Men's Game #26: #2 Kansas (24-1) @ K-State (16-9) Preview

The Sunflower Showdown will take place once again, as the #2 ranked Kansas Jayhawks come to Manhattan searching for a regular season sweep of the Kansas State Wildcats. To this point in the season, KU and K-State are going in opposite directions. KU (24-1) is having one of their typical great seasons, only dropping one game thus far. The Jayhawks one and only setback came to the Texas Longhorns in the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse by a score of 74-63. The loss ended the Jayhawks then-NCAA best 69-game homecourt winning streak. On the other end, the Cats’ season to this point has been a disappointment. K-State came into the season ranked #3 in the nation in the pre-season polls and were also the pre-season pick to win the Big 12. With a 16-9 overall record and a 4-6 record in Big 12 Conference play, they are playing well-below expectations.

The Last Time Out…

K-State @ Kansas on January 29, 2011 at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas
The first time the two teams played, KU dominated from start to finish, winning 90-66 over the Cats. This was KU's 181st victory against the Cats in a rivalry that has been around since 1907. KU had dealt with the death of Thomas Robinson's mother throughout the week leading up to the game, but did not show any signs of fatigue on the court. The Jayhawks stormed out to a 15-2 lead to start the game and never looked back. Markieff Morris scored 20 points and grabbed 9 rebounds while Thomas Robinson scored 17 points and 9 rebounds. Jacob Pullen, one of the few bright spots in the game, scored 21 points while moving into second on the K-State all time scoring list. Since Big 12 play began, KU is 34-2 overall against K-State. Leading up to the second KU/K-State game this Monday, KU did not have a problem with their most recent opponent.

Kansas 89 Iowa State 66 (Lawrence, KS 2/12/2011)
This past Saturday, KU took care of business by beating Iowa State 89-66 at Allen Fieldhouse. Bill Self’s squad Jayhawks shot an impressive 52% from the floor and at one point, cruised out to a 33-12 lead that they never relinquished. Marcus Morris led the Jayhawks with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Tyshawn Taylor and Markieff Morris chipped in 14 points each. The Jayhawks also dominated the rebounding battle, grabbing 43 total rebounds to the Cyclones 31. KU improved to 24-1 overall, 9-1 in the Big 12 while Iowa State fell to 14-11 and 1-9 in the conference. The Jayhawks will be coming into Bramlage Coliseum on a high, having won six in a row by an average margin of 18.3 points per game.

Colorado 58 Kansas State 56 (Boulder, CO 2/12/2011)
K-State sophomore Rodney McGruder connected on a three-pointer as the final 1.1 seconds clicked off to give the Cats what looked like a 59-58 win over Colorado at the Coors Event Center. The officials reviewed the play to determine whether or not the ball had left McGruder’s hand before time expired. After approximately three minutes the officials ended up waving off the basket, allowing Colorado to escape with a 58-56 win. Junior forward Jamar Samuels led the Cats in scoring with 13 while Jacob Pullen contributed 12 points of his own. The Buffaloes were paced by senior guard Cory Higgins, who scored 17 points, while Levi Knutson chipped in 16. K-State fell to 16-9 on the season and 4-6 in the coneference. Colorado improved its overall record to 16-10 and 5-6 in the Big 12. This is the first time Colorado has swept K-State since the 2003-04 season.

Keys to Victory

K-State

Rebounding: If the Cats can get consistent rebounding, they'll be able to stay in the game and have a chance.

Post-play: The Cats' post-play has been very inconsistent all season. With the Morris Twins coming to town, Jamar Samuels, Curtis Kelly, and Jordan Henriquez-Roberts will each have to play at the top of their game and not let the Morris twins own the paint.

Shooting: The Cats need to score, and score efficiently in order to beat KU. The Jayhawks lead the nation with a 52.3 field goal percentage, and average 83.9 points per game. That means the Cats will not be able to afford any shooting droughts like they have had in previous games.

