K-State Q&A: Spring football, March Madness picks and a new way to view transfers
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
I don’t have much to say at the top this week other than that I am thrilled the NCAA Tournament is back. March was sad without it last year. So let’s dive right into your questions.
I’m setting the over/under for K-State basketball transfers at 3 1/2.
Transfers are on the rise across the country, and I will be surprised if the Wildcats are immune, even after they finished the season on a tear by winning four of their final six games.
Antonio Gordon is already on the move.
Who will be next?
I had a pretty good idea on the answer when I originally wrote this mailbag on Thursday. Turns out, my info was correct. Sophomore guard DaJuan Gordon and junior guard Rudi Williams both entered the transfer portal on Friday morning.
That’s not great news for the Wildcats. It’s not horrible news, either. But Bruce Weber definitely would have liked to keep DaJuan Gordon on the roster.
He averaged 9.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists while making 37.5% of his shots and playing in 25 games and making 22 starts last season. He was a liability from three-point range, but he found other ways to help the team.
Even though Gordon’s numbers weren’t overwhelming, he brought many intangibles to the court that didn’t show up on the stat sheet. He was one of the team’s most reliable leaders as both a freshman and then again as a sophomore. He was also one of Weber’s toughest guards and played through myriad ankle and foot injuries.
His production might not be hard to replace, but those other things will be.
No offense to Antonio Gordon and Rudi Williams, but their departures could end up being addition by subtraction next season.
The good news is that it seems like K-State’s big three freshmen of Davion Bradford, Selton Miguel and Nijel Pack are committed to building something together in Manhattan. I haven’t heard any whispers about them looking elsewhere. As long as that trio sticks around, the Wildcats will have a shot at being a much improved team next season, even if they sustain some transfer losses.
They are the future.
If the Wildcats play bigger next season with Montavious Murphy and incoming freshman Logan Landers at the four, their rotation is still looking pretty solid other than guard depth. That’s where the right spring additions, or McGuirl’s return, could make a huge difference.
Anymore, I don’t think quantity means all that much when it comes to transfers. Quality is much more important. Every team is going to lose players to the portal. That is a given. Most don’t like it, but it’s the new reality with immediate eligibility on the way.
Losing the right players gives coaches an opportunity to upgrade quickly. Look at Chris Beard and Fred Hoiberg.
Losing the wrong players puts coaches in a tough spot.
How coaches replace their transfers each year is ultimately the most important thing. As we saw with K-State football last year, the transfer portal can both giveth and taketh away.
With that in mind, I would advise anyone reading this to take a patient approach to transfer season.
Outside of the three freshmen mentioned above, I would say K-State coaches would have liked to retain DaJuan Gordon, Luke Kasubke, Montavious Murphy, Kaosi Ezeagu, Antonio Gordon, Rudi Williams, Carlton Linguard and Seryee Lewis in roughly that order.
If K-State only ends up losing three transfers, I don’t think that’s a huge deal.
Mike McGuirl is a bit of wild card, given that he doesn’t count against the team’s scholarship limit. I think the Wildcats are better off with him than without him next season. But he is not an alpha, even though he averaged 34.4 minutes last season. K-State basketball coach Bruce Weber wants him back, but it’s possible they could be better off with an impact transfer at shooting guard.
Weber has said he won’t hesitate to recruit transfers during this cycle. That has never been his forte, but there have never been more quality transfer options available. Adding the right players could instantly make the Wildcats more talented and more experienced next season.
The Wildcats have reportedly been in contact with American graduate transfer Jamir Harris, who averaged 20.7 points and shot 43% from three last season. Landing a transfer like that would be massive.
We’re just going to have to wait and see how things play out.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after years of covering Bruce Weber, it’s that you have to read between the lines a little bit when he provides vague reasons for why any of his players miss games.
In the case of Antonio Gordon, Weber said he was given a leave of absence from K-State’s final three games for “total health issues.” He made it sound like a culmination of stress, injuries and illnesses caught up with the sophomore forward at the end of a difficult year that was played during the coronavirus pandemic.
