K-State Q&A: Did NCAA snub Wildcats baseball? Who tops Chris Klieman’s recruit list?
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
Sorry there was no mailbag last week, but I was away on a Griswold style family vacation. It was a great trip, thanks for asking. The Robinetts flew to Florida instead of driving to California, but we did end up spending one day at a theme park. Fortunately, Universal Studios was open. Good times were had by all. Now it’s time to have even more fun by answering your questions. Let’s dive right in.
I feel bad for the K-State baseball team. I really do.
Pete Hughes guided the Bat Cats to a solid season. They won more than 30 games for the first time since 2013 and then made a lot of noise at the Big 12 Tournament, reaching the semifinals with victories over Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU.
Their final record of 34-23 was arguably good enough for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, especially when you consider they won six games against teams that are currently hosting a regional.
With stud pitcher Jordan Wicks on the mound and some home-run hitters at the plate, it would have been fun to see what the Wildcats could have accomplished as one of the final teams selected for the NCAA Tournament.
Their odds of advancing to a super regional would have been higher than many of the teams that got in.
Alas, there were plenty of reasons for the selection committee to leave K-State at home. And they embraced them. The Wildcats weren’t even among the first four teams left out of the field.
Why? A few reasons: Their RPI was not good at 71, while bubble teams that got in like Alabama (33) and LSU (28) were much better positioned. They lost a home series to Eastern Illinois, they started 2-7 in Big 12 play, they lost 23-3 at Baylor, they got no-hit by Kansas and they finished below .500 in the Big 12 at 10-14.
K-State ended the year on a tear by winning five of its final eight games against topnotch competition, but it wasn’t even on the radar for an at-large berth until that point.
The Wildcats needed to win more games, plain and simple.
A few years ago, I wrote an article about the K-State men’s basketball team missing out on the NIT when Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade were freshmen. They were arguably deserving of a spot in the tournament, but nowhere near a lock. Anyway, I used the word “snubbed” in my headline, mostly to conserve space. The next day, I got a lengthy e-mail from a reader explaining why that was a poor choice of words, as K-State was not “rebuffed, ignored or spurned disdainfully” by the NIT like the word’s definition suggests.
Ultimately, I agreed with the reader. “Snubbed” was too strong of a word in that scenario. I think it’s also too strong of a word for what happened to the K-State baseball team.
It sure would have been fun to see the Bat Cats in the field. But they had too many flaws in their resume to cry foul.
It’s just too bad there isn’t a NIT type tournament for baseball. College football has low-tier bowls and college basketball has numerous postseason competitions. But there’s no consolation event for baseball teams that barely miss out on the NCAA Tournament.
The baseball team will lose a lot during the offseason.
Wicks is a projected first-round draft pick, so he’s not coming back to school for another year. Zach Kokoska, Cameron Thompson and Chris Ceballos are also draft candidates and will have decisions to make about their futures.
Replacing that much talent won’t be easy, so it’s hard to see the Bat Cats improving next season. But it’s not impossible.
Two football recruits immediately come to mind for me.
1. Hays athlete Jaren Kanak, who is starting to look like the biggest recruit the Sunflower State has produced in recent memory. He has offers from Alabama and Clemson for crying out loud.
2. Maize quarterback Avery Johnson, who is shaping up to be the state’s top QB prospect since Graham Mertz (Wisconsin), Tyler Matthews (TCU) or Blake Bell (Oklahoma).
If Chris Klieman had the power to call dibs on either of them, no questions asked, then the answer is probably Kanak. He has the size and speed to play on both sides of the ball, and keeping him home would send a message that would reverberate throughout the recruiting world in 2022 and beyond.
But he’s also not a realistic option for K-State at this point. Clemson seems like the favorite for him, followed by Alabama and Michigan.
So if Klieman only had the power to call dibs on a recruit that was seriously considering the Wildcats, then Johnson is the pick.
You could make an argument for him over Kanak under any circumstances, because he is an in-state quarterback. Landing him early on in the class of 2023 would seriously bolster the Wildcats’ recruiting efforts during that cycle. He could also be an excellent college quarterback who eventually takes over for Will Howard or Jake Rubley.
Johnson currently holds offers from Arkansas, Iowa State, KU, K-State, Mississippi, TCU and Washington State, so beating that competition for his services would send a message of its own.
Who knows? If he has a good camp tour this summer, he could end up with offers from national powers just like Kanak.
K-State began hosting recruits on visits again earlier this week, and Johnson was the first guy on campus. He told me he had a great time while in Manhattan. He plans on giving the Wildcats a nice, long look.