KU

Depth: The Jayhawks' bench needs to show up and play well to take care of the Cats. Travis Relaford, Mario Little, Elijah Johnson, and Jeff Withey all need to play well, especially with Josh Selby and Thomas Robinson not available due to injuries.

Perimeter shooting: Brady Morningstar and Tyrel Reed are big-time three-point threats for the Jayhawks and if they can get going, it will probably be a repeat of the other game this season in Lawrence.

The Morris twins: Marcus and Markieff Morris need to rebound and score when they have opportunities so they can wear down the thin K-State front-court and open up opportunities for KU's outside shooters.

Prediction: KU wins, 75-58.

-Paul Payton, Wildcat 91.9 Sports Staff

Wildcats survive Presbyterian upset bid

K-State 76 Presbyterian 67



On paper, it looked like K-State would have no trouble with the Blue Hose on Thursday night. Presbyterian had other ideas making the game close as it cut the lead to four with less than three minutes to play in the game. K-State's halftime lead of 44-30 had diminished before the Wildcats and their fans eyes.

Luckily for K-State, junior walk-on Victor Ojeleye quieted the Blue Hose run twice. He was able to put up four points and grab two rebounds in eight minutes. The crowd in attendance gave him a standing ovation once he exited the game for good.

Senior guard Jacob Pullen finished the game with a team high 15 points, while sophomore guard Rodney McGruder had 10. McGruder's three point baseline score put the game in the bag as the score was 74-65 with 51 seconds left. The Wildcats won the game 76-57 to go 3-0 on the season. The Blue Hose starting phenom in Al'Lonzo Coleman finished the game with a double-double adding 15 points and 14 boards. Senior forward Curtis Kelly was once again on the bench.

Lady Cats handle Indiana State

K-State 64 Indiana State 48



Thanks to sophomore guard Brittany Chambers's 20 points in 35 minutes, K-State clobbered Indiana State 64-48 on Wednesday night. Both teams struggled mightily from the three-point line, but the difference was K-State's ability to shoot overall from the field. The Wildcats were 23 of 62 from the field, while Indiana State was 13 of 40.

K-State only led by three at the half 27-24, but added 37 points in the second half to put the game out of reach. Junior forward Branshea Brown was just short of a double-double. She scored nine points, while also tallying nine boards.

Shawnee Mission North graduate and freshman guard Brianna Kulas scored five points, but fouled out of the game while only playing 10 minutes. Brittany Schoen and Taylor Whitley of Indiana State each scored 12 points to lead their team respectively.

No. 3 K-State rolls against the Hokies

11/16/2010 - K-State 73 Virginia Tech 57



In front of a sellout crowd at Bramlage Coliseum K-State stomped Virginia Tech 73-57. The game was also televised on ESPN 2 as a part of ESPN's 24 hours of basketball on Tuesday. The biggest question of the night was about the absence of senior forward Curtis Kelly.

Kelly sat out for the second straight game of the season and fourth overall. The senior was in street clothes and hasn't played a minute this season. Senior guard Jacob Pullen picked up two quick fouls in the first half, but a trio of sophomore guards in Martavious Irving, Nick Russell and Rodney McGruder stepped up in his place. Irving finished with nine points, Russell had five and McGruder contributed 13.

The Hokies Malcolm Delaney scored 22 points on six of 18 shooting. He also was eight for nine from the charity stripe, making him 19 for 20 in the team's first two games. The Wildcats led at the half 30-29, but were able to pull away when they were up 66-49 with less than five minutes to play.

- Tyler Scott, 91.9 Sports Staff

Game #6: K-State (4-1) @ Kansas (2-3) Preview

The battle for the governors cup will take place tomorrow night in Lawrence, KS, but that’s not the only thing at stake when Kansas State (4-1) takes on Kansas (2-3) in this in state rivalry. The main thing both teams are looking for is redemption from their previous outings. K-State is looking to move past their horrific beating at the hands of Nebraska on national television last Thursday. Before the game, the ‘Cats were garnering some votes in the top 25 and looking to steal the Big 12 North. They received one vote last week, and still hold an outside chance at the division but it would take a Corn Huskers miscue, which doesn’t seem likely. At least they lost to a top-10 team and surefire national title contender though. The Jayhawks are coming off a route by the Baylor Bears 2 weeks ago. KU has had a trying season this far with losses to Baylor, North Dakota State, and Southern Miss. They do own a victory over Georgia Tech which looked impressive at the time, as the Yellow Jackets were ranked 15th in the polls however they have since tailed off. In the game last year the Wildcats were able to win 17-10 behind on the back of halfback Daniel Thomas. Which leads us to the breakdown of this year’s game.

