K-State Q&A: Mike McGuirl, basketball transfers and Gene Taylor’s contract extension
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
We have lots of great questions and fun topics lined up this week, so let’s get right to them. Thanks, as always, for your participation.
More than a few people have tried to tell me that Mike McGuirl coming back to K-State as a “super senior” isn’t that big of a deal for the men’s basketball team, and I don’t understand why they think that is an opinion worth shouting about on social media.
Is he a perfect player? No. Far from it.
Is he better than any other option the Wildcats will have at shooting guard next season? Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Period. End of sentence.
McGuirl averaged 11.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists last season. If Bruce Weber could land a grad transfer with those exact same stats from another school, that would likely be viewed as a positive development for the Wildcats. So no one should be upset about Weber retaining that production from McGuirl, especially because he has been in the program for four years and will count as an extra scholarship player.
He might not bring as much upside as, say, Jacob Pullen returning for an extra year. But I fail to see the down side by him coming back.
Now, if Weber had a five-star recruit coming in at that position or an impact transfer lined up that averaged 25 points at a different school last season, then I can see why the Wildcats might not necessarily want McGuirl eating up 30 minutes a game next year.
But that’s not the case.
Luke Kasubke isn’t ready to play 30 minutes a game. I highly doubt Max Edwards will be, either.
McGuirl isn’t holding back the development of any other players on the roster.
He was an honorable mention All-Big 12 player last season and one of the team’s two most consistent scorers. Bruce Weber wanted him back on the basketball court as much as Chris Klieman wanted Skylar Thompson back on the football field.
Odds are good K-State will add a transfer guard (or two) that will be able to provide enough of a scoring boost to allow McGuirl to play with less pressure on his shoulders next season. If he can go from playing 34 minutes per game to something closer to 30 and not force as many shots he could take a nice step forward as a “super senior.”
Gene Taylor’s contract extension was not well received by K-State fans, and that was to be expected given how bad a year it has been for the Wildcats in football (4-6), men’s basketball (9-20) and women’s basketball (9-18).
Also: No one who has been forced to take a pay cut, go on furlough or completely lost their job during the coronavirus pandemic wants to hear about anyone else getting a raise.
In his defense, I will point out that Taylor worked with a reduced salary just like everyone else in the athletic department this year, and his pay bump (from $650,000 to $925,000) won’t kick in until the 2021-22 academic year begins and K-State revenues begin to climb as COVID-19 restrictions fade.
And the AD is responsible for a lot more than what happens between the lines on game days.
There have been positives under his watch in Manhattan.
It appears the athletic department will come out of the pandemic on stable financial footing. He successfully convinced local health officials to allow fans at every home game this season, which was not the case for all schools across the Big 12. The baseball team will have a shot at making the NCAA Tournament this year.
Taylor successfully transitioned the football team away from Bill Snyder to a new coach without much drama. Klieman won eight games in his debut season and Weber guided the basketball team to an Elite Eight and a Big 12 championship with Taylor in the AD chair.
Improvements are on the way at the football stadium next season and new facilities like a volleyball arena and an indoor practice space for football remain in the works for other teams.
His employees seem to like working for him, unlike what we saw unfold in Lawrence recently.
I’m not saying any of that does or does not justify a contract extension. I’m just listing a few positives that the school could point to with Taylor.
But there definitely haven’t been many memorable wins at K-State over the past 12 months, which is what fans care most about. Taylor’s challenge over the next six years will be earning his new salary and guiding the Wildcats to better days after the pandemic ends.
Taylor was definitely underpaid with his old contract. His salary was lower than any other athletics director in a power conference this year.
I don’t know that you can say that anymore with his new deal, but his salary does still rank near the bottom of Big 12 ADS, which is one reason why he was probably due a raise after president Richard Myers decided he was worth extending through 2027.
Matching the AD salaries you will find at Iowa State and West Virginia seems reasonable.
Here is how his new salary of $925,000 would have stacked up with other Big 12 ADs this year:
Chris Del Conte, Texas: $2.3 million.
Kirby Hocutt, Texas Tech: $1.85 million.
Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma: $1.73 million.
Mack Rhoades, Baylor: $1.55 million.
Jeff Long, Kansas: $1.5 million.
Mike Holder, Oklahoma State: $950,000.
Jeremiah Donati, TCU: $938,473.
Gene Taylor, K-State: $925,000.
Jamie Pollard, Iowa State: $903,000.
Shane Lyons, West Virginia: $870,000.
Get out of here with this question.
Like it or not, the odds of Weber remaining as coach next season are close to 100%.
It all depends on how next season goes for the K-State men’s basketball team.
If the Wildcats win 20-plus games, return to the NCAA Tournament and maybe even win a game or two while there then Weber will probably get a contract extension and coach beyond 2023 until he’s ready to retire.