While some of that is true, Weber could have also said that Gordon did something to violate team rules and he was away from the team because of disciplinary reasons. That was also true, according to insiders.
It’s probably best to describe Gordon’s transfer as a mutual parting of ways.
Poor Caleb Grill.
Everyone’s favorite 2019 shooting guard from Wichita originally signed with South Dakota State because he really wanted to play for coach T.J. Otzelberger, but he ended up at Iowa State when Otzelberger bolted for UNLV.
Then, after a year with the Cyclones, he decided he would rather play for Otzelberger at UNLV and transferred there ... only for Otzelberger to take the Iowa State job a few months later.
Your guess is as good as mine about what his future holds.
I kind of doubt he follows his favorite coach back to Ames, because he already left that place. I also kind of doubt he ends up at K-State, because his skills aren’t exactly what the Wildcats are looking for in a transfer guard right now. But he did average 9.1 points and shoot 34.2% from three-point range last season. They could do worse.
Maybe he looks at Wichita State or stays in Las Vegas. But he’s in an interesting situation to say the least.
E-MAIL QUESTION: Who do you have making the Final Four in your bracket? And which mascots did your kids go with in their brackets? - Andrew B.
Let me start by saying I absolutely hate my bracket.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, my Final Four teams are: Gonzaga, Texas, Baylor and Illinois. I picked some upsets in the early rounds like Grand Canyon over Iowa, Winthrop over Villanova and Georgetown over Colorado, but I really liked most of the No. 1 seeds. I went with Gonzaga over Baylor in the final.
My oldest son went with Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
My kindergartner, who went almost entirely off mascots, picked Cleveland State, UNC Greensboro, North Texas and UC Santa Barbara.
I’m hoping he beats us all!
Give me Jacob Pullen, Rolando Blackman, Mitch Richmond, Michael Beasley and Bob Boozer with Ernie Barrett coming off the bench and Tex Winter calling the shots.
That would be a heck of a team.
1. National championship: Duh!
2. Final Four: It’s a special accomplishment, even if you lose.
3. Conference championship: Some will disagree, but this means more to me than a potentially fluky run through the NCAA Tournament. Winning a regular-season conference championship proves you had a hell of a team.
4. Elite Eight: Self explanatory.
5. Conference Tournament Championship: Winning three (or four) games in consecutive days against strong competition, especially in the Big 12, is impressive.
6. Sweet 16: Reaching the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament is always a sign of a good season.
7. Winning 20 games: It no longer means what it once did, but bad teams don’t win 20 games.
8. Round of 32: Not worthy of a banner, but it’s something.
9. NCAA Tournament Appearance: Better than the NIT.
10. NIT appearance: Better than the CBE.
When we speak with defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman, here’s guessing he will have lots of good things to say about K-State’s newest transfers on that side of the ball.
It sounds like Julius Brents (defensive back) and Timmy Horne (defensive tackle) are both well on their way to starting immediately next season. Russ Yeast (defensive back) and Eric Munoz (linebacker) might do the same, though their early reviews haven’t been quite as positive as the other two.
Jahron McPherson and Bronson Massie returning as “super seniors” was also a big deal.
I’m leaning toward Daniel Green and Cody Fletcher starting at linebacker, but the Wildcats will rotate four or more players at that position, so developing depth will be just as important as designating starters.
I don’t know if Daniel Imatorbhebhe rolls off the tongue. It’s pretty freaking hard to pronounce (ee-MAT-or-bay-bay) correctly! But K-State’s newest tight end definitely makes my Hard To Spell Name Hall of Fame.
I’m getting the hang of typing “Imator” and then “bhe” and another “bhe” into my stories. But I now understand why people call Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski simply Coach K.
Two K-State football names that I have always been fond of: Taco Wallace and Cornelius Ruff IV.
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Spring football, March Madness picks and a new way to view transfers."