K-State Q&A: Mark Smith, Bruce Weber’s winning streak, football recruiting and more
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
We have lots of fun topics to cover this week, including the Wildcats’ unexpected men’s basketball winning streak, the Sunflower Showdown against KU, Mark Smith, football recruiting and more. So let’s dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
It won’t be a sellout, but it should be a very good crowd nonetheless.
Tickets remained available in 12 of 27 sections for the Sunflower Showdown at Bramlage Coliseum as of Thursday afternoon, but only in low quantities.
That is a welcome change after announced attendance dipped below 6,000 for each of K-State’s past two home games. That will change in a big way when KU comes to town on Saturday. I’m expecting that number to double.
Fans always show up for this rivalry game. There is no reason for that to change this year.
Some were ready to give up on the Wildcats when they lost their first four conference games while dealing with COVID issues. But fans are excited again now that K-State has won consecutive games against a pair of ranked teams -- No. 17 Texas Tech and No. 23 Texas.
K-State has never won three straight games against ranked opponents. The Wildcats can make some history with a victory this weekend.
Beating the Jayhawks would also go a long way toward making sure the Wildcats have good crowds the rest of the season. This is Bruce Weber’s opportunity to win over (or at least momentarily silence) some doubters and make sure the Octagon of Doom stays mostly full in its final five home games.
Mark Smith opting to leave Missouri and transfer to K-State looks like one of the best decisions anyone has ever made about anything.
Did anyone expect Mark Smith to be leading the Big 12 in rebounding right now? No. Did anyone expect him to be the Wildcats’ best clutch player this year? No. Did anyone expect him to be averaging 11.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists after putting up pedestrian numbers at both Missouri and Illinois? No.
He has been WAY better than anyone predicted during his lone season at K-State.
I was much higher on Smith than most, because I knew how badly he wanted to play for Weber. If anyone could bring the best out of Smith as a basketball player, it was Weber. But not even I expected this much improvement.
Optimistically, I thought he could average close to 10 points a game and help the team by knocking down a few outside shots.
Watching him go off for 25 points, 16 rebounds and five assists at Oklahoma was a surprise. I didn’t expect him to erupt for 22 points and eight rebounds against Texas, either.
Thinking back to last spring, I got the vibe that most fans assumed Missouri would win the “trade” when DaJuan Gordon joined the Tigers and Smith joined the Wildcats.
Gordon has been fine at Missouri, averaging 8.6 points and 4.3 rebounds. But he’s not a difference-maker like Smith is at K-State.
It’s hard to say who K-State’s best player is at the moment. It can be Markquis Nowell, Nijel Pack or Smith on any given night.
But that honor might go to Smith at the moment. When he plays his best, the Wildcats usually win.
I’m not sure what is going on in the front court.
But it’s not good, whatever it is.
Davion Bradford, Kaosi Ezeagu, Carlton Linguard and Ismael Massoud combined for six points and nine rebounds against Texas.
The game before that, they combined for 10 points and six rebounds against Texas Tech.
K-State won both of those games in spite of their big men, not because of them.
The Wildcats went all guards late in their win over the Longhorns. Kudos to Weber for making a good coaching move. But yikes. That shouldn’t be necessary.
Bradford is the most curious player of them all. He looked amazing as a freshman, perhaps the best true center of the Weber era. And now he can barely catch an entry pass in the paint.
It’s almost as if a group of aliens stole his talent. He might as well be Charles Barkley or Patrick Ewing in the movie Space Jam.
He had a case of pneumonia at the beginning of the season and later came down with COVID. I suppose that explains some of his struggles. But it’s still hard to fathom how he went from averaging 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds to 4.3 points and 2.7 rebounds.
Ezeagu had some nice moments early in the season but really isn’t doing much now. Massoud is hot and cold. I wouldn’t hate it if Weber gave Linguard some extra minutes.
K-State will need one of them to step up against the Jayhawks. I can’t imagine a five-guard lineup will work well against David McCormack, Jalen Wilson and Mitch Lighfoot.
K-State might as well try it.
The school gave away free pizza, drinks and jerseys to students in exchange for showing up against Marquette earlier this season. It was free breakfast burritos for any student in attendance for Texas Tech.
Neither or those game eclipsed 10,000 fans. Maybe playing “Sandstorm” would put them over the top.
