No, I'm not talking about what's different between the first game against the 'beakers and this one, although that is a valid and extremely frustrating question.  I'm talking more along the lines of those who say K-State is on the NCAA tournament bubble right now.

None of the self-proclaimed experts seem to view K-State as a bubble team right now, although the Cats indisputably have some work left to do to get into the Dance.  The premise behind these projections is always that these teams would be in the tournament if the season ended today, but we tend to get confused this time of year and talk about what must be done from here on out.

My only real point, then, is that if we were probably in the tournament before Saturday, why is anything different now?  Vegas had us as something like a 13-point underdog yesterday, and no Big 12 team has won in Lawrence this year.  It's not like losing in Lawrence is a huge shame; it happens to almost everyone.

At this point, we have games remaining at home with Colorado and on the road at Iowa State.  Neither team has played very well this year and, if we want to be considered a tournament-worthy team, we need to win both of them.

On another note, the loss yesterday coupled with Baylor's win over Missouri means we are now tied for third in the conference.  Even worse, we are tied with a team that has the tiebreaker on us, meaning we are essentially the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 right now.  The good news?  Baylor's remaining games are with Texas A&M and at Texas Tech, and Texas just proved again yesterday how hard it is to win in Lubbock.  The other good news?  We have four teams sitting one game behind us, but only one, Texas Tech, has the tiebreaker on the Cats.

Things may look dark right now, and no doubt we need to see some serious improvement quickly, but all is not lost.