K-State Q&A: Cartier Diarra, Big 12 hoops and early expectations for Chris Klieman
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
There are lots of great questions to cover this week, so let’s get right to them. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
Very well said.
I don’t know that I have witnessed a more unpredictable Big 12 basketball season. Every team seems to have major Jekyll and Hyde issues.
TCU can sweep Iowa State but can’t beat Oklahoma State or West Virginia with a NCAA Tournament bid dangling in front of them.
Oklahoma State can barely hang within 40 points of K-State, but then takes Texas Tech to overtime.
Iowa State can look capable of winning the national championship one night and losing to anyone the next.
About the only thing Big 12 fans can still count on is Kansas winning at home.
The only thing I can say with any measure of confidence is that the Big 12 Tournament is going to be bonkers.
Coming out and saying that I have no idea how things will turn out in the Big 12 basketball race probably wasn’t the best way to lead into this question, but I’m going to roll with it anyway.
Kansas State (11-4): Baylor, at TCU, Oklahoma.
With a healthy Dean Wade, I would pick the Wildcats to win their three remaining games. But he’s looked nothing like the dynamic player we saw last season in recent games. He’s been a shell of himself the past four games, showing no interest in dunking or scoring near the rim, and K-State lost by double digits against teams not named Oklahoma State and West Virginia during that stretch. The Wildcats may be favored in all three games, but I’m guessing they lose one and finish 13-5.
Texas Tech (11-4): at TCU, Texas, at Iowa State.
Just when the Red Raiders were starting to look like juggernauts they go out and need overtime to beat Oklahoma State at home. So maybe they are more vulnerable than it appeared while they won five straight games by huge margins. But they are still on a six-game winning streak and I think they can absolutely run the table. Still, ending the season at Iowa State will be tough. They probably trip up somewhere and finish 13-5.
Kansas (10-5): at Oklahoma State, at Oklahoma, Baylor.
Can the Jayhawks win out and extend their Big 12 streak to 15? Maybe, but I have my doubts. Oklahoma State showed signs of life at Texas Tech and Oklahoma will be trying to play its way into the NCAA Tournament. Both of those games are also on the road, where KU has struggled all season. Here’s guessing they stumble in Norman and finish 12-6.
Baylor (10-5): at Kansas State, Oklahoma State, at Kansas.
Don’t sleep on the Bears. Even though their path to a Big 12 championship is crazy hard with remaining road games against K-State and KU, they are absolutely capable of winning them. It certainly won’t surprise me if they play spoiler against someone. Conservative models have them finishing 11-7, but I’m going to guess 12-6.
So I am predicting K-State and Texas Tech to share the title.
Depending on how the Wildcats close out the regular season and then perform in the Big 12 Tournament, they are looking at anything from a 4 seed to a 6 seed.
Maybe they can climb to a 3 seed with six straight victories. Maybe they fall to a 7 seed with some type of losing streak. But that is where I think they end up.
Jerry Palm currently has K-State as a 4 seed and Joe Lunardi thinks K-State is a 6 seed.
Where the Wildcats play in the first round is a bigger mystery. There are nearby sites in Tulsa and Des Moines, but other teams seem to have dibs on those right now.
If they climb up to a 4 seed, they will play somewhere random like Jacksonville or San Jose or Salt Lake City. They will need to be seeded ahead of every team in the Big 12, Houston and maybe even some other teams to land in Tulsa. They will need to pass Big Ten teams to end up in Des Moines.
If they fall to a 6 seed, they could be placed at one of those sites, say opposite a 3 seed Houston in Tulsa.
It will be hard to project location before hand, but K-State is likely headed to its best NCAA Tournament seed since 2013 when it was a 4 seed in Kansas City.
I think every bubble team in the Big 12 will make the NCAA Tournament.
The bubble is marsh mellow soft this season, and no one is winning enough games to surge past them.
Oklahoma, TCU and Texas would all normally be on the outside looking in with their mediocre records, but there aren’t better teams to replace them with on the bracket.
