Chris Klieman, PJ Haggerty and an undefeated start for Jerome Tang: K-State Q&A
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- PJ Haggerty leads nation in scoring; conditions could yield a 46+ point game
- Klieman will return as head coach but may reshuffle assistants to spark recovery
- Jerome Tang unlikely to add a midseason big; roster moves would have limited impact
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
The Wildcats played a basketball game on Thursday night. They’ve got another one on Friday. Then football plays on Saturday at Utah.
With so much going on, let’s dive right into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
PJ Haggerty’s season high for points in a game will be over or under 45.5? -@scottwildcat via X.
This is a perfect question to lead off this week’s mailbag.
Kansas State is off to a 5-0 start on the basketball court, and point guard PJ Haggerty is averaging 28.2 points per game. As of Friday morning, he was the nation’s leading scorer.
He dropped a season-high 37 points on Mississippi State in the semifinals of the Hall of Fame Classic. That came a few days after he erupted for 31 points against Tulsa.
What’s next for him? A 40-point game? A 50-point game? Could he even overtake Askia Jones, who holds the school record with 62 points in a game?
Let’s get crazy and go over Scott’s number of 45.5.
He scored 42 in a game against Wichita State while he was playing for Memphis last season. I think he can top that under the right circumstances. If K-State plays against another high-scoring team this season, and the game goes down to the wire and the refs are giving the Wildcats a friendly whistle then Haggerty is more than capable of flirting with 50 points.
Officiating will probably be the deciding factor on if he gets there. Haggerty creates contact with defenders every time he drives to the basket. Certain refs are going to call fouls on the defense and send Haggerty to the free-throw line. Others are going to call fouls on Haggerty and his scoring potential won’t be nearly as high.
But when the stars align in a high-scoring game at Bramlage Coliseum I think we see a monster game of at least 46 from Haggerty.
Ken Pomeroy didn’t give K-State much credit for its 4-0 start. Will that change with two wins in Kansas City? - Jeff M. via e-mail.
The Wildcats jumped to No. 48 at Ken Pom and No. 72 at Bart Torvik after they beat Mississippi State by a big margin.
A win over Nebraska on Friday would boost K-State even more.
At the very least, a 6-0 start would solidify the Wildcats as a top 50 team and put them in excellent position to contend for the NCAA Tournament.
You’ve previously reported that Gene Taylor will not make any changes in football. What is the likelihood that Chris Klieman makes changes in his staff following the season? -@BusMedicMike via X.
Chris Klieman is absolutely expected to return as Kansas State’s head football coach next season.
There is no reason to suspect otherwise.
But I doubt he tries to “run it back” with the same group of assistant coaches that he had this year.
The last time K-State was trending down during the Klieman era, he fired two assistant coaches. And one of them was his best friend, former offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham. He also convinced other members of his staff to find new jobs, which allowed him to bring in a new strength coach.
Those changes helped vault the Wildcats to a Big 12 championship and a string of quality bowl appearances.
I have my doubts that Klieman will straight up fire anyone during the offseason. But I expect certain staffers will be urged to find new jobs with other teams, which will allow K-State to shake things up on the coaching staff.
Chris Klieman is starting to remind me of Bruce Weber with all of his excuses. -@garrettb1983 via X.
Noted.
You may have heard Klieman point out that the Wildcats are running low on players.
But he’s not talking about Dylan Edwards, Jayce Brown, Austin Romaine, Tobi Osunsanmi, George Fitzpatrick or any of the other notable playmakers who have suffered injuries this season. He’s talking about the walk-ons he regrettably had to cut in the spring, which allowed the Wildcats to comply with the new roster limit of 105 in college football.
Klieman talked about it after K-State defeated Oklahoma State 14-6 last week. And he mentioned it again at his weekly news conference on Monday.
“It’s a challenge right now when you’re dealing with 105,” Klieman said. “Six of them are specialists, and then you lose a bunch of guys to injury, or guys leave the program, and you’re down to into the 60s, practicing every day. That’s hard to do in a power-four program.”
While I understand his frustrations, I’m not sure why he continues to mention a lack of walk-ons as one of the main reasons why the Wildcats are having a disappointing season. Every team is dealing with the same roster crunch. And it’s not like many of the players that K-State cut in the spring would be scoring touchdowns on Saturdays if they were still around.
Bottom line: fans don’t want to hear about it.
Losing a bunch of really talented players to injury (as mentioned above) is a legitimate reason for this team’s struggles. But fans don’t want to hear about that, either. I continue to insist that starting the season in Dublin was a horrible (albeit fun) idea that cost this team multiple wins. But Klieman signed up for it. So no one wants to hear that either.
To be fair, I’m not sure what Klieman could say right now that would make fans happy.
At least he isn’t using a play-hard chart.
Dylan Edwards and his inability to make a decision and stick with it is approaching infamy from his original commitment to K-State to Notre Dame to Colorado and then back to K-State. Now he’s heading to transfer portal again. He’s a college kid and at that age I was a flake, too. But is he okay? - Dan via e-mail.
He has changed his mind an awful lot over the past few years.
My biggest takeaway from covering Edwards is that it doesn’t mean much when a recruit says he is committing to a university for four years and there is no way he will ever consider playing somewhere else. Edwards said all the right things when he pledged to K-State as a high school recruit out of Derby. But youngsters, to steal a term from Bill Snyder, can change plans quickly.
Nobody should hold that against him.
Yes, K-State fans would have preferred him to follow the Avery Johnson route. But it’s getting rare for college athletes to spend all their time at one school.
PJ Haggerty, the leading scorer on the K-State men’s basketball team, played at TCU, Tulsa and Memphis before he arrived in Manhattan. Nobody on campus seems bothered about his multiple transfers.
My advice to fans is to appreciate the players who are loyal to one school. But don’t get worked up about the ones who hop around. There’s now way you can enjoy college sports if that bothers you.
Once again asking about the potential of adding a big man. Where are we at with that? -@LonRuger via X.
Never say never. Jerome Tang and his assistant coaches like to say they are always “looking under rocks” for players. But I don’t see the Wildcats adding any new players to the roster in the middle of the season.
Even if it happens, the odds of that player coming in and making an impact are very low.
Where do you stand on all the Thanksgiving food debates? -@scottwildcat via X.
- Turkey over ham. No offense to ham or any other kind of meat, but we should all be eating turkey on Thanksgiving. Save the ham for Christmas.
- Green bean casserole over macaroni and cheese. This is a tough call. Both are allowed on my plate. But if I had to choose then I would take the vegetables.
- Sweet potatoes over mashed potatoes. There’s no wrong answer with this one, either. Sweet potatoes just feel more like a November food.
- White wine before Thanksgiving dinner.
- Red wine during and/or after Thanksgiving dinner.
- Pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Why choose? Just eat half a slice of both!