Joe on K-State Sports

  Texas A&M beat K-State 68-61 in Bramlage Coliseum yesterday.  Despite a slow start by K-State, it was a close game most of the way.  Nijel Pack kept K-State in it with 26 points and eight three-pointers.  DaJuan Gordon went down with a leg injury early in the first half and was seen in a boot after the game.  The extent of his injury is not known at this time, but he's likely out for the next game.  Let's take a look at some of the post-game reaction.... "We won the play hard for the first time in four or five games which gave us a chance." ...Bruce Weber, post-game JM:  What good does winning the play-hard chart do if you still lose the game?  It's fine to track individual statistics if you want, but keep it private.  You sound like a fool after a loss talking about how you beat them on the play-hard chart.  Who cares?  Did you score more points than they did?  If not, it doesn't matter.  Playing hard should be a given EVERY GAME!  You shouldn't hav

If you watched K-State lose to Baylor 107 to 59 last night, you witnessed history.  It was the worst loss in the long and proud history of K-State basketball.  The previous record for margin of defeat was in 1934 when K-State lost by 47 points to Oklahoma.  87 years ago. I'm long past the frustration and anger phases regarding K-State basketball.  My friends and family know that my two favorite sports are college football and college basketball and that I never miss a K-State game whether it's in person or on television no matter how bad the team may be. Instead of getting angry about this loss and letting it affect my mood, I try to find the humor in it. I watched Bruce Weber's post-game press conference and read the transcript and decided I'm not going to break it down like I normally do.  It's the same stuff he says after every loss.  Instead, since it was so popular last time, let's do another version of Bruce Weber "mean tweets" from during and af

  Gunar Reed, his mother, and Taylor Braet were interviewed this morning on Sports Radio 810 WHB.  I thought it was a neat interview and decided to share it here.  Click below to check it out:

It's time for a mid-season look at K-State basketball with a current version of the good, the bad, and the ugly! It's been a long and very difficult season for the Wildcats.  They are currently 5-11 overall and 1-7 in the Big 12. Let's dig in. THE GOOD Everyone on the roster should be back and ready to go for the game against Baylor in Waco on Wednesday night.  Guard Nijel Pack has been out for a little over two weeks due to Covid protocols and assuming everyone stays healthy in the next 24 hours they will have a full roster available for the first time in a long time.  Montavious Murphy is out for the season because of knee surgery, but other than that every player that started the season will be available to try to beat the Baylor Bears. THE BAD K-State had 28 turnovers and lost 69-47 to the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday.  This was their sixth loss in a row and during that stretch, they've lost by an average of 16 points.   THE UGLY Sometimes you can watch

Bruce Weber met with the press today.  Most of the questions he received during the press conference were about the Baylor game tomorrow night.  There's not much to report, but I found a couple of his answers interesting.   "We lost by infinity the first time so I don't know if you can go higher than infinity." ...Bruce Weber, January 26, 2021 JM:  Actually, the Wildcats lost by 31 points to Baylor on December 19th, not "infinity. "   Could it be worse this time? "Coaching is not much fun to be honest." ...Bruce Weber, January 26, 2021 JM:  Bruce was replying to a question asking what he thought about Packers coach Matt LaFleur's decision to kick a field goal near the end of the game against the Buccaneers on Sunday instead of going for a game tying touchdown.  While this is not relevant to K-State basketball, a reporter asked him because Bruce is a Packer fan.  I found the answer interesting because he refused to be critical of the decision. 

    K-State lost 69-47 to the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday.  The Wildcats are now 5-11 overall and 1-7 in the Big 12 Conference.  This is their sixth loss in a row and during that stretch they've lost by an average of 16 points.  They're not even competitive and it's getting increasingly difficult to find any positives when watching the games.  Here's some post-game reaction... "Obviously, we didn't and got our butts' kicked." ...Bruce Weber, West Virginia post-game press conference, January 24, 2021 JM:  Didn't he say this after the last game ?  Yes.  Yes he did.  "Oh God. I would have hated to gone against 'Press Virginia' with this group. We may never have gotten the ball past half court." ...Bruce Weber, West Virginia post-game press conference, January 24, 2021 JM:  It's kind of sad that Bruce self-assessed his team this way.  Yeah, they were missing Nijel Pack, but everyone else available was out there playing.

