I am now down to one final exam remaining, but while the end is so near, it's still so far away.  As such, I don't have enough time to put up a full post, although I will note that K-State beat Arizona State, 7-6, in baseball last night, which is a huge win for the Cats.

Anyway, I thought the time was ripe for a community discussion of Bill Walker's future.  We haven't heard anything since he declared for the draft.  Is he gone?  Should he be?  Finally, if he were to return, what are the team's prospects for next year?  We know what Sooner fans think about that, now I want to hear what you think.

At this point, there isn't a whole lot left to be said.  All year long I've sung the praises of the player I believe to be the best in the college ranks.  So as I said to B-Easy when I got his autograph in San Antonio:

"Thanks for coming to Manhattan."

And no, I'm not ashamed to have asked a 19 year old for his autograph.

So it's time for a trip down memory lane.  It may have been short, but it was oh, so sweet.

"I'm a Wildcat for life," he said. "I'm always going to be a Wildcat, no matter what my decision is. Four years, five years, 100 years from now — I'm always going to be a Wildcat." --Michael Beasley

The Wichita Eagle and the KC Star are reporting that Michael Beasley will turn pro.  The Eagle bases the report on an unidentified source, while the Star quotes Beasley's former AAU coach, Curtis Malone.

I won't be around at 5 p.m. when the presser is on, so consider this your live thread to discuss anything pertaining to it.  You can listen to the presser live at five by clicking here.

In the meantime, read PJ's letter to Beasley over at Chronicles of a K-State Fan.

We'll carry the banner high!

I'm back but not yet fully rested from a long but awesome weekend in San Antonio.  I once told a friend of mine from SA that her town was a third-world country, but that observation was dead wrong.

--What a great weather weekend.  Sure, it got a little hot Sunday, but for a city that relies on great outdoor weather in its downtown area, it couldn't have been much better.  Lots of sun, warm temperatures, no rain.

--Incredibly entertaining title game.  As mentioned, I was sitting in the rafters, but the view wasn't really that bad.  Last night's game is certainly the best title game I've ever witnessed, although I should note that I'm less than a quarter-century old.

--One of the great things about the Final Four is people-watching.  I saw or walked by Jim Boeheim, Phil Martelli, Jeff Capel and Ed Hightower.  On Monday at lunch, Jeffrey Martin sat at the table next to me.  While standing outside the Alamodome after the title game, Penny Hardaway walked right by, but was not in a very good mood.

--I wonder how geniune John Calipari's assertion is that he was trying to foul Sherron Collins and/or Mario Chalmers on that last play.  It's what he should have done, but it didn't look like they were trying that hard.

--Memphis was dead from the second Mario Chalmers' shot went in.  You could see the air go out of the Memphis players and fans.

--Free throws?!  Good God, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose could not have choked worse than they did.  Even hitting their season team average (~60 percent) down the stretch would have been good enough.

--Derrick Rose is incredible, but he shrunk from the spotlight in the overtime.  Of course, all of Memphis' team looked a little shellshocked, so maybe it's unfair to single him out.

--The 'beaker fans in my section were dicks to the Memphis fan sitting next to me.

--What was up with Roy Williams wearing a shirt with a chicken sticker on it?  Ol' Huckleberry Hound sure does like the spotlight.

--In conclusion, the Final Four is an incredible event, even when you don't have a rooting interest in any of the participating teams.  I hope at some point in my lifetime to go to a Final Four with more than a casual basketball observer's interest in the games.

It appears Sean Sutton will resign from his head coaching position at Oklahoma State.

No word yet on a successor, but I think we all know who the prime target is going to be.

I had a safe-but-exhausting return trip to the south today, so I'm not in any position to put up a post reacting to yesterday's events.  As a preview to my full reaction, I think Brian Butch should change the vowel in his last name from a "u" to an "i", and I respect Wisconsin's style of play in about the same way I respect Southern Illinois' style of play.

If you can't tell, I'm really bitter and mad.  More tomorrow.

The good folks over at Conquest Chronicles were kind enough to answer some questions about USC to give us a little more information about the Trojans for today's game.  You can check out my answers to their questions at Conquest Chronicles.

