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Luis Colon won't be the only Wildcat signing autographs if K-State can survive the West Region and advance to the Final Four.

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Always save the best for last, I say. That would be the exciting West Region, home of the Final Four-bound (or so says the Prez) Kansas State Wildcats.

You can read a preview of the chalk-filled West after the jump, but first...

There's still time to sign up for and participate in the 235th biannual BOTC Bracket Challenge. Just go here. The group name is BOTC: Bring On The Cats and the password is BracketCat.

Previous Entries:

• East Region
• Midwest Region
• South Region

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K-State's season might be done, but there's still another week left in the Big 12 regular season — starting with that amazing shootout last night between the Aggies and the Longhorns. Plus, I thought this would be a good chance to look at our season-ending numbers, so click the jump for my usual statistical/opinionated analysis.

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Who: K-State vs. Nebraska

When: November 21, 2009 | 6:45 p.m.

Where: Lincoln, Neb. | Memorial Stadium (81,067)

Media: 1350 KMAN | ESPN

This is it.  Win, and we go to Dallas to play the Big 12 South champion in the conference championship game, with a bowl to follow.  Lose, and it's on to basketball season.

Go Cats!

Edited by Panjandrum to add this video to get everyone all "pumped up-y"...

It's the Big 12 North Championship game today when K-State travels to Lincoln to take on Nebraska.  To get a little more information on the Huskers from those who follow them most closely, I turned to the trio at Corn Nation for more info.  Questions and answers are below.

BOTC: Roy Helu has looked a lot better in the last couple games. Is he finally healthy?

Mike: Healthier, perhaps. After the Oklahoma game, Helu talked about playing for the team instead of for himself, and while he didn't phrase it this way, he's decided to grit it out and play through the pain. If you watch him block in pass protection, it's obvious that his shoulder's no where near 100%. (Another good reason to leave a fullback and a tight end or two in on pass protection.) Helu left the field in Lawrence holding his arm again, and his arm was wrapped up in the post game press conference, so we're all hoping he didn't aggravate the issue last week.

JLew: Healthy yes? 100% no. Burkhead maybe back after a broken foot, he's been cleared to play so he may be able to take some of the load off Helu.

Corn Blight/Jon J: Something certainly changed. Bo Pelini and the rest of his staff talk about injuries the way people hide their crazy uncles, so the only real way to know someone's injured is if they're out for the season or carried off on a stretcher.

Helu is a big key to the Husker offense, although true freshman Rex Burkhead might be back for this game. He's missed several games due to a foot injury, and provided a huge lift to the offense earlier in the season.

BOTC: Last week, KU apparently unlocked some serious magic and kept the Husker d-line in check. What did they do?

Mike: Todd Reesing is the most experienced quarterback NU has faced this year, and it showed. He didn't wilt in the face of pressure. Carl Pelini dialed down the pressure as a result of some Reesing scrambles, and that limited the pressure after the first quarter. Considering that NU held KU to 0 first downs in the first quarter, I wonder if that might not have been a mistake.

JLew: NU changed the approach some, Pelini explains- "That's on me. I slowed them down. (Kansas) got out on a couple quarterback draws. I thought we could cover on the back end. I thought we needed to handle (KU quarterback Todd) Reesing with the front four, and when you're trying to handle six gaps with four guys, you got to be a little more controlled in your pass rush.

Even then KU didn't run the ball particularly well. The defense also seemed to come down after a lights out game against OU.

CB/Jon J: Kansas played a darned good game on offense. They switched between misdirection and running quarterback draws with Reesing, who did a good impersonation of his old playmaking self. The playcalling was just enough to confound the Husker defensive line.

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Kansas State Wildcats (6-5 | 4-3) VS. Nebraska Cornhuskers (7-3 | 4-2)

The Big 12 North Championship
Nebraska Memorial Stadium - Lincoln, Neb.
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 - 6:45 PM CST

ESPN

After 11 weeks of strife and struggle, it comes down to this: One game separates us from either glory or disappointment.

Click the jump for my usual statistical/opinionated analysis. For more detailed information, see Corn Nation.

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Sorry this is late, and for the fact that it's going to be fairly short.  It's been a busy time for the BOTC administration.

K-State's 38-12 loss to Missouri was disappointing for a number of reasons.  Obviously, we lost a chance to get bowl eligible, and we lost a chance to win the North without beating Nebraska in Lincoln (of course, Nebraska took that chance away a few hours later by beating KU, but still).

More disappointing than those problems, however, was the way we lost the game.  The offensive game plan for Missouri was, if not perplexingly simple, then perplexingly rigid.  Our offensive identity is to line up, run the ball with Daniel Thomas, and occasionally find Brandon Banks, Attrail Snipes and Lamark Brown on short, controlled routes.  That's fine, but it was clear from the beginning yesterday that Missouri -- a pretty good defense against the run -- was going to sell out to stop Daniel Thomas.  On top of that, the Tigers looked vulnerable to screens and other short passes last week against Baylor and, looking at their defensive alignment on most plays yesterday, would have been vulnerable to them again this week.  In fact, we had some success early in the game with swing passes to Banks, et al., but it seemed like once we threw a couple of those, we had to hurry back to the rushing game that only averaged 2.6 yards per carry on the game.

It was also frustrating to see the offense unable to finish drives.  Three of Josh Cherry's field goals came on drives that got into the red zone.  Against a team with the offensive talent Missouri has, three points won't cut it.  Again, we were overly reliant on the running game, which was frustrating because we could have dinked-and-dunked our way to more success.

And all that's to say nothing of the elephant in the room: Banks' fumble in the second quarter.  It should have been a perfect play.  Banks catches a pass on third and four for a seven yard gain to Missouri's one yard line.  If he goes out of bounds, we have the ball at the one yard line, and we can line up with two tight ends, Braden Wilson, and Daniel Thomas three times and we probably put six on the board to take a 10-3 lead.  But Banks, trying to make a play, reaches the ball out and fumbles it into and out of the end zone for a Missouri touchback.  Missouri, particularly Danario Alexander, were more than happy to take the ball down and score a touchdown, and instead of leading by seven, the Cats trailed by seven.

Speaking of Alexander, what a game.  It's frustrating that our tackling fundamentals broke down a couple times and he turned pedestrian plays into big gains.  It's frustrating that Tysyn Hartman missed what could have been an interception on Alexander's first touchdown (although, really, you have to give him credit, that was a helluva catch).  But, overall the defense wasn't that bad.  I know the final numbers don't look that great, but when the game was still in question, which was basically all the way until Alexander broke the 80 yarder to make it 24-12, the defense mostly did what it needed to do to keep us in the game.  Despite a shaky first drive, it stiffened and forced a Mizzou FG.  It forced a big three-and-out deep in Mizzou's territory on the Tigers' second drive, setting up what should have been a touchdown drive.  They forced another three-and-out on Mizzou's second drive of the second quarter.  They forced another three-and-out on Mizzou's first drive of the second half.  That should have been enough for our offense to put more points on the board and either take a lead or tie it up.

That's all I have for the game itself.  Hit the jump for a few thoughts going into next week.

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