But if the Wildcats don’t make significant improvement next season then his time in purple will be over.
You could say it’s postseason or pink slip.
YES!
Here are at least four of the transfers Weber has been in contact with, and I think they all look pretty good.
- Jamir Harris, American (20.5 points, 3.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds)
- Keason Willis, Incarnate Word (18.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists)
- David Collins, South Florida (12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists)
- Brandon McKissic, UMKC (17.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists)
You can scratch Harris off the wish list, though, because he recently committed to Seton Hall.
Blast from the past Caleb Grill entered the transfer portal on Thursday. I suppose he could also be an option, if he doesn’t follow his favorite coach back to Iowa State.
One transfer I really like is Davidson’s Kellan Grady. He averaged 17.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists and shot 38.2% from three last season. Bruce should give him a call!
And if we’re really going off radar here’s one other name I will throw out there, even though I have no reason to believe he is looking to transfer and I just think it would be cool.
Trevor Hudgins was recently voted Division II Player of the Year at Northwest Missouri State. He is on the verge of leading the Bearcats to a national championship. He averages 20 points, 4.6 assists and shoots better than 50% from three-point range.
And he grew up in Manhattan.
He’s got it pretty good, so I’m not suggesting he will look to transfer. If nothing else, this just an opportunity for me to say I’m impressed by what he’s done. But should he decide to try his luck at the Division I level as a senior, he could definitely help the Wildcats.
DaJuan Gordon is the only transfer I was truly surprised to see leave.
He went from saying K-State was going to be the No. 1 ranked team in the nation next season to entering the NCAA transfer portal in a very short amount of time.
It also shocked me when Weber said he was looking for an expanded offensive role elsewhere. Now, maybe there is something more to the story. But Gordon had carved out a nice role for himself with the Wildcats. There isn’t a huge market out there for shooting guards who rarely make three-pointers, but Weber didn’t seem to care about Gordon’s offensive limitations and played him a ton of minutes because of the intangibles he brought to the floor in addition to defense and rebounding.
From my point of view, Gordon had it pretty good in Manhattan.
The grass might not be greener for him with another team, at least at the power-conference level.
Antonio Gordon was a lock to leave, given his off-the-court situation. Rudi Williams was a prime transfer candidate because there’s no way he was going to start over Nijel Pack as a senior. Joe Petrakis leaving is understandable, because his time as a scholarship player was coming to an end and he wants to see if he can earn a permanent one elsewhere.
Some have wildly over reacted to those departures as if they are a sign of the apocalypse, when in reality those four players combined to average 21.1 points last season. There are available players in the portal that scored more all by themselves.
K-State is currently on track to return nine scholarship players next season (including four players that finished the season in the starting lineup).
Weber has never been good at retaining players for four full years, but in this case (as of now) I think he’s done a nice job of stabilizing K-State’s roster.
Nijel Pack, Mike McGuirl, Selton Miguel and Davion Bradford are all expected back.
If the Wildcats go with a bigger lineup next season with Montavious Murphy at the four, they will have experience at every position. Add on a couple transfers and that’s a group that could make a big improvement next season.
There’s always a possibility K-State could lose more transfers, which wouldn’t be great. But Weber has three open scholarships to play with at the moment, and if he brings in the right additions the roster might end up in better shape in the long run.
I’m sticking with Gonzaga as my national champion, but if I had to throw a dart at some other team I would pick Alabama or Loyola Chicago.
My new Final Four: Gonzaga, Alabama, Baylor, Loyola Chicago.
The Crimson Tide have more than enough offensive firepower to win it all, and they really haven’t been challenged yet.
The Ramblers have also won both of their games by double digits and have already beaten the top seed in their region. Porter Moser has been to the Final Four before. Only Oregon State, Syracuse and Houston are standing in his way from a return.
Oregon and USC have also looked incredible so far. And they both play in the Pac-12, which might as well join the NBA Western Conference the way its teams have played in March. I would say one of them ... if they didn’t have Gonzaga in their region.
Expect things to break.
That is sadly my best advice for owning a home. We moved right before Christmas in 2019 and our family has been on a first-name basis with plumbers, refrigerator repairmen, hardwood floor specialists and dishwasher salesmen ever since.
Hopefully you have better luck, but I’m just warning you there aren’t many worse feelings than waking up to a fridge that is leaking water.
So my advice is to find some good homeowners insurance and set aside some money for new appliances or repairs.
Also: be prepared to make way more visits to Home Depot than you ever thought possible. Will Ferrell’s character nailed a homeowner’s weekend in the movie “Old School.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 10:32 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Mike McGuirl, basketball transfers and Gene Taylor’s contract extension."