BOTC: Are you unhappy to have USC placed in Omaha, which is about a three-hour drive from Manhattan, Kan.?

CC: Not exactly unhappy, of course you would like to have home advantage or complete neutrality, but SC has played just as good, if not better, on the road this year than at home and have had their best performances away.  Also, with Kansas being in the same region and the Jayhawks having a game earlier in the day, who knows we might have some of their fans rooting for us.

BOTC: Early in the season, it seemed like O.J. Mayo was trying to do too much.  Tell us how he has progressed through the year.

CC: He started the year trying to do too much single-handedly and then followed it up by trying too much to allow the game to him.  The biggest progression in O.J.'s game this season was finding the right balance of being aggressive at times and laying off at other times.

BOTC:We know USC can play some serious defense.  Do they do it with a zone or a man-to-man?  And will that defensive philosophy change when playing against someone like Michael Beasley?

CC: Floyd primarily runs a man-to-man defense to get on-the-ball pressure; USC is athletic and disciplined enough to do this.  Floyd will run 2-3 zone, triangle-and-two, and other modified zones usually against teams with a dominant inside presence to compensate for the lack of big man on SC's roster.  We ran these types of zones against Memphis, Kansas, etc.

Not sure if we'll run any type of zones against Beasley since he excels from outside as well as inside.  You might see a triangle-and-two because it still allows man-to-man coverage around the perimeter.  My guess is Floyd will put a smaller player on Beasley with help defense nearby.

BOTC: Give us one player for the Trojans we probably don't know about who could have a big hand in the outcome.

CC: Dwight Lewis.  He can put up 10-12 pts easy if he is matched up against someone he can take off the dribble.  Dwight disappears when matched up against athletic defenders (e.g. Chase Budinger).  He gets to the hole well and has a decent outside shot.  Can score in bundles or float around and do nothing.

BOTC: Give us your prediction or, if you don't want to do that, give us your keys to a USC victory.

CC: No prediction, but the keys to victory is putting pressure on Beasley/Walker and forcing K-State's guards to beat us.  Also, keeping Beasley out of the paint for put-backs and tip-ins, etc.

Thanks again to Conquest Chronicles for giving us a little more information about USC.  Here's to a great game tonight.

Here are some of my best photos from Friday through Sunday of the Big 12 Championship.  Fellow bloggers, I have a ton more photos of your team if they played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, just email me (bringonthecats@gmail.com) and I'll be happy to send you what I have.

Texas 66, Oklahoma State 59

Oklahoma 54, Colorado 49

Texas A&M 63, K-State 60

Michael Beasley receives his conference player of the year award.

That's me, floppy hair and all, with the view from our seats in the background.

Sorry, no good pics from Saturday.  Hit the link below to see a few pics from Sunday below the jump.

Record: 21-11 (11-7 Pac-10, T-3rd)
RPI: 28
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 111.9 (47th)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 87.5 (11th)

As you can see, USC is a pretty efficient team on both ends of the court.  Offensively, they may not score a lot of points (69.1 per game), but they use their possessions fairly well (see explanation of Pomeroy's efficiency stats below).  On defense, the Trojans are a group to be feared, holding their opponents to 63.2 points per game and 39 percent shooting (30 percent from behind the arc).

Just looking at pure numbers, K-State stacks up fairly well with USC from an efficiency standpoint.  The Cats score 78.7 points per game and are 22nd in Pomeroy's adjusted offensive efficiency (116.4 points per 100 possessions).  At the other end, K-State gives up 68.9 points per game, and are 19th in Pomeroy's adjusted defensive efficiency (89.0 points per 100 possessions).  Wildcat opponents have managed to shoot 42 percent from the field and nearly 37 percent from behind the arc, numbers that have to be a concern going into this Thursday's game in Omaha.

While O.J. Mayo cleary and unsurprisingly leads USC in scoring, the Trojan attack is fairly balanced.  Four players average double-figure points per game, including Davon Jefferson (12.0), Dwight Lewis (10.9) and Taj Gibson (10.8).  Compare that to the notable scoring imbalance shown by K-State, which only has two players averaging double-figures.

