Still, it is the first stop on your Saturday basketball road trip. It is Point A, the site of Kansas State and the deep purple extreme of a polarized state. Point B is 80 miles away in Lawrence, the other side of the extreme and another college town that sits on the opposite end of U.S. Highway 24, which connects these two towns.
It is the Tobacco Road of the heartland, only all you’ll see on the side of the roads are dead leftovers of last year’s corn patch and plenty of reminders that on most days, this is a state split along its allegiances.
But this is the first time in 20 years Kansas and K-State both appear in the tournament’s second round. On this day, the nation’s eyes are here.
“And it’s about time,” says John Wehner, a KU fan who lives almost exactly between the two schools. “I do get pretty annoyed hearing about East Coast basketball. This just shows we have some pretty good basketball out here.”
You have a map and a radio, tuned now to the K-State broadcast. The Wildcats are about to tip off against Wisconsin. At Point A, enthusiasm is high. And was that an omen a moment ago, when former K-State coach Bob Huggins led West Virginia to an upset against Duke?
No matter. You hit the road and head east, preparing to see what you see. You’ll find that one road links these two college towns, but for one day, at least, it also connects the state.
•••
WAMEGO, Kan. | Two more customers, and Mike Dekat is preparing to lock up. He is a K-State fan and the owner of a small-town auto-parts store, the one with a giant purple Wildcats logo on the roof. He drew the short straw to work on this day because, well, he is his only employee.
Sometimes when business is slow, Dekat flips on the radio he hides behind the battery shelves. The TV on one of the shelves is old and busted. The radio is the only way to know what is going on.
On this Saturday, though, the radio is silent. He has no idea his Wildcats are losing and star forward Michael Beasley is in early foul trouble. Those two customers roaming around in the back near the muffler fittings are the last of the day, and Dekat is going home. It is 3:36 p.m.
Dekat went to K-State for one semester but transferred to Washburn University in Topeka. He didn’t graduate. He kept following the Wildcats but developed his own quiet respect for his team’s rival.
“I just want the Kansas teams to win,” he says, straightening some papers. “I think a lot of people are like that. I hope they are, anyway.”
Sure, Dekat remembers the last time both teams went this deep into the NCAA Tournament. It was 1988, and the rivals met in the Elite Eight. K-State had Mitch Richmond. KU had Danny Manning. KU won that game and the national championship. Dekat hopes the teams meet again in this year’s Elite Eight, but he knows that’s a long shot.
The customers walk to the front, and they pay Dekat.
He has already missed almost half the K-State game. Figures. He says he has errands to run, but he plans to be home, finished or not, in time for KU’s game against UNLV. He follows you outside and locks the door. Time to go, he says. If he’s going to watch any basketball, he’s got to get moving.
•••
ST. MARYS, Kan. | “Not looking too good,” Jeff Gaynor says as he watches K-State in the first half. You are downstairs in a cavernous bar called Tully’s Irish Pub, talking hoops as Gaynor takes another pull off his Coors longneck.
Join the discussion
Share your observations and experiences about news. Lively, open debate is the goal, but please refrain from personal attacks or comments that are racist, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate. If you see an inappropriate comment, please click the "Report as violation" link to notify a KansasCity.com editor. Thanks for your feedback.