‘I am blessed’: K-State guard Mike McGuirl shares unique perspective in woeful season
Exactly two years ago, Mike McGuirl was bouncing around Bramlage Coliseum without a care in the world.
The Kansas State men’s basketball team was putting the finishing touches on a 74-67 victory over Kansas back then that was punctuated by an electric windmill dunk from Cartier Diarra. That play sent the decibels inside Bramlage to record levels and the K-State bench into a frenzy. Video replays show McGuirl in the middle of the celebration, happy as he could possibly be in a Wildcats uniform.
Much has changed since then. After winning 25 games and sharing a Big 12 championship with Texas Tech that season, the Wildcats have fallen on hard times. They won 11 games a year ago and finished last in the Big 12 for the first time in 20 years. Then they followed that up with a 5-14 start to this season.
McGuirl is the only remaining K-State player from the squad that beat KU two years ago. As a freshman, he helped the Wildcats reach the Elite Eight. As a sophomore, he earned a ring. Now, he is the leader for a team that hasn’t won a game since Dec. 29. Talk about a roller-coaster ride.
“I think deep down,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said, “it’s hurting him.”
Indeed, it can’t be easy for a player to go from thrilling highs to agonizing lows as quickly as McGuirl has during his K-State career. But the senior guard isn’t letting any negative emotions show.
Not even a 74-51 loss against the Jayhawks earlier this week left him sulking, even though the blowout defeat served as a painful reminder of how far the Wildcats have fallen.
“I have said it time and time again, I am blessed and I am very grateful to be in the position that I am in,” McGuirl said afterward. “I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. I am thankful for my coaches and I am thankful for my teammates. Yeah, we’re down right now, but we’re not the type to put our heads down and quit. We keep moving forward.”
McGuirl knew what he was signing up for when he decided to return to a K-State team that featured eight new scholarship players and only one senior — himself. The Wildcats were going to be in rebuilding mode and he was fine with that.
He wanted to be a leader, and still does.
“He was here this morning shooting,” Weber said. “He is always one of the first ones here and one of the last ones to leave.”
Still, this season is no doubt frustrating for him. There’s no way he imagined the team struggling to the degree it has.
So how does he stay positive? Every time negative emotions enter his mind he fights them back by keeping this season in perspective.
“It’s beyond basketball,” McGuirl said. “Life is good itself. We have got so many great things going for us as men. We are all blessed. We are not in war. We are blessed. It’s basketball at the end of the day. Yeah, we do need to get better and do some soul searching, but let’s keep things in perspective. We are all right.”
Weber is hopeful that K-State can reward his maturity and leadership on this team with some victories as the season draws to a close.
It’s been too long since he wildly celebrated a win.