Maybe they will win a recruiting battle for him. But I’m sure Klieman would rather just call dibs on him right now.
Here’s the full run down of scholarship transfers for football and basketball.
Football
Departing transfers: Jay Harris, Walter Neil, DeMarrquese Hayes, Ronald Triplette, Joshua Youngblood, Matthew Pola-Mao, Thomas Grayson, Jonathan Alexander, Tyrone Lewis, Will Jones, Lance Robinson, Wykeen Gill, Malachi Mitchell and the late Derick Newton (14).
Incoming transfers: Daniel Imatorbhebhe, Kade Warner, Eric Munoz, Timmy Horne, Russ Yeast, Julius Brents (6).
Basketball
Departing transfers: DaJuan Gordon, Rudi Williams, Antonio Gordon (3).
Incoming transfers: Mark Smith, Ismael Massoud, Markquis Nowell (3).
This question comes a few days after Prairie View A&M defensive back Reggie Stubblefield announced that he will no longer transfer to K-State and help provide depth in the secondary next season “due to unfortunate circumstances.”
Stubblefield told K-State Online that the “unfortunate circumstances” were related to his “paperwork,” which likely means he encountered an issue with grades or academic credits that prevented him from enrolling in Manhattan.
In any case, it’s not a good look for K-State. You’re right about that.
Stubblefield was supposed to help the Wildcats at nickel or safety next season, even though he probably wasn’t looking at a starting role. Instead, the only thing he actually did for K-State was create a stir on social media and message boards by promoting himself as a FCS All-American when his top individual honor was actually just a preseason (second team) All-SWAC nomination.
But, hey, he can truthfully say he never allowed a completed pass or touchdown for the Wildcats.
All kidding aside, I seriously doubt K-State coaches based their recruitment of Stubblefield on his accolades, real or exaggerated. It’s much more likely they assessed him on film, talked with coaches at his previous school and decided to sign him based on what they saw from him as a player. It just didn’t work out. That does occassionally happen.
Still, there’s no denying it blew up in their face. And not getting him on campus is a blow to their defensive roster. K-State coaches will need to scramble to find replacement options. Otherwise you’re going to see some very raw defensive backs rotating in with the secondary.
This is an easy one for me.
If I could be the greatest athlete of all time in any sport, I would choose ... Corn hole!
Yeah, sure, people like Patrick Mahomes and LeBron James and Mike Trout get a lot more attention than the world’s best corn-holer, but that’s too much fame for me. I don’t need strangers asking me for selfies while I’m on my weekly Dillon’s run.
I would be much happier winning small prizes and dominating the competition on ESPN 8 The Ocho.
Funny thing is, corn hole has become much more main stream during the coronavirus pandemic. You can almost always find it on TV, and the announcing/commentary you hear on those broadcasts is out of this world entertaining.
I dabble in corn hole as it is. I have two somewhat expensive boards (with Kansas and Texas decal wraps covering them) in my garage and break them out every time friends come over. I tend to win, so maybe I already am the GOAT and just don’t know it?
Nothing beats the thrill of sinking four straight bean bags to score 12 points in a round. It would be fun to do that on national TV.
It’s hard to pick against Arkansas or Vanderbilt in baseball, but I will do exactly that and go with the Texas Longhorns. They have a heckuva team this season and looked unbeatable during their series sweep against K-State. They also won 16 straight games at one point this year. Hook Em!
Softball is a complete dart throw for me, but let’s go with James Madison. It beat No. 1 seed Oklahoma in Oklahoma City on Thursday. The Dukes might as well just go ahead and win the whole thing.
I don’t see it happening again. Not anytime soon at the highest levels of college football, anyway.
Conference realignment will always linger as a boogieman type topic in this part of the country, because it threatened to rip apart the Big 12 a decade ago. But things have settled down since then.
Cable TV is no longer the driving force it once was in that area.
The Pac-12 is no longer a threat to raid the Big 12. I suppose the Big 12 could raid the Pac-12, but what exactly would that accomplish? Bringing in the Arizona schools would give the conference a true 12 teams, but not much else. The LA schools would bring value, but also a travel headache.
Nebraska returning to the Big 12 would be fun and mutually beneficial for both sides. I wish the Huskers and Louisville would join the conference to make it an even 12 again. That makes way too much sense to actually happen, though.
Bruce Weber’s fighting Wildcats will have an opportunity to double their win total from last season if everything falls into place with their new transfers, so they should be the most improved team on campus.
Baseball and volleyball were the only K-State teams that had winning records this past season, so if any team regresses next year it will have to be one of them.
This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Did NCAA snub Wildcats baseball? Who tops Chris Klieman’s recruit list?."