Kansas State athletic director John Currie: ‘Bruce Weber is the right coach for our program’

John Currie has plenty to say about the state of Kansas State basketball, but he wants to make one thing clear up front.

“I believe Bruce Weber is the right coach for our program,” Currie said Monday in an interview with The Eagle.

Why?

Currie, in his seventh year as K-State’s athletic director, is eager to answer. He hired Weber in 2012 and continues to support him for myriad reasons.

“Clearly, he has the right values and he has been embedded in the community with his support of different things – Coaches vs. Cancer, the United Way, you name it,” Currie said. “But ultimately, it’s about the players he has brought into our program. Look at D.J. Johnson, Wesley Iwundu and Dean Wade, those are K-State guys. And they are all K-State guys who have a chance to have great seasons next year. That is a reflection of their coach.”

“If we look at where we were 12 months ago and where we are now, there is a night-and-day difference. We know now today who our leadership is: seniors that have battled through adversity and young players that are, frankly, playing the best basketball of their careers.”

Currie is hopeful that combination, plus four incoming recruits, will allow the Wildcats to take a big step forward next season. Perhaps back to the NCAA Tournament, which K-State reached every year from 2010-14 before falling short the past two seasons.

Weber is 79-54 in four seasons at K-State, with a shared Big 12 championship in 2013 and two trips to the NCAA Tournament standing out as his biggest accomplishments. Of the 22 coaches hired by power-conference teams since 2012, he is the only one to win or share a regular-season conference title.

But his teams have also struggled the past two seasons, finishing 15-17 and 17-16. His conference record has dipped in three consecutive seasons, from 14-4 to 10-8 to 8-10 and 5-13, the program’s worst league record since 2003.

The downward trend has left fans frustrated. Weber and Currie, too. But Currie thinks the team is on its way back up.

“I believe at this time next year I am going to feel really good about the progress we have made,” Currie said. “Just as good, if not better, than the progress we made from last year to now.”

Weber has three years remaining on a contract that will pay him $2.05 million next season and increase by $100,000 per year. If Weber returns to the NCAA Tournament and competes for a Big 12 championship next season, he may receive an extension. If he fails, he may lose his job. His buyout is $2.5 million.

Everyone knows the stakes, but Currie won’t specify what it will take to trigger either scenario. At least not publicly.

“There is no pressure I could put on Bruce Weber, Bill Snyder (football), Suzie Fritz (volleyball) or Brad Hill (baseball) that they don’t already put on themselves,” Currie said. “Seriously, like I’m going to say, ‘Coach Snyder, I am really sorry about the last game, but you better win the next one.’ Come on. It’s not like they aren’t already saying that themselves. For our coaches, every season is a must-win.”

Though expectations were lower than usual for Weber this season.

Weber dismissed three players a year ago, including leading scorer Marcus Foster. He also lost two players to transfers, two to graduation and another to injury, forcing him to rebuild. This season, he started three freshmen – Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Wade – and relied on two seniors. Brown (8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds), Stokes (9.4 points 2.7 assists) and Wade (9.9 points, 5.1 rebounds) were three of the Big 12’s best newcomers. Wade became the sixth-highest freshman scorer in K-State history, ranking one spot ahead of career scoring leader Jacob Pullen.

At their best, the Wildcats were good enough to beat Oklahoma, which made the Final Four, and to go 11-2 in nonconference play. But they were unable to overcome a season-ending knee injury to Stokes. They lost mostly close games in the unforgiving Big 12 and missed the postseason.

Currie hoped for more. Still, he liked what he saw.

“I was really proud of Coach Weber making some strong decisions last year,” Currie said. “But I am more impressed with the fact our freshmen this year were impressive players, good guys. They had a lot of success. Their individual stats are better than the current four-year stars in our league had as freshmen.

“We fought really hard this year. Obviously, we lost more games than we wanted to lose, but we had very consistent effort as a team that I really liked. I don’t think there is anybody that hasn’t seen progress that wishes to see progress. He has done a really good job of managing that bump in the road and emerging on the other side.”

Currie wants to see how the team comes together during summer exhibition games in Europe, and what it can do next season. Now is when he expects Weber and the Wildcats to hit their stride.

“There are a lot of examples where coaches in their fifth, sixth and seventh years really show progress,” Currie said.

Some won’t want to wait. A segment of K-State fans have not liked Weber from the day he was hired, and their criticism has grown with his recent struggles.

They have harpooned Weber on social media and sent angry e-mails to Currie. When it became apparent Brad Underwood was a candidate at Oklahoma State, some pushed for K-State to fire Weber and hire Underwood, a former K-State player and coach, by using the hashtag #BringBackBrad on Twitter.

Though Currie appreciates that passion, he thinks the majority of K-State fans remain patient.

“I totally get that fans don’t like losing. I don’t like losing, either,” Currie said. “But people like our team. That is what I hear. Out in the social media world, I know there is going to be someone who doesn’t like something I do or doesn’t like a decision I make or doesn’t like Bruce Weber. But we had good crowds at Bramlage Coliseum even though we lost some games. We had a lot of students there, too.”

Currie remains convinced Weber is the man for the job.

“We don’t want to get in the business of excuses, but there is a fine line between excuses and analysis,” Currie said. “If you look at football and basketball this year, we had significant injuries at quarterback and point guard. Those things are factors. We don’t like them. We want to build our programs to overcome those things. But I think it is significant that this basketball team, just like our football team, got their backs to the wall and continued to fight and play well. You saw us battle in some games where we were over matched. We also won some games that, when you have lost your team, you don’t win. I think that was impressive.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Kansas State athletic director John Currie: ‘Bruce Weber is the right coach for our program’."