K-State reaches final verdict with Marcus Foster

On the heels