1. Men’s basketball team makes the NCAA Tournament. It could happen if the Wildcats win seven of their final 13 games.
2. Kade Warner comes back for one more year with Adrian Martinez. Word on the street is Warner will be back for an extra season. That would mean more games with his famous father watching from the stands.
3. Football team gets new uniforms. My gut tells me we will see something different next season, even if it’s only a small change.
I think K-State needs to hang all of those jerseys from the Bramlage Coliseum rafters. Add Steve Henson to the list while you’re at it.
Sorry for the boring answer.
But the Wildcats need to do a better job of honoring their greatest former players, and it is long past time for some new jerseys to go up in Manhattan. The Wildcats haven’t honored anyone since Mitch Richmond in 2009.
Let’s get some new jerseys up there!
I have written about this before. K-State would love to have Jacob Pullen and probably Michael Beasley back for ceremonies, but timing is difficult because they are both still playing professionally.
It will happen eventually ... I hope.
Pullen is a slam dunk. He’s the leading scorer in K-State men’s basketball history, for crying out loud.
Dean Wade and Barry Brown are also probably locks.
Rodney McGruder and Beasley seem like the most debatable players.
Beasley gave us the best individual season in school history, but he was only on campus for one year. Some will say that should disqualify him. But that doesn’t matter to me. Not only was he an incredible college player, he also sparked a great run of K-State basketball that lasted long after her left school.
McGruder ranks eighth on the men’s career scoring list at K-State, while playing in four NCAA Tournaments and winning one Big 12 championship. That’s good enough for me.
I might need some convincing to put names like Askia Jones, Cartier Martin and Wesley Iwundu in the rafters, but the six players mentioned above are all deserving.
I liked it enough that I went back and started to re-watch the entire series fresh on Netflix after I finished it.
The episodes were a nice mixture of action, humor and drama. It’s one of the few re-make shows I have enjoyed.
It’s Friday Night Lights with karate instead of football.
There were a few story lines I could have done without. I’m also starting to wonder how many more times the karate students can switch sides. They need someone to monitor the karate transfer portal in the valley!
Another thought: How are the kids on that show still in high school? They were driving in Season 1. Shouldn’t they be in college in by now?
But I digress ...
Bringing another bad guy into the fold was a smart move. I’m really looking forward to the next season.
Running back, tight end, wide receiver and defensive back all feel like positions of need right now for the K-State football team.
A transfer could help in all three areas.
Defensive back and running back are probably the two most important positions to monitor.
Not all transfer running backs are going to want to come in and play behind Deuce Vaughn, but it would be nice if K-State can find one who is willing to handle the role of RB2.
Running back depth is a concern after the Wildcats lost three ball-carriers to the NCAA transfer portal.
K-State is also losing Daniel Imatorbhebhe and Nick Lenners at tight end. Transfer tight ends have been good to the Wildcats the past two seasons. They might as well look for another one.
Receiver isn’t a huge priority, but I think they could use more talent at that position.
Another defensive back or two would also be helpful in the secondary.
Chris Klieman could certainly be a better recruiter, and beating power-conference teams for top prospects has been difficult for him at times.
Outside of Jake Rubley, he hasn’t landed any major recruits since he took over as K-State’s coach. And we still don’t know how good Rubley will be at the college level.
But it’s not like Klieman is a bad recruiter.
K-State is bringing in much better prospects than it was during the final years of Bill Snyder, and nearly half of them have scholarship offers from other power-conference teams.
Jalen Klemm, V.J. Payne, John Pastore, Jake Clifton, Tobi Osunsanmi and Tyson Struber all had P5 offers and chose the Wildcats during this recruiting cycle.
That’s not a huge group, and is probably why you are asking this question.
But Klemm picked K-State over Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Washington State.
It’s not like the Wildcats aren’t winning any high-profile recruiting battles. They could be better at it, sure. But they also have success finding diamonds in the rough. Felix Anudike-Uzomah didn’t have a single offer from a power-conference team until K-State took a chance on him.
He is playing like a recruit who had offers from Notre Dame and Texas.
Klieman and his staff deserve credit for that, even if they also deserve criticism for not landing more heralded recruits.
I have no idea what Wordle is.
My guess is it’s a word-based game you can play on your phone. It’s apparently all the rage, because I keep seeing people tweet about it and show off their colored cubes on social media. But I don’t know what it is, because I’ve never played it.
Here’s hoping I can keep it that way.