KSU Offense vs. KU Defense

K-State needs for their stud, Thomas, to revert back to his opening season form. That may be asking a lot of him as his opening season form was absurdly good, but they definitely need more production out of him, to lessen the load of QB Carson Coffman. Thomas has been held under 100 yards for 2 straight weeks, granted not many running backs can rush for 100 yards on the black shirts, especially with a mediocre passing game. Coffman has been hit-or-miss this year, but has had a tendency to come through in the clutch, engineering some spectacular 4th quarter drives. This could be the week that Thomas finally returns to form as he is facing a below average defense at stopping the run, as the ‘Hawks are ranked 95th and allowing 187 yards per game. Even so Thomas will continue seeing 8-man fronts until Coffman starts carving up the empty secondary. KU’s pass defense is allowing a modest 189 yards per game good for 40th in the nation. The D lost 8 starters off of last years team, including their whole front line and both safeties. Three of the starters were apart of the team that won the Orange Bowl. The Hawks have returned 2 freshman All-American from last year in LB Huldon Tharp and S Lubbock Smith, as well honorable mention All-Conference DE Jake Laptad. Major Edge: K-State

KSU Defense vs. KU Offense

Flashback to September 11th, as the Jayhawks were rushing the field and tearing down the goalposts, they thought they had found their savior. QB Jordan Webb was inserted after an ugly opening week loss to South Dakota State and if you asked fans in Lawrence he was some sort of mix between John Elway, Peyton Manning, and Joe Montana. Now Fast Forward to present day and those assumptions seem even more ridiculous than they did then (and they were pretty ridiculous then). Webb has at least given them the option of throwing the ball, and the team has put up some points, but they are still a sub .500 team. They have struggled all year to replace their core players from the Mangino era in Todd Reesing, Dezmund Briscoe, Kerry Meir, and Jake Sharpe. The Jayhawks offense is pathetic to say the least. They rank 74th in rushing and 84th in passing in the nation and are barely eclipsing 300 yards a game. On the other side of the ball the K-state Defense has been good or atrocious depending on which aspect you want to look at. The Rush Defense is believe it or not actually worse than KU’s ranking 116th in the nation allowing a meager 246 yards per game. However Webb will have his hands full trying to move the ball downfield on the KSU pass D, as they are allowing a stout 150 yards per game through the air and are ranked in the top 10. Despite the Jayhawks offensive woes one of the bright spots has been tailback James Sims who is averaging 4.9 yards a carry. Kansas will need for him to have a field day for them to have a chance in this game.
Edge: K-State

Special Teams

Last week the only bright spots you could find on the K-State team were the special teams players. Senior William Powell was electric returning the ball, almost to Nebraska territory every time he touched it averaging 31 yards a return. Punter Ryan Doerr pinned the Huskers inside the 20 3 times. The pair turned the field position battle in K-States favor throughout the night, but alas the ‘Cats couldn’t capitalize. Kicker Josh Cherry was perfect on the night hitting 2 field goals and 1 extra point. On the Jayhawks side kicker Jacob Branstetter has been anything but automatic, going 2 for 5 on the year, and already having missed and extra point. Punter Alonso Rojas is averaging a respectable 43.8 yards a boot but has already had 2 punts blocked, and Bill Snyder’s teams love to score non-offensive touchdowns. However returnman D.J. Beshears has been electric with the ball averaging 33.4 yards a return with a score.
Major Edge: K-State.