The K-State basketball team followed up their 82-67 loss on Saturday with a 76-50 loss to Oklahoma in Norman last night.  They've lost five games in a row by an average of 15 points.  The closest they've come to winning was a seven point loss to TCU on January 2nd.  It's not going to get any easier with games against West Virginia, Baylor, Texas A&M and Kansas coming up.  Yikes. "Obviously we got our butts kicked again..." ...Bruce Weber, Oklahoma post-game, January 19th, 2021 JM:  This is how Bruce Weber started out his post-game press conference last night. He answered some questions from reporters and the only solution Bruce seemed to have to fix things is eventually getting Nijel Pack back in the lineup.  Turning this debacle of a season around does not sound promising. "The Sooners (8-4, 4-3 Big 12) used a combined 27-4 run over a near 11-minute span from the 5:19 mark of the first half to the 14:39 mark of the second half to flip a 5-point deficit

Last week I wrote a piece about the 2021 Big 12 inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame.  It was nice to see Darren Sproles get inducted along with Bob Stoops, who has some ties to K-State, but it left K-State fans once again wondering why an obvious choice, Michael Bishop, was passed over.  If you ask any K-State fan who they think is the best quarterback in school history, most everyone will say Michael Bishop.  Some old-schoolers might say Steve Grogan or Lynn Dickey, but they know in their hearts that Bishop is the man.  By 1996, Bill Snyder built the Kansas State football program to a level where they were competing near the top of the league and making yearly bowl game trips.  K-State reached their most prestigious bowl game after the 1996 season, playing in the Cotton Bowl.  Up until 1997, K-State Football was a nice little story.  It was a great turnaround of what was considered the worst program in college football.  Nebraska was still the class of the league and was

The list of inductees into the 2021 college football hall of fame included a few names that should be familiar to Big 12 football fans.  Texas defensive tackle Kenneth Sims, Kansas State running back Darren Sproles, and Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops were elected along with North Carolina offensive tackle Harris Barton, Arizona defensive back David Fulcher, Miami linebacker Dan Morgan, USC quarterback Carson Palmer, Eastern Illinois quarterback Tony Romo, Clemson running back CJ Spiller, Notre Dame offensive tackle Aaron Taylor, Iowa defensive end Andre Tippett, Tennessee linebacker Al Wilson, and Florida A&M coach Rudy Hubbard.  Let's take a closer look at the inductees with ties to the Big 12. Kenneth Sims never played in the Big 12, but he played on a great Texas defense during his time with the Longhorns from 1978-1981.  He anchored the middle of the defensive line with Steve McMichael, which must have been great to watch.  A two-time all-Southwest Conference selection, Sim

  K-State lost to Oklahoma State 70-54 in Bramlage Coliseum yesterday.  Covid on top of injuries meant that the Wildcats were down to six scholarship players, the minimum required to play a game in the Big 12 this season.  Let's take a look at what happened...    “Yeah I think I would’ve. Yes I thought for our circumstances, I would’ve not played it. I would’ve been alright with it. But then again you’ve got to do what the league says, you’ve got to do what the rules say and hopefully that’s why I’ve been able to stay in the business." ...Bruce Weber, post-game JM:  This was Weber's response when asked if he would have rather canceled the game than play it.  Unfortunately, with six scholarship players available they were forced to play it.  K-State was down to the minimum number of players allowed to play a Big 12 game, six scholarship players and two walk-ons, due to Covid-19 protocols.  Both Nijel Pack and Seryee Lewis were ruled out due to Covid. The Wildcats were a

It was another typical week for K-State basketball.  A win and two losses and a lot of the fan base didn't bother to watch.  I'm trying to find the positives when watching the latest version of Bruceketball, but  the losses are piling up, making it hard to do so. A feature I enjoy on Heartland College Sports is the weekly "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" column summing up the week in the Big 12.  This week I decided to do a K-State version of that column. At the very least it will be a good exercise to come up with some positives.  Here we go... The Good Three of K-State's freshmen are playing well and are making a huge impact so far this season. Freshman seven-footer Davion Bradford continues to show signs of being a force down low.  He had seven points and 10 rebounds against Omaha and followed that up with a 14 point and nine rebound effort against TCU on Saturday.  He also had 10 points and five rebounds against Texas Tech despite being in foul trouble during

  This past week we saw an ugly last second win for the basketball team over Omaha and a seven point loss to TCU yesterday.  The football team had a big "name" signing and a couple of roster announcements that made some waves.  Let's take a look... "Freshman Selton Miguel connected on a 3-pointer with 9.7 seconds left to lift Kansas State to a 60-58 win over Omaha on Tuesday night in front of a limited capacity crowd of 519 fans at Bramlage Coliseum." ...Kstatesports.com, December 29, 2020 JM:  Miguel's shot ended up being the game winner.  K-State was down early in this one, trailing 29-18 with 4:52 left in the first half before going on a 14-1 run to end the half.  "Obviously, it's time for giving, and I love Christmas. I'm kind of old school, watching AMC movies and Hallmark. I wrap presents and love to play Santa and give to our grandkids. I don't expect much, but definitely got a nice Christmas gift tonight with a tough, hard fou