Coach Tim Floyd employs a solid eight-man rotation, with eight players averaging more than 13 minutes per game.  Frank Martin also isn't afraid to dig into his bench, as the Cats have nine players averaging 11 minutes or more per game.  The bench play of both teams will be an interesting sub-plot in this game.

Much more to come about USC, including a few questions with the Conquest Chronicles' blogger.  Game time has been announced, and the K-State/USC showdown will be at 6:10 p.m. (CDT).

(All efficiency stats and RPI courtesty Ken Pomeroy.  Efficiency statistics are calculated based on number of points scored or allowed per 100 possessions.)

It was definitely a bittersweet day inside the Sprint Center for me.  For four days, I had been walking into that beautiful arena and around the beautiful new Power & Light District and having a great time.  So when I walked into Section 105 today, it was sad to know it would be the last time for this tournament.  Thanks again to my ticket source for getting me incredible seats for the event.

As for the game inside, for being stuck watching two schools of which I'm not fond, the level of play more than made up for any of those problems.  It would have been miserable to be in there and watch one blow out the other, but of course that didn't happen.  The worst part was when it was all over and I had to stick around for the postgame celebration amidst a sea of red and blue, but getting to see so many great players was worth it.

--D.J. Augustin is the best point guard I've ever seen live.  He does a million little things and a few big things that make his team go.  Texas fans should shudder at the thought of that team without him.
--Mario Chalmers shot the ball like most pros today.
--Ditto Brandon Rush, although he missed a few down the stretch.
--A.J. Abrams got hot in the second half, but he missed a lot of shots that he made yesterday.
--Not sure how much they showed it on TV, but Bill Self was really unhappy with the referees most of the first half.  One of the refs was that fluffy haired moron who gave Jeff Capel a technical yesterday.  He's such a pretty boy it makes me sick; he thinks the game is about his control.  He T'd Capel up for waving his arm in disgust at a call.  What a joke.
--We sat right next to Sasha Kaun's mom.  She was really nervous the whole game.
--Kathleen Sebelius was there wearing a 2008 Orange Bowl jacket.  Made me want to puke.  She showed it to Tim Weiser after the game...he didn't look especially impressed.

Now we can move on from the Big 12 Championship and focus on the NCAA Tournament.  For the first time in 12 years, our K-State Wildcats are featured in the bracket.  The matchup, of course, is a 6/11 game between us and USC.  If anyone argues with me that the committee doesn't look for a few marquee matchups, I won't take them seriously.  Clearly having Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo on the floor in the same game was the goal.

I need to gather more information before doing a full preview on USC, but you can expect plenty more about the Trojans before tipoff on Thursday.  I've contacted the blogger over at Conquest Chronicles, the SB Nation blog for USC, and hope to find out more about USC from them.

Tomorrow, look for my final photo thread from the Big 12 Championship.

With the Cats out of the Big 12 tournament, there hasn't been much other than pundit chatter to read.  So I'm going to make this your hub for reading what they are saying about the Cats' chances this afternoon.  While pretty much everyone says we are in, I can't get the gut-punch of last year out of my mind, and we have again given the committee a reason to leave us home.  Granted, it would be a screwing of Ron Jeremy-esque proportions if we did get left out, but the pessimist in me can't get it out of my mind.

Lunardi has the Cats at a 9-seed in the West Regional, which assuming a win in the first round would mean a second-round matchup with UCLA.  Most importantly, I guess, he doesn't have us among his last four teams in.

ESPN's Bubble Watch sounds fairly confident in the Cats' chances to get in, but with Texas A&M's 'run' in the Big 12 tournament, they are certainly ahead of us in the pecking order, whereas nobody knows what to do with Baylor.

Good ol' Bob Lutz thinks we're in, and is tired of hearing about it.  We're tired of you, too, Bob.  While we're talking about local columnists, Joe Posnanski thinks we're in, too.  New traditional-media blogger Austin Meek of the TCJ has an interesting analysis of the bubble spots available and the teams competing for them.

