How two unheralded recruits and a small-town kid reshaped K-State basketball
What if I told you a pair of unheralded recruits and a small-town kid from Kansas would grow up to be a memorable group of K-State basketball players?
If that sounds like the start of an ESPN documentary, well, it should. Barry Brown, Dean Wade and Kamau Stokes arrived at K-State with the basketball program in rebuilding mode and will leave it with a shot at a Big 12 championship in their final home game. That story would make for good television.
All three have come a long way in appearance and skill since they became Wildcats in 2015. The same could be said for K-State basketball, in general.
The Wildcats were coming off a 15-17 season when they arrived (a campaign so frustrating that Bruce Weber replaced the bulk of K-State’s roster afterward) and it was up to Brown, Stokes and Wade to set the team on a new trajectory. Weber recruited them because they were all winners in high school, and they didn’t accept losing in college.
“They care and they are coach-able,” Weber said. “That is a big thing. They wanted to do well.”
As freshmen, they helped K-State improve to 17-15. As sophomores, they reached the NCAA Tournament and won 21 games. As juniors, they made it to the Elite Eight. As seniors, anything seems possible.
“The toughest moment we dealt with was our freshman year, being thrown in the fire right away,” Stokes said. “Playing against teams that had seniors and had been playing together for a while was tough. Not making the tournament was tough. We made a progression every year and made that tournament every year since. We would like to make a few more strides.”
It’s hard to believe their ride together is almost over. They don’t want it to end.
Here is a look back at where it began.
Chip on his shoulder
K-State fans weren’t happy when Barry Brown committed to the Wildcats.
Brown was a three-star guard living in St. Petersburg, Fla., who seemed to have promise at the next level. But he was the sixth man on his AAU team and looked like a project, someone who would need years to develop into a contributor. Florida Gulf Coast, Florida International and North Florida were the only schools in his home state that recruited him.
He also wasn’t Kerwin Roach, a higher-profile guard from Houston who had just scheduled a recruiting visit to K-State. When Brown committed, Roach responded by canceling his visit and later signing with Texas.
Four years later, it’s clear K-State came out on top of those recruiting decisions.
Brown has grown into a Big 12 player of the year candidate and is currently averaging 15.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.7 assists while also playing lock-down defense.
Each of those numbers have nearly doubled since his freshman year, when he averaged 8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists.
He ranks sixth on K-State’s career scoring list with 1,736 points.
“Barry had a chip on his shoulder,” Weber said. “He wasn’t recruited as highly as some other kids in that Florida area and he thought he should have been. He had something to prove. There is a saying we have used the past few years: ‘Each day you have got to come with a chip on your shoulder with something to prove or you will never improve.’ He has done that.”
Brown has been the one constant in K-State’s senior class. Stokes and Wade have missed games with injuries, but Brown has been an iron man and played in a school-record 135 consecutive games.
Weber has described him as the best leader he has coached at K-State. Brown says it was easy to lead with teammates like Stokes and Wade.
“We fed off each others’ energy right away,” Brown said, “and that allowed us to grow a bond off the court that allowed us to build a bond on the court.”
Four years after arriving without a hint of fanfare, some think Brown’s jersey belongs in the Bramlage Coliseum rafters.
Aiming higher
When Kamau Stokes was a high school senior living in Baltimore he signed with Toledo. But he had a change of heart when the assistant coach who recruited him left for another job. So he decided to enroll in prep school and try to enhance his profile.
“Kamau was a little guy,” Weber said. “He was recruited by mid-majors and he thought he should have a chance to play at a higher level.”
Turns out, he was right.
Stokes will end his college career as one of only three K-State players with 400 assists. Not bad, considering he missed significant action as a freshman and junior because of injuries.
Many first noticed Stokes when he drained six three-pointers in a near upset of North Carolina as a freshman. Looking back, Weber thinks he was the most college-ready player of this senior class.
He was certainly the most confident.
“We are basically starting a whole new program,” Stokes said in 2015. “But we have real good guys coming in. I like them. They are all like me. They like to work and compete. We are all going to work our hardest to get back to the NCAA Tournament.”
They will make their third straight trip to the Big Dance later this month. And Stokes is a big reason why. Though he has been overshadowed by Brown and Wade, he has arguably been K-State’s best player this month.
He has reached double figures in four consecutive games, and sent out 13 assists while losing just five turnovers. The Wildcats wouldn’t be where they are right now without him.
Small-town boy
Here’s what Dean Wade had to say the day he committed to K-State following a recruiting visit five years ago: “I love the fans and the coaching staff. They are going to get me so much better than I am right now, and playing in Bramlage Coliseum in front of all those fans is going to be a dream come true.”
Seems like he was looking into a crystal ball.
Wade has transformed himself from a skinny boy from St. John to a bicep-flexing man during his time at K-State. And it feels like he enjoyed every moment of the journey.
Unlike his senior teammates, Wade was a sought-after recruit. Not a blue-chipper with offers from Kansas, Duke and Kentucky, but the No. 106 prospect in his class, according to Rivals.
Oklahoma wanted him. So did Wichita State. He had choices. But he grew up idolizing Ron Baker and Perry Ellis, Kansas basketball heroes who stayed home to star for the Shockers and Jayhawks. He wanted to follow in their footsteps, so he tried to do the same at his favorite in-state school.
Now he has a chance to go out with a Big 12 title.
“It means a lot, especially after what we did as freshmen,” Wade said. “From where we were and how we finished as freshmen to continually get better every year and finally to be at the top of the Big 12, fighting for a championship in the last game of the season means a lot. We worked really hard for this.”
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Wade. He looked so dominant in practices heading into his freshman season that teammates suggested he was ready for the NBA, but bizarrely seemed afraid to shoot when the games began.
He averaged 9.9 points as a freshman and 9.3 as a sophomore, but coaches were left wanting more. At one point, Stokes grew so tired of Wade passing up shots that he slapped him on the chest and screamed “shoot the (expletive) ball” in the middle of a NCAA Tournament loss to Cincinnati.
Once Wade learned to play more aggressively, he never looked back. Wade shot up to 16.2 points as a junior and is now among the most indispensable players in all of college basketball. The majority of K-State’s losses this season have come with him battling foot injuries.
Wade is a crowd favorite and regularly encounters huge groups of autograph-seekers after home games.
He followed a different path than his senior teammates, but ended up in the same place. This senior class won’t soon be forgotten.
“Dean had a little more hype, but he was still a small-town Kansas kid,” Weber said. “All of them kind of had that same drive and determination to prove people wrong.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2019 at 2:47 PM with the headline "How two unheralded recruits and a small-town kid reshaped K-State basketball."