack Horseman
Your analysis was pretty good, even though Bob Huggins is the coaching equivalent of BoJack Horseman. I can see Texas singing a song about how “back in the 2000s I was in a very famous football game. I’m Texas the Longhorn, Texas the Longhorn. Don’t act like you don’t know. I’m trying to hold on to my past. I sure hope it comes back fast.”
Texas Tech = Diane Nguyen
The Red Raiders would rather be good at football than basketball. Diane would rather write something meaningful than a teen detective novel. Alas, here they both are.
West Virginia = Vincent Adultman
The Mountaineers talked their way into the conference the same way three kids formed a man underneath a trench coat and impressed Princess Carolyn.
This question made me guffaw. Well done.
You’re right, Weber really didn’t want to tell anyone how Cartier Diarra broke a finger on his shooting hand during the 2018-19 season.
I tried asking Diarra about it before this past season and he told me a vague story about his hand mysteriously hurting the day after a road game against Baylor. When team doctors checked it out, they told him he had a broken bone.
Maybe that’s what happened. But there’s another story I’ve been told several times about it that has become an urban legend of sorts. In that version, a teammate accidentally slammed a car door on Diarra’s fingers as a race to sit shotgun went horribly wrong.
I remember some fans wondered if he injured his hand throwing down a windmill dunk against Kansas. I know that’s not what happened.
I suppose it doesn’t really matter how it happened. Diarra recovered quickly and K-State shared a Big 12 championship despite losing him for a few games. But it was odd Weber was so hesitant to talk about it.
The unsettling part about this question is that Malik Knowles and Joshua Youngblood are both receivers who could have benefited from spring practice.
Knowles was coming on as K-State’s best overall receiver before he got hurt last season. Youngblood has all the tools necessary to follow in the footsteps of Tyler Lockett. But both players lack experience.
Skylar Thompson was looking forward to strengthening his QB/WR bond with both of them this spring, but that’s not going to happen.
I’m still optimistic Knowles will have a strong sophomore season. He caught 27 passes for 397 passes and three touchdowns last year. If he can learn how to stay healthy or play through injuries, he should become K-State’s No. 1 target.
I’m less optimistic on Youngblood. He was electric as a return man last season, but he only caught nine passes for 73 yards. He was the No. 8 receiving threat on last year’s team, ranking behind a running back and a tight end.
Salivating as it may be to think about the long-term potential of Knowles and Youngblood leading K-State’s passing attack, both players might need more time to get there.
Wykeen Gill, Chabastin Taylor and Phillip Brooks could all see bigger roles in the offense next season.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.