K-State Q&A: Can Jerome Tang and the Wildcats earn No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament?
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
No need for a long introduction this week. March has arrived. Jerome Tang has the Wildcats on a basketball winning streak and I need to hit the road for West Virginia. Let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for asking them.
If the Wildcats run the table they will have an outside shot at landing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But they will also need some help.
For that reason, I don’t think it’s all that likely that K-State ends up on the first line of the bracket. I would put the odds at something like 10 to 1. I think a No. 3 seed is the most likely end point. A No. 2 seed can come into focus with a strong finish.
As of Thursday afternoon, Bracket Matrix had K-State as the top No. 3 seed in the field. That means it needs to gain five spots between now and Selection Sunday to get a No. 1 seed.
Possible: yes. Likely: no.
Reminds me of the way I used to view Jerome Tang’s odds of reaching the NCAA Tournament in Year 1 at K-State. So I guess I’m telling you it’s a lock.
Here’s the way I see things: K-State can climb all the way up to No. 5 or No. 6 in the country if the Wildcats finish the season on a winning streak. Four more victories would allow them to pass teams like Baylor and Texas or Arizona and Gonzaga and Marquette, depending on which bracket projection you prefer.
Problem is, teams like Alabama, Houston, Kansas, Purdue and UCLA have big leads on K-State. At least two of them would need to lose some unexpected games to open the door.
Alabama and Kansas feel like locks for a No. 1 seed. Houston is right there with them, but an early loss in the American Conference Tournament could damage their resume. Purdue and UCLA will also need to lose to make way for K-State.
Winning at West Virginia and then hoisting a trophy in Kansas City would give the Wildcats a shot. They would be a mortal lock for at least a No. 2 seed. But they will need to root for Purdue and UCLA and maybe a few others to lose between now and then, too, for a coveted No. 1 seed.
If Nae’Qwan Tomlin is going to keep draining three-pointers, grabbing rebounds and throwing down emphatic dunks in every single game the Wildcats have left then you can probably go ahead and pencil them into the Final Four.
The way Desi Sills (15 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Tomlin (19 points, five rebounds) played during a home victory over Oklahoma on Wednesday was sensational.
K-State has been a two-star team most of the season. On that night, it had four stars.
Obviously, that level of play is not sustainable. Still, I am very intrigued by what I’ve seen from Tomlin at the five spot.
There are only two things that have been holding Tomlin back this season: fouls and three-point shooting. He has started to make more perimeter shots lately, and that could open up his full potential as a player.
If defenders don’t have to respect his outside shot, it’s hard for him to score at the rim. But if defenders have to chase him out to the three-point line he becomes a matchup nightmare at 6-foot-10.
No, I did not expect the Wildcats to be 23-7 right now and on the cusp of a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.
When the Wildcats landed Keyontae Johnson I could envision them making them making the Big Dance, but I still thought the NIT was more likely.
Even Jerome Tang has admitted that his goal for this season was to help the Wildcats sneak into March Madness with something like 18 wins and then see what happens.
This is beyond what just about everyone expected.
But I do have to give a shout out to Grant Flanders of K-State Online. He said he thought the Wildcats were going to be Big 12 championship contenders way before the season started. I thought he was nuts, but he was exactly right.
So it would be untrue to say no one believed in this team.
I will also that with the rise of the transfer portal unexpected rises like this are becoming more common. No one thought Iowa State would be in the Sweet 16 last year. Few thought Texas Tech would make the national championship game in 2019.
The days of Bruce Weber trying to build up a team over four years are over.
Looking forward, I do think K-State will continue to win for as long as Tang is the coach. I am expecting a step back next season without Johnson and Nowell. But maybe Tang can bring in two stud transfers to replace them. Who knows.
The Wildcats have a solid group of players returning and some promising looking recruits coming in. The fan base is bought in. There’s no reason why they can’t have staying power.
Oh yeah, that has happened before.
The Big East somewhat famously kicked Temple out of its conference for being bad at football a decade ago.
The Sun Belt dropped Idaho and New Mexico State a few years back.
When I was younger, there was talk about the Big 12 cutting ties with Baylor because the Bears were bad at everything in the early 2000s. Probably a good decision by the conference to let them stick around.
It can happen, for sure.
Problem is, most conferences are married by a grant of rights. Those make it virtually impossible for schools to move between conferences for any reason. That’s why it is taking Oklahoma and Texas to leave for the SEC.
Let’s say the ACC wanted to boot one of its current members to make way for new blood. It would have to wait until its grant of rights expires to do so without paying an arm and a leg in exit fees.
Now, the SEC is a little different. I don’t believe they have a grant of rights or an exit penalty for leaving the conference. Why? Because no team is foolish enough to leave the SEC and all its football money. That could potentially open the door for something like you’re talking about down the road, but I doubt we ever see that happen.
While I hate that a pitch clock can now impact the result of a game in the ninth inning, I am still in favor of it.
Baseball games tend to drag on like a Lord of the Rings movie. Anything that makes them shorter and easier to watch is A-OK in my book.
Sporting events, in general, take way too long now that they are constantly interrupted for commercials. That is one reason why I like watching regular-season soccer matches. They last 90 minutes with a running clock, there are seldom long video reviews and there is no such thing as overtime.
They are guaranteed to end in under two hours, which is awesome.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 6:30 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Can Jerome Tang and the Wildcats earn No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament?."