K-State AD Gene Taylor defends struggling coach Bruce Weber as basketball losses mount
Just as the temperature surrounding Bruce Weber’s job security seemed to reach a boil following a miserable January that featured eight straight losses, Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor has chosen to publicly defend him against naysayers.
Taylor told the Manhattan Mercury on Saturday night that it is his “intention” for Weber to remain head coach of the K-State men’s basketball team next season regardless of the squad’s recent struggles.
Taylor stopped short of echoing that sentiment during a phone interview on Sunday with The Wichita Eagle, but he did say that he can envision a bright future for this team and its young nucleus of talent in future seasons.
“I have always believed in him,” Taylor told The Eagle of Weber. “I am not immune to the criticism that is out there against him. I get that. The expectation was that it was going to be a rough year and it has been rougher than expected, but for me to ignore everything else they have been dealing with would be unfair to this basketball team right now.”
K-State is currently in rebuilding mode with eight new scholarship players on its roster. The team is 5-13, including a 1-8 record in Big 12 play. Along the way, it has dealt with a mixture of injuries and player absences because of COVID-19.
Seven different K-State players have been sidelined for a combined total of 53 game absences this season. And starting guard DaJuan Gordon is now expected to miss time with a foot injury suffered over the weekend against Texas A&M. Weber has said that the Wildcats have only held seven practices that featured 10 healthy scholarship players dating all the way back to the fall.
K-State has started three freshmen in the majority of its games. Taylor has taken all that into consideration when evaluating the current state of Wildcats hoops.
“I believe there is talent on this basketball team,” Taylor said. “If they begin to develop and grow, I think they have potential. I wasn’t here when Dean Wade, Kamau Stokes and Barry Brown were freshmen, but is that a potential for us? I don’t know why it couldn’t be. You saw how Wade and those other guys matured and stayed together. That worked out for us. Could we be looking at the same outcome with this group?”
Time will tell exactly what a public vote of confidence will mean for Weber.
Though it’s never a bad thing for an athletic director to defend a coach, those words can’t always be taken as gospel. Less than two months ago, for example, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte issued a public statement saying that Tom Herman would remain as the Longhorns football coach, only for Texas to replace him with Steve Sarkisian a few weeks later.
Taylor told the Wichita Eagle on Sunday that he didn’t feel comfortable sharing his thoughts on Weber’s future or the men’s basketball team with more than a month left in the season, saying “it’s not fair to anyone.” But he decided to do it because fans are frustrated and speculation is beginning to grow.
His plan is to let the season play out and then discuss the future of the program with Weber afterward.
“There is still a lot of basketball left to play,” Taylor said. “The players are going to continue to work hard and the players are going to continue to work hard. I always evaluate all the way through. I don’t stop evaluating. Let’s see how we finish the season and go from there.”
Weber has come under fire over the past two seasons, as the Wildcats have fallen off a cliff since winning a share of the Big 12 championship in 2019. K-State advanced to the NCAA Tournament five times in Weber’s first seven seasons in Manhattan. That stretch included a pair of shared conference titles and one run to the Elite Eight.
But the Wildcats have gone 16-34 since then, winning just four of 27 conference games. K-State finished last in the Big 12 a season ago and matched the program record for losses in a single-season with 21.
K-State has struggled again this season. A December loss to Fort Hays State left Weber apologizing to fans and asking for patience. A 107-59 loss to Baylor last week, which was the most lopsided defeat in the program history, was another humiliating result.
The Wildcats played much better on Saturday against Texas A&M with Nijel Pack draining eight three-pointers on his way to 26 points, but the Aggies still managed to win 68-61. K-State hasn’t won a game since Dec. 29 when it edged Omaha 60-58.
Fans aren’t happy with the current trajectory of the team. Even with a young roster in a challenging season that is mired by the coronavirus pandemic, expectations were higher than this.
Weber is currently working at a reduced salary ($2.35 million instead of $2.7 million) because of the pandemic under a contract that runs through 2023. His buyout is currently $2 million, but that number drops to $1 million on May 1.
K-State is unlikely to be favored in any of its final eight games, so it will be hard for the Wildcats to sell optimism to fans moving forward without an unexpected late-season turnaround.
For now, though, it seems Weber has the support of his boss.
This story was originally published January 31, 2021 at 3:29 PM.