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Kansas State Suspends Marcus Foster and Malek Harris

An hour before tip-off in Lubbock, Kansas State Head Coach Bruce Weber announced the suspensions of Marcus Foster and Malek Harris.

What do Foster, Pullen, Kelly, and Harris all have in common? They have all been suspended while at K-State.
What do Foster, Pullen, Kelly, and Harris all have in common? They have all been suspended while at K-State.
John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

After an exciting National Signing day in which a surprise commit from Elijah Sullivan capped off a great 2015 recruiting class, Kansas State fans were settling down for a quiet evening of basketball in Lubbock, TX. Then this happened:

The suspension immediately conjures up memories of the suspension of Jacob Pullen, and Curtis Kelly for impermissible benefits in their senior year. However, this is different. This suspension is for a violation of team rules, where-as the Pullen/Kelley suspension was for an NCAA violation. Here, Bruce Weber is clearly trying to send a message, specifically saying "Our players have expectations and there are consequences when you don’t live up to those expectations. Hopefully, they will learn from this experience and make the necessary progress to rejoin our team."

This is an extremely unfortunate turn of events for Foster who had been playing better since his benching against Oklahoma State, but is now suspended indefinitely. He doesn't appear to be rejoining the team anytime soon either, as the quote above indicates he has some work to do to earn his spot back. The question Wildcat fans will surely be asking themselves is how this affects Foster's relationship with Weber, and whether or not Foster will make the adjustments necessary to return to player he was as a freshman.

It's been clear from the beginning of his sophomore season that Foster wants to be "The Man", but the way in which he has gone about it has been wrong. The "As long as I get mine, everything is cool" attitude has to change and maybe by sitting in the hotel room and watching the game like the rest of us he will get that message. Foster has the skill and talent to be a leader, but he must do it within the team concept. Right now the only person he appears to be leading is himself, which is fine for golf, but it ain't going to work for basketball.