Big 12 basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla shares his thoughts on the Kansas State job
How does Kansas State’s vacant men’s basketball coaching position rank compared to other jobs across the country?
That is a question that many are asking now that the Wildcats have begun searching for Bruce Weber’s replacement while five other prominent jobs (Georgia, Louisville, Maryland, Missouri and LSU) have also opened.
Fran Fraschilla, the top Big 12 men’s basketball analyst at ESPN, is uniquely qualified to answer that question. He agreed to share his opinions on all things K-State hoops in an interview with The Eagle while he was in Kansas City for the conference tournament at T-Mobile Center.
“It’s a very good job, because of the league it is in and the history that it has,” Fraschilla said. “But it’s also a difficult job, because it doesn’t have quite the history and high-major amenities that some of the traditional top 25 programs have. Obviously, it’s still a very attractive job. I think it will attract a lot of high-quality candidates.”
Fraschilla was sad to see Weber resign on Thursday following a mostly successful 10-year run with the Wildcats. Like many others, he respected what Weber accomplished in Manhattan and the way he coached with integrity along the way. But Fraschilla is also excited to see what a new coach can do.
He has higher expectations for K-State than the 34-58 record it amassed over the past three seasons.
“A reasonable expectation for them is to be in the top half of the league,” Fraschilla said. “That means top five and that means an NCAA Tournament appearance, I would say, one out of every two or three years. Hopefully, the other years they still make the postseason and play in the NIT. That would be the floor for me.
“Could somebody get it going the way Scott Drew has at Baylor or the way Lon Kruger had at Oklahoma, where they have a long string of NCAA Tournament appearances? Yes, I think so. But that would take a monumental coaching and recruiting job. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, it’s just really hard to do year in and year out this day and age.”
The most attractive thing about the K-State opening seem to be its recent history, which includes two shared Big 12 championships and nine trips to the NCAA Tournament since 2008.
Frank Martin and Weber both took teams to the Elite Eight during that time.
K-State also has a passionate fan base that cares about basketball and helped turn Bramlage Coliseum into the Octagon of Doom when those two coaches were at the height of their powers. Furthermore, the Wildcats have a practice facility that is only a decade old.
“It’s got a lot of tradition,” Fraschilla said, “and it’s got a lot of opportunity for upside.”
As for a few unattractive things about the job, aside from having Kansas as your in-state rival ...
“The big negative would be location, as far as getting players to Manhattan,” Fraschilla said. “That’s something that every basketball and football coach has to deal with there. Bill Snyder had to overcome that. You’re two hours from the closest major airport and that is definitely a factor compared to a lot of the schools in the league. That’s one reason why some might view it as a difficult job.“
Still, Fraschilla thinks K-State will be able to convince a quality up-and-coming coach to take the job.
There are plenty of them out there. He calls it a buyer’s market for coaching searches.
Names that have been linked to the job already include Grant McCasland (North Texas), Niko Medved (Colorado State), Darian DeVries (Drake) and Jerome Tang (Baylor associate head coach). That is in addition to Illinois coach Brad Underwood, a former K-State player and assistant, who tops the wish list for most fans.
Missouri, which on Friday let Cuonzo Martin go, may also show interest in some of those candidates. It will be interesting to see how much overlap and competition there is between K-State and Mizzou as they search for a new basketball coach.
They are similar programs located in the same region.
That leads us to another question: Which one is perceived better nationally?
“K-State has had more recent success, but Missouri probably has more long-term basketball tradition,” Fraschilla said. “But Missouri is a difficult job, too. It’s not really in the SEC footprint. It doesn’t feel like a SEC school. At K-State, it feels like they are a big part of the Big 12. The good news for both of them is there is a plethora of good, young coaches from which to pick from.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 2:40 PM.