The Longhorns may struggle to stay above .500, but they have beaten North Carolina, Purdue, KU and K-State. That should help them sneak in.
I am expecting Cartier Diarra to be back on the court in time for the Big 12 Tournament.
Perhaps that’s a bit on the optimistic side, but the standard recovery time for a broken finger is about four weeks and that would line up with that time table. Diarra is a quick healer and the Wildcats need him back. He’s been conditioning and working toward a return. That’s what everyone is hoping for.
There can always be setbacks or delays, given that he’s dealing with an injury to his shooting hand, but chances seem better than not we see him play in Kansas City and then the NCAA Tournament.
Next year’s starting lineup will almost certainly include a freshman, and might even resemble the 2015-16 lineup when the Wildcats started Kamau Stokes, Barry Brown and Dean Wade as rookies.
Montavious Murphy seems like a good starting option at the four, given the Wildcats will need someone to replace Wade and Murphy is the highest-rated incoming recruit.
But I could see Dajuan Gordon challenging for a starting spot at one of the guard positions. Goodnews Kpegeol and Antonio Gordon seem more like bench contributors, but they will both play.
I’m thinking next year’s starting lineup looks something like this: Shaun Neal-Williams or Dajuan Gordon, Cartier Diarra, Xavier Sneed, Montavious Murphy, Makol Mawien.
They’re both funny, but I prefer Seinfeld.
Even though it hasn’t been on the air in years, I find myself relating to a classic episode every few months or so.
Example: as bad as my K-State basketball picks (18-10) have been this season, I’m seriously considering pulling a George Costanza and doing the opposite of my natural instinct.
Would such a video go viral?
I feel like it’s pretty well understood that Big 12 refs occasionally treat KU basketball players like Michael Jordan in Allen Fieldhouse. A new video further explaining that trend might feel a little dog bites man.
The officiating, at times, felt one-sided in Lawrence earlier this week. But it’s not why K-State lost the game.
Nothing like this happened:
Alternate football uniforms are coming to Manhattan, but you’re not going to see any big changes next season.
It takes Nike more than a year to create, manufacture and deliver new uniforms to a football team, and there simply isn’t enough time for the Wildcats to make that happen for 2019.
You may see something like an alternate helmet or pants (so maybe hold out hope for an all white or all purple look) next season, but that’s all you’re going to get ... If that.
I’ve heard whispers of new Nike samples showing up at the K-State football offices and athletic department staffers having genuine excitement about new uniform possibilities. Chris Klieman will make them happen, just probably not until 2020.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor provided some good insight on uniforms when he was on KMAN radio earlier this week. I would recommend giving it a listen if you want to hear more particulars.
I don’t think success should be measured by wins or losses next season.
There are caveats that come with that, of course. A winless season would be a disaster. A major bowl game would be a heck of an accomplishment. But there really isn’t all much difference between 4-8 and 7-5.
K-State went 5-7 last season, but five of those games were in doubt until the final minutes. Bill Snyder liked to say the Wildcats weren’t far away from winning eight games. While that’s true, they were also close to only winning three. Let’s say K-State finished 7-5 instead of 5-7, would you feel way better about the season? Would 4-8 make you feel significantly worse?
It shouldn’t.
K-State was not competitive against the best teams on its schedule, and fixing that is the long term goal for Chris Klieman.
The odds will be stacked against him in Year 1. Klieman’s offense needs a stable of skilled, tough running backs to run on all cylinders, and Snyder didn’t leave him with a single one.
K-State returns some nice players like Skylar Thompson, Scott Frantz, Isaiah Zuber, Wyatt Hubert and Reggie Walker, but the roster has too many holes to expect big things right away.
Would a bowl game be viewed as a success? Yes, absolutely. But it’s not the end of the world if the team only wins five games. I’m more interested to see how K-State looks and improves throughout the season, and if it shows signs of closing the gap on teams like Mississippi State and Oklahoma.
This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 9:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Cartier Diarra, Big 12 hoops and early expectations for Chris Klieman."