This has no relation to K-State and the NCAA tournament, but if you're a Kansas Citian or just love the City's history with Big 8/12 basketball and major basketball in general, settle in and read this outstanding Joe Posnanski column.  Columns like this are the reason Posnanski wins national writing awards.  And then, just for a little compare-and-contrast, read this debbie-downer column from the TCJ's Rick Dean.

To me, Dean's view is too narrow.  Yes, KC was promised big events, big teams, and it built for them.  But a downtown entertainment district can be sustained, at least for a while, without those anchor tenants.  The people of KC and the Midwest in general have become blinded by their misconception that "Downtown" is a dirty word.  Downtown to Kansas Citians is a place where you go to work and then get out of as soon as you can.  Downtown is a place where you park your car and hope to God it doesn't get busted up.  Downtown means crime, homeless people, traffic.

You'll notice I said Midwest, because this attitude is not limited to Kansas Citians.  Look no further than Omaha, where fierce opposition to a downtown baseball stadium may end up kicking the city's golden goose--the College World Series--to Indianapolis.

It doesn't have to be that way.  Other cities have realized that if you encourage business in Downtown, it can become a destination rather than a hazard.  My temporarily adopted city of Houston has figured this out.  It has Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center downtown.  It has become a place to be, before and after the games.  But more than that, it has become a place to be even without games.  Those bars and restaurants downtown can steal some of the after-work happy hour crowd, which will help them get through the non-event days.  But on top of that, Posnanski's article mentions there will be more than 150 events at the Sprint Center this year.  So on nearly half the days this year, there will be an event going on downtown.  Finally, once the people of Kansas City learn how to maneuver downtown and how to park downtown, it should become another destination for eating and drinking, similar to the Plaza or Westport.

For the people reading this from Houston or Dallas or San Antonio, it may seem absurd that a "little" event like the Big 12 tournament could cause such consternation among the residents of a city.  But that's why KC is made for the Big 12 tournament, and it should be here permanently.  KC embraces this event, loves it, nourishes it, works to develop it.  In Dallas, it's a blip on the radar screen, not worth another credit-card charge in a city built on credit.  In Houston, it wouldn't even be as big as the rodeo.

Kansas City will be one helluva fun place today, and it will continue to be that place as long as the optimists outnumber the skeptics.

Updates here later in the day.  Leave any observations about the day's events in the comments section.

I said most of what I have to say in last night's mobile post (see below), so I'll just dump a few stories and give you a few thoughts from Friday at the Big 12 Championship.

As usual, Joe Posnanski has a solid article, this time assessing K-State's problems and prospects this year.  Clearly this team runs through Michael Beasley, as I talked about last night, but during the 5-0 conference start we saw other players step up and contribute.  That would include Bill Walker knocking down shots and driving for dunks, or Jacob Pullen hitting threes and dishing out assists.  None of that is anywhere to be found at this point, as the leading scorers after Beasley and Walker last night were Pullen and Stewart with seven points apiece.

Good news, though, Posnanski still thinks we're in the NCAA tournament.

From Aggie Sports, here is a fuller explanation of what several Texas A&M players have been dealing with the last couple days.

Blake Griffin gets away with throwing more elbows than any player since Hakeem Olajuwon.  I saw him toss three, including one forearm shiver right to the jaw of a Colorado post player.

I'd have some reaction from the Texas-Oklahoma State game, but there really wasn't much there.  Umm, Okie State's dance team is really hot?

Speaking of rough play, from the Wichita Eagle, we hear that KU took offense to Nebraska's chippy play.  From where I sat (sixth row, behind the chickens' bench), boo-f******-hoo.  When this team leaves Allen Fieldhouse and refs actually call its guards for slapping and grabbing and pushing, it loses one of its basic ingredients.

I also find it amusing the article mentions the physical play by Nebraska, but doesn't mention Darrell Arthur's thuggish launching of Nebraska's 5'6" PG, Cookie Miller on a first-half loose ball.  It's unfathomable that he wasn't called for a technical, let alone a personal foul, on that one.