Coaching

We don’t need to spend too much time going over Coach Snyder’s accolades, as all KSU fans know them by heart. He engineered the “Miracle in Manhattan” and has led the team to 3 BCS bowls. He is a legend. On the flip side it’s harder to get a read on Turner Gill’s ability as a head coach. There is no doubting that he was truly one of the great players ever at the college level leading Nebraska to 3 Big Eight titles and 3 Major bowl games. But rarely do great players make great coaches. They struggle to adjust to the fact that not all players have the same work ethic they had. Gill started his career coaching at the University of Buffalo where his teams improved in his first 3 seasons going 2-10, 5-7, and 8-6. He led them to one conference championship and one bowl game, a loss. His high of coaching was when he led to the Bulls to a victory over then #12 Ball State in the conference Championship. He was then bypassed over the Auburn coaching job which many felt he deserved. But if you look at the teams records it’s hard to overlook the fact that he never established a conference championship caliber team year in and year out, despite playing in a below average conference with no true powerhouse. If Gill was as good of a coach as he was made out to be his teams would have done better than finishing 5th in his final year. It also hurts him that he is replacing Mark Mangino who actually restored some credibility to the KU football program with its 2007 Orange Bowl victory.
Edge: K-State

K-state pass defense will baffle Webb, and slow down the Kansas running attack enough. Thomas will gash the KU D, and Coffman will look better than he has all year as the Cats roll.

Prediction: K-State 34 KU 10

-- Josh Dockendorf, 91.9 Sports Staff

Big 12 Week 5 Preview

The Big 12 season is getting underway for most of the teams around the league. Teams like Kansas State, Iowa State, Texas, and Texas Tech have already gotten one league under there belts, heading into this weekend. Well now Texas A&M and Oklahoma State have joined them. Both teams headed into last nights game unbeaten, and the winner would hold a punchers chance at winning the Big 12 South. Oklahoma State is that team after narrowly pulling out a 38-35 victory on a last second field goal after intercepting a pass when Texas A&M themselves were trying to drive down for a last second field goal. The game was a turnover-palooza with Aggie quarterback Jerrod Johnson, accounting for 5 turnovers himself, and the Pokes themselves had three turnovers.

Tomorrow’s slate of big 12 games get kicked off at 11:00 when the rival Jayhawks travel down to Waco to take on the Baylor Bears and there stud quarterback, Robert Griffin III. Griffin is a freakish athlete who has won several sprinting events, and has brought hope to the Bear ever since he arrived on the scene and won the starting job his freshman year. Last year he suffered a season-ending injury early on in the year. He has continued to develop as a drop back passer as he has thrown for 971 yards with 8 touchdowns and only two picks. They are 3-1 on the year. Meanwhile the Jayhawks have had an up-and-down year so far. They suffered losses to North Dakota State, and Southern Miss. However they were able to pull of an upset against then ranked Georgia Tech, who has since dropped out of the polls. The Jayhawks have become at least respectable since inserting Joe Webb into the quarterback position, but are still in process of rebuilding under first year coach Turner Gill. They are currently 2-2 on the year.

The only big 12 team to play a non conference game this week is the Buffaloes from Colorado who take on the Georgia Bulldogs at home this weekend at six o’clock. The Bulldogs have suffered a disappointing season since starting of the year ranked. They are currently 1-3 on they year and 0-3 in SEC play. The Buffs will get there first taste of Big 12 action next week when they take on a talented Missouri team. As of right now they are 2-1. The only game they played against a BCS conference team was a 52-7 loss at the hands of future conference foe Cal. Cal is just a middle of the road team this year so don’t expect much from the Buffs.

The next matchup comes over in Ames where the Cyclones take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Both Teams are currently 0-1 in conference play with Iowa State losing to K-State and Tech lost to Texas. Some good news on the Cyclones front, it looks as if starting Quarterback Austen Arnaud will get the go this week despite being injured. Tech on the other hand just wants to keep improving under first year head coach Tommy Tubberville.

