K-State Q&A: Who are the best former Wildcat basketball players of the past 15 years?
It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
There is no need for an elaborate intro this week, so let’s dive right into your questions about the Wildcats. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
What is your 8-man rotation of K-State men’s basketball players from your time on the beat? -@scottwildcat via X.
Let’s start off this week’s mailbag with a fun topic that can be debated by any K-State basketball fan who has been following the Cats in recent years.
My first men’s basketball game on this job came at the start of the 2009-10 season, so I missed out on Michael Beasley and Bill Walker. But every player since then is eligible for my team. We’re talking about the late Frank Martin years and then the complete Bruce Weber and Jerome Tang eras.
I would go with ...
Guard: Markquis Nowell
Guard: Jacob Pullen
Wing: Rodney McGruder
Forward: Dean Wade
Center: Curtis Kelly
Key reserves: Jamar Samuels, Barry Brown, Keyontae Johnson.
Bench: Nijel Pack, Will Spradling, Xavier Sneed, Wesley Iwundu and Jordan Henriquez.
It pains me to leave off studs like Denis Clemente, Thomas Gipson, Marcus Foster, Tylor Perry, David N’Guessan and Kamau Stokes. But there’s only so much room on the roster.
Please let me know what I got wrong!
Can Jerome Tang’s roster of fighting basketball Wildcats still reach the NCAA Tournament after a pair of losses in Utah? Or is it now NIT at best for this group? - Steve Q. via e-mail
K-State still has a few paths it can take to the NCAA Tournament.
After all, no team’s March Madness dreams are dead until it loses in its conference tournament.
But the Wildcats can no longer be considered a bubble team. Not at the moment, at least. K-State is a .500 team with a record of 13-13. It needs the strongest finish possible to get back in the mix. A few bracket experts, namely Joe Lunardi, had K-State in their “first four out” section when the Wildcats were on a six-game winning streak. Another win or two in the Mountain Time Zone could have propelled them into the projected field.
Unfortunately, losses to BYU and Utah erased much of their progress.
Bart Torvik lists their NCAA Tournament odds at 1.8%.
Evan Miya ranks their resume at No. 78 nationally.
K-State has a NET ranking of 76.
Still, if K-State can win its final five games of the regular season it can dream about the NCAA Tournament again. That would make the Wildcats 18-13 as they head to Kansas City. Add on another win or two at the Big 12 Tournament and they might get in.
There is zero margin for error, though.
The Wildcats might be favored in their next three games against Arizona State, UCF and Colorado. Winning those games would be a nice start. Ending with Cincinnati and Iowa State won’t be easy.
Even with five straight wins, they could get pushed out by bid thieves in other leagues.
It might be simpler for them to win the Big 12 Tournament.
What are the expectations when Ayoka Lee gets back on the court for the Lady Wildcats? Will she play for more than 15 minutes? Will her absence be a negative (two losses) for NCAA seedings? -@bfullingt1 via X.
Jeff Mittie is hopeful that Ayoka Lee will be healthy enough to return to action this weekend against Kansas.
My guess is Lee will play around 20 minutes. Maybe she can push for closer to 25 if everything is going well. But the Wildcats will be heavily favored in that game. There shouldn’t be much need for her to play 40 minutes.
It’s hard to say how much her absence will impact things in the NCAA Tournament. It probably doesn’t matter. K-State is still on track to host games. As long as that holds, seeding isn’t all that important.
Her absence might hurt in the Big 12 championship race, though.
My advice to the women’s team is simple: Win out and hope for the best.
The Wildcats are one game behind both Baylor and TCU in the Big 12 standings. But Baylor and TCU still have to play each other. And K-State still gets to play Baylor. And TCU still has to play West Virginia on top of Baylor.
I don’t see either the Bears or the Frogs winning out.
My guess is 15-3 is good enough to win the Big 12. K-State can hit that mark by winning its final three games against Kansas, Baylor and Iowa State.
How deep do you think the K-State women can go in this year’s NCAA tournament? -@Car93657Larry via X.
This might be the year the Wildcats break through and reach the Sweet 16.
That hasn’t happened since 2002.
But K-State may finally have the team to win two (or more) games in the NCAA Tournament because this squad has more than one elite player. Ayoka Lee, Serena Sundell and Temira Poindexter are all fantastic. That could give them enough versatility to get past the Round of 32.
How many more scholarships can we expect for K-State teams next season? - Jeff M. via e-mail.
Division I athletic programs will be allowed to offer more scholarships than ever before once the era of revenue sharing gets underway.
Football teams will be able to provide 105 scholarships instead of 85. Basketball teams can jump to 15 from 13. And baseball can balloon all the way up to 34 from 11.7.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor told me last week that the Wildcats will be increasing scholarship numbers in many sports, but they won’t reach the maximum numbers in football and men’s basketball.
He said the plan is to add three scholarships for football and two for baseball. For now, men’s basketball is expected to stay at 13.
Taylor said the biggest scholarship jumps will happen on the women’s side. Women’s track, rowing, soccer, golf and volleyball can expect “a decent increase in scholarships.”
So there will still be some walk-ons in certain sports.
“We have anticipated about another $1 million in additional scholarships,” Taylor said.
Coaches can begin offering partial scholarships once revenue sharing begins. So the football team could spread 88 scholarships across 105 spots. But that will be up to the discretion of coaches.
Do you think the NIT banner at Bramlage should be taken down? -@mrtroyh via X.
I am OK with the NIT banner staying up.
Sure, making the NIT isn’t considered much of an accomplishment anymore. But it used to be a big deal, and it’s still fine to note that your team qualified for that particular postseason tournament.
As long as it’s one banner that lists every NIT appearance, that is more than acceptable. Most college basketball teams across the country do the same.
Now, an individual banner for every NIT appearance is overkill. I would also object to a team like K-State hanging a NIT championship banner.
Mentioning that your team played in the NIT is one thing. Openly bragging about what your team did in the NIT is another.
I can see the argument for not mentioning the NIT at all. It’s not a point of pride for the fan base or a recruiting tool. But it is a step up from tournaments like the CBI. Plenty of good teams play in the NIT. Noting that you were one of them is fine.
K-State has been a look-ahead-way-too-early favorite in Ireland, depending on where you look at between a 1 and 2.5-point favorite. Where would you have set the line if you were the puppeteer pulling the strings? -@scottwildcat via X.
I would reverse the point spread and make Iowa State a small favorite.
Chris Klieman hasn’t found much luck against the Cyclones in recent years. K-State has gone 1-4 against Iowa State over the past five years, and the lone win came by one point when the Wildcats had a Big 12 championship team and the Cyclones missed out on a bowl.
There is more to be excited about with the K-State roster, as Avery Johnson and Dylan Edwards are ascending talents. Iowa State will bring back plenty of good players, but not enough to significantly raise their ceiling compared to last year.
But I will give Matt Campbell the benefit of the doubt until Klieman proves he can win Farmageddon.
Points aren’t all that valuable when the spread is under a field goal, though.
In college football, games are typically decided by touchdowns more than field goals. So my adjustment wouldn’t make a ton of difference. Anything around a pick seems reasonable.
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 6:30 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Who are the best former Wildcat basketball players of the past 15 years?."