ESPN analyst says Kansas State would be foolish to fire Bruce Weber

Count ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla among those who think Bruce Weber deserves another season at Kansas State.

“Bruce is a terrific coach,” Fraschilla said Tuesday in a phone interview. “There is never a hint of scandal, he has got a reasonably young team and he has got sophomores that are growing up by the week. I think it would be foolish, despite what some of the fans think, to make a change.

“I think he is well respected by the other coaches in the league. His teams play hard, they are well coached and he has developed some good, young players. I just think they suffered from tough luck this year.”

K-State (19-12, 8-10 Big 12) was all over the map this season, breaking into the national polls with a 15-4 start and then crashing onto the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble with a 2-8 stretch that featured four consecutive home losses and an 81-51 defeat at Oklahoma. But it has bounced back with victories over TCU and Texas Tech to finish sixth in the conference standings after being picked to finish ninth in the coach’s preseason poll.

The Wildcats enter the conference tournament as the league’s lone bubble team. A victory over Baylor on Thursday could clinch them an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. A loss could leave them sweating until Selection Sunday.

“They need at least one win and probably two,” Fraschilla said. “It’s doable, because they have beaten both teams they may see if the seedings hold.”

Weber’s future is also in limbo. The success he found in his first two seasons, which featured a shared conference championship and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, has not been duplicated in his past three. K-State has missed the bracket in back-to-back years and his record has dipped from 47-21 to 51-45.

Acting athletic director Laird Veatch said Saturday he will work in concert with university president Richard Myers when it comes time to make a decision on Weber, but he plans to wait until after the season to evaluate the basketball team.

Fraschilla is an expert when it comes to Big 12 basketball. The former coach serves as ESPN’s primary color analyst for the Big 12 and called several K-State games this season. He thinks the Wildcats are trending in the right direction.

“Despite the fact they are losing a couple key guys they have a really, really good nucleus coming back,” Fraschilla said. “They have got a freshman in Xavier Sneed who I think is going to take a big step forward and those sophomores (Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes, Dean Wade) are going to be good juniors.

“They have a chance to be better next season. They will miss their two seniors (Wesley Iwundu and D.J. Johnson), but neither one became what I would call a ‘lock all-league player.’ They are good Big 12 players, but I think Bruce has some players that are capable of becoming as good as any in the league with the backcourt they have and Dean Wade.”

Fraschilla went on to say Manhattan is not the easiest place to win. He thinks the K-State basketball job ranks in the bottom half of the Big 12.

“Anywhere between six and eight,” Fraschilla said. “The strengths are the tradition, the arena, the fan support. The negative is it’s in a state that doesn’t produce a ton of high-level basketball talent. They are less likely to go coast-to-coast and find players than Texas and Kansas. They really need to take guys they can develop.”

This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 3:59 PM with the headline "ESPN analyst says Kansas State would be foolish to fire Bruce Weber."