But no surprise the game of the week will like always be the Red River Rivalry which takes place in Dallas pitting the Texas Longhorns against the Oklahoma Sooners. The winner of this game has gone on to win four of the last six Big 12 titles with the loser winning the other two. In fact the last time that neither one of these teams one the Big 12 was back in ’03 when the ‘Cats were able to upset the then #1 Sooners behind Darren Sproles. The Last time the south wasn’t represented in this game by one of these teams was back in 1998 when Texas A&M had the honors and were able to throw a kink into the BCS by upsetting Kansas State when we were ranked number one at the time. This will be sophomore Longhorn quarterback Garret Gilbert’s first chance in this environment. Gilbert came into the national championship last year for the injured Colt McCoy and was able to show some flashes of brilliance, but this year has been a little different as he has not had a solid running game to lean on, as the ‘Horns are ranked 76th in the nation in rushing. They are coming off their first loss of the season a 34-12 drubbing at the hands of the UCA Bruins. The Sooners on the other hand just have one question, which team will show up? Will it be the team that played magnificently when they steamrolled over #17 Florida State, or will it be the team that has shown up the other 3 weeks who has allowed Utah State, Air Force, and Cincinnati to all come within a touchdown of them. If Boomer Sooner is rolling all cylinders behind QB Landry Jones, RB Demarco Murray, and WR Ryan Broyles, then the game should be over at halftime. But if they aren’t the Longhorns might possibly be able to sneak home with a victory.

Missouri, K-State, and Nebraska all have byes this week, with the ‘Cats being the only team who has already played a conference game. Next week the Tigers play Colorado, and on ESPN Thursday Night Football the Huskers and Wildcats will meet for the final time as conference foes, with Big 12 North title implications most certainly on the line.

-- Josh Dockendorf, 91.9 Sports Staff

K-State UCF Game-Wrap

It may not have been very convincing, but its a win, and the Wildcats will take it. Kansas State improved to 4-0 on the season with a 17-13 victory over the University of Central Florida in a game that featured a 1 hour and 26 minute weather delay early in the first quarter. Unfortunately the lightning in the air did not translate to many sparks on the field for K-State who struggled offensively the entire game, amassing 2 yards of offense in the first quarter and outgained 170-43 at halftime. The Wildcats did not cross into Central Florida territory until their final drive of the third quarter.

Opportunely for Kansas State, quarterback Carson Coffman came through in the clutch leading them on a game winning touchdown drive capped off by his 7 yard scramble for the end zone with 24 seconds left. The drive started with 5 minutes and 14 seconds remaining after UCF took the lead with a field goal. Coffman began the drive with two incompletions leaving many Cats fans to undoubtedly assume his poor play would continue as he looked incompetent throughout the game up to that point. Coffman then called timeout and executed one of three third down conversions on the drive with an 18 yard strike to Andre McDonald. As K-State moved into field goal range Coffman took the conservative route, handing the ball off to Daniel Thomas 5 times and completing 2 passes before getting into the end zone.

Coffman finished the day with 189 yards passing completing 11 of 22 for 1 touchdown and 1 interception. His performance may have been enough to get by the Knights, a Conference USA opponent, but he will need a much more productive outing if the Cats hope to compete with the powerhouse Nebraska Cornhuskers who travel to Manhattan a week from Thursday for an ESPN primetime matchup. Running back Daniel Thomas will need to be a bigger factor against the Huskers as well after carrying the ball 22 times for a season-low 76 yards. The Wildcats finished the game with 272 yards of total offense, 11 first downs and 3 turnovers.

Fortunately for the Cats they were bailed out by a couple of timely interceptions and another impressive performance from their defense. Emmanuel Lamur picked off a pass in the red zone in the second quarter and Terrance Sweeney destroyed the Knights chances of an improbable comeback with an interception in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter. UCF dominated time-of-possession, controlling the ball for 36:35, but the K-State defense refused to budge, limiting the Knights to only two field goals following a first quarter touchdown run.

Kansas State has next weekend off before hosting the #6 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers on Thursday October 7 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

-- Ben Sojka, Wildcat 91.9 Sports Staff