Joe on K-State Sports

March is here. That’s not just the NCAA Tournament, that’s also the start of college football spring practice . The Kansas State Wildcats start their spring practice this year under Chris Klieman, who is preparing for his third season as the head coach of the program. Here are the five biggest questions heading into this spring.   1) Is Jake Rubley going to redshirt?   Starting quarterback Skylar Thompson is returning for the 2021 season, but he is still recovering from a shoulder injury and will not participate in spring practice.  That leaves sophomore Will Howard and incoming four-star freshman Jake Rubley to take most of the reps at quarterback.  In a zoom call with reporters in December, Rubley indicated that he plans to redshirt his freshman year, which would indicate that there won't be a battle for the backup quarterback job.  If Rubley redshirts, Will Howard would have the spot again.  However, during a zoom call with reporters in January, Chris Klieman did not confirm

    Kansas State basketball lost 65-43 to West Virginia yesterday in a game they were forced to play without starting guard Nijel Pack due to an eye issue. There's not much to say about this one, as it was ugly on both sides until West Virginia went on a 17-0 run in the second half to break it wide open.  Let's take a closer look... "Our defense was better in the second half. It was much better in the second half. (In the) first half, both teams were miserable. Both teams didn’t make any shots. In the second half, (junior guard) Sean (McNeil) started making some shots for us. (Senior guard) Taz (Sherman) scored. Derek got involved a little more. We obviously can score when you look at our numbers over the past three weeks." ...Bob Huggins, post-game JM:  I found this quote interesting because Huggins evaluated both teams as being "miserable."  He was being honest and he was right, but you usually don't see coaches evaluate the opposing team negatively li

Kansas State wins!  Two in a row!  No, that's not a misprint! In what was a surprise to many, Bruce Weber's Wildcats beat TCU 62-54 on Saturday and followed that up by beating number seven ranked Oklahoma 62-57 on Wednesday night.  Can K-State keep the momentum going?  It's probably going to depend on the play of senior Mike McGuirl, who has come alive in the last two games. McGuirl came out on fire at the beginning of the TCU game on Saturday and finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, and five assists.  The Oklahoma game on Wednesday was his senior night celebration. He hasn't officially announced if he is going to play next year or not, but I guess this is a good sign that he probably is not going to be returning.  He scored 19 points and had seven rebounds.  K-State was down six points with just under four minutes to play when McGuirl hit three-pointers on three straight possessions, helping turn a six-point deficit into a five-point victory.  It was great seeing th

  The Wildcats won their first game of 2021 yesterday, beating TCU 62-54.  The game was very much in doubt until Selton Miguel hit a three-pointer from the corner with 2:35 left to give K-State a 56-51 lead.  K-State finished the game on a 16-3 run in a game I never thought they were going to win until Miguel made that key shot down the stretch.  Let's take a look at some news and quotes of note from the game... "I called Shane after the Kansas game. I said, 'What do we need to do?' He said, 'We need to score, Coach'." ...Bruce Weber, post-game JM:  I chuckled when hearing this.  It's quite simple, but it's true.  The Wildcats struggle to score.  Have all season and, to be honest, have throughout the Bruce Weber tenure.   JM:  This was tweeted by Fitz during the KU game this past Wednesday night.  K-State shot 3 of 24 from three-point range in the game and two of those were made at the very end of the game in garbage time.  The Wildcats are a horre

The Big 12 football schedules were released last week and it sure got fans buzzing about the upcoming season.  Kansas State fans already knew who they are going to play and where, so the bye week and the order of opponents were the most important reveals.  K-State has a tough road starting the season, so how the team performs in the first half of the schedule will likely end up defining whether it is a successful season or not.  I'll break down the schedule and give my way-too-early predictions for the upcoming football season. September 4th, Stanford in Dallas, Texas The first game of the season against Stanford was originally supposed to be a return home game for the Wildcats.  Instead, it was moved to a neutral site in Dallas, Texas, and will be the college football Kickoff Classic.  Stanford finished the 2020 season 4-2, winning their last four games.  They will be starting a new quarterback, with senior Jack West and sophomore Tanner McKee competing for the job.  K-State has a

    K-State basketball lost a single-season school record 12th game in a row on Saturday, losing to Oklahoma State 67-60. They scored 19 points in the first half and despite a 16-0 run in the second half were down the entire game.  I got in the car after the game and heard Bruce Weber on the post-game radio show with Wyatt Thompson and Stan Weber and Bruce mentioned that the team basically couldn't practice on Thursday and Friday because everyone was so tired and that led to the bad performance starting the game.  I've never heard a coach say that his team couldn't practice for two days in a row because they were "too tired."  Rather than recapping the game or analyzing the post-game press conference, today's tweets about Bruce Weber were quite entertaining.  Take a look... JM:  This makes Gene Taylor's "vote of confidence" of Bruce Weber all the more maddening. JM:  There have been seasons when Bruce Weber has lost his roster and there have been

    The Peacock Network has a free preview this weekend and I saw that they have every episode of Saturday Night Live on it.  I'm a huge fan of the original cast up until about the mid-1990s and I watched the first couple of episodes because I have never watched them.  The first episode was hosted by George Carlin and the second episode was hosted by Paul Simon.  Simon brought on Art Garfunkel for a Simon & Garfunkel reunion of sorts.  I guess they had broken up at this point.  Anyway, that got me thinking of the last time Simon & Garfunkel performed together.  A quick search brought up the video above of Art Garfunkel doing a concert in California in 2019.  I noticed that he is wearing an old school K-State Willie the Wildcat t-shirt during this concert.  That got me curious as to his ties to K-State and wondering why he is wearing the t-shirt. I looked at his Wiki page and there is no reference to K-State, Manhattan, or Kansas.  I searched on various search engines and ha

It's time for another version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Kansas State basketball edition!  I know you've all been waiting for this with bated breath!  Let's dig right in... The Good Nijel Pack.  The freshman guard has been fun to watch since returning from missing four straight games due to Covid.  He's scored in double figures in each of the last five games, averaging 17 points per game, scored 26 points against Texas A&M, and had 22 last night against Texas.  He's also averaged five rebounds a game during that stretch, which isn't too bad for the guy running the point guard position.  He leads the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game on the season and has increased his three-point field goal percentage to 41.4%.  Jared Butler of Baylor is shooting 44.6% from three-point range on the season, so Pack is not that far behind what the league leader is shooting.  The Wildcats need Pack to continue to play well if they want to be competitive down the

Gene Taylor appeared on KMAN 1350 AM "The Drive" with John Kurtz and Wyatt Thompson yesterday and was asked by Kurtz about Bruce Weber's job status.  There were a few quotes of note... "It is what it is I guess.  I don't enjoy talking about it in the middle of the season when someone has a contract." ...Gene Taylor, KMAN, February 8th JM:  Kurtz asked Taylor what it was like having to answer questions about Bruce Weber's job status.  Taylor is obviously uncomfortable addressing it during the season, even dropping one of my least favorite phrases "it is what it is." "You know, obviously we have fans that are upset and frustrated and I get that.  On the other hand I get people that have reached out to support Bruce. Bruce has done a lot for us and our program." ...Gene Taylor, KMAN, February 8th JM:  Taylor keeps mentioning that there are a large percentage of people that want Bruce Weber to remain as the coach. Who are these people tha