K-State Football

K-State has promoted Tom Hayes to defensive coordinator. Mike Cox, who was part of Washington's debacle of a defensive effort against Baylor in the Alamo Bowl, will be hired as a linebackers coach.

K-State Women's Basketball

Texas A&M got revenge and then some for K-State's upset win in Manhattan earlier this year. The Aggies beat K-State by 31 in College Station last night.

#RonP4Jags

The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Ron Prince as an assistant line coach.

Big 12 Basketball

KU overwhelmed Baylor with a 37-7 run that spanned the middle 20 minutes of the game and rolled to a 68-54 win over the Bears in Waco.

College Football Playoff

SB Nation's Jason Kirk takes a look at the Big 10's four-team playoff proposal and concludes that it's good for everybody.

K-State Basketball

In one of the ugliest and least entertaining basketball games I've ever seen, K-State beat Texas Tech, 65-46. Between the poor shooting (the teams had six field goals apiece in the first half, Tech had five in the second), inability to hold on to the ball (the teams combined for 36 turnovers, with Tech accounting for 22 of those) and the look-at-me officiating (John Higgins FTW), all involved did everything in their power to make sure the game had no flow at all.

Tech threw a triangle-and-two defense at K-State in the first half and the Wildcats did not respond well. Fortunately, Tech responded even more poorly to K-State's pressuring man defense.

Jamar Samuels won't be sad that there are no more games with Texas Tech. His season stats against the Red Raiders are nine fouls and one point.

K-State Football

Rob Cassidy tweeted last night that K-State will promote Tom Hayes to defensive coordinator to replace Chris Cosh.

Big 12 Basketball

Oklahoma State got a 69-67 win in Stillwater over Iowa State behind the late-game heroics of Le'Bryan Nash. K-State is now just one game behind the Cyclones in the conference standings.

Who: K-State vs. Texas Tech

When: February 7, 2012 | 7:00 p.m.

Where: Manhattan, Kan. | Bramlage Coliseum (12,528)

Media: Big 12 Network/ESPN Full Court | 1350 KMAN

K-State looks to sweep the season series and send Texas Tech to 0-11 in conference play before embarking on a brutal stretch of games, starting Saturday in Austin.

Go Cats!

writeup coming soon

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A mere four and half weeks ago, K-State seemed like nearly a lock to make the NCAA tournament. Now, after two debacles against Oklahoma and a hard-to-watch second half at Iowa State, mixed in with some uninspiring wins, the ‘Cats find themselves 5-5 in conference play and where all Frank teams seem to be in early February: squarely on the bubble.

The good news is the Wildcats still appear to be in by most measures, as 55 of 56 predictors in The Bracket Project include KSU (screw you, Daily Bracket). The RPI of 47 is a little concerning, but at least the win over Missouri looks really, really good right now.

Those of you who read my blog last year may recall that I first began my series of NCAA bubble posts when K-State was 2-5 in conference and seemed to be in quite a precarious position. From that point forward, KSU won 8 of 9 to close out the regular season, so really I'm just doing my part to try to make that happen again.

At this point, it still would seem if K-State merely takes care of business, it should be in without a problem. That means beating everyone other than Kansas at home, and getting wins in Austin and College Station to finish Big 12 play 10-8.

Drop to 9-9 and things could get a little dicey, though I think KSU would probably still be OK. Similar to last season, I think 9-9 with a win against one of the top three (meaning another bad loss) would actually be better than 9-9 without one.

You have to figure even 9-9 would get K-State no worse than 6th (probably 5th) place and a Wednesday bye in the conference tourney before a somewhat difficult matchup against Iowa State or an extremely difficult game against one of the top three. I'm not really sure if that would be a must-win, but I'd rather not find out.

For a quick preview of Texas Tech, click the jump.

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K-State secured a crucial win to stay ahead of the four-pack that's hot cold on its heels.

But with a two-game gap between it and Iowa State, and a three-game deficit out of first place in a wide-open conference race, it's really hard not to wonder: What if?

What if we had won at least one of those games against an otherwise-horrible-in-Big-12-play Oklahoma team?

What if we had held on to that lead against Baylor? At Iowa State? Where would the Cats be in the discussion now?

Whether it be Bears, Jayhawks or Tigers who hoist the trophy at the end of this season, "what if" probably will torment us all for some time to come ... especially if we don't even Dance because of it.

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K-State Basketball

K-State gets a home game against Texas Tech, who is winless in Big 12 conference play this season. After this, the Wildcats face a murderous stretch that includes games at Texas, KU at home, at Baylor and at Missouri.

With Will Spradling breaking out of his slump, Angel Rogriguez finding his confidence, and Rodney McGruder getting healthy K-State should have three guards ready to go against Tech tonight.

SB Nation's Bracketology has K-State in the field and seeded eighth. We'll take an NCAA Tournament appearance any way we can get it at this point, but Notre Dame in the first round followed by Kentucky in the Round of 32? Yikes.

Big 12 Basketball

Missouri got a 71-68 win in Norman after Steven Pledger missed a three pointer that would have tied the game at the buzzer ... Texas won the final Lone Star Showdown when it picked up a 70-68 win over Texas A&M in College Station.

Speaking of Texas and basketball, Peter Bean has an excellent article for Basketball Prospectus looking at the Big 12 race as it enters the final stretch.

Big 12 Football

West Virginia is buying out of its game against Florida State this September. Yet another sign that the Mountaineers have every intention of being in the Big 12 for the 2012-13 season.

K-State Basketball

Angel Rodriguez led K-State past Texas A&M on Saturday in Manhattan. Rodriguez and the Wildcats turned a one-point deficit at halftime into a 64-53 win behind Rodriguez's fearless drives to the basket and a full-court press that led to a turnover barrage from the Dash Harris-less Aggies.

Among the better news to come out of Saturday's game was that Will Spradling finally broke out of his shooting slump. The sophomore had 19 points on 4-5 shooting from three-point range.

An injured toe limited Rodney McGruder's effectiveness, as the junior went 1-9 from the field and scored only five points.

K-State Women's Basketball

After the Wildcats took an early lead, No. 1 Baylor roared back and rolled to a 70-41 win in Manhattan.

Big 12 Basketball

In the game of the weekend, KU couldn't hold an eight-point lead in the last three minutes against Missouri and lost to the Tigers, 74-71 ... Iowa State shot the cover off the ball in Norman and took a 77-70 win over Oklahoma ... It wasn't quite as easy as last time, but Baylor swept Oklahoma State with a 64-60 win ... Texas Tech is still winless in conference play after a 74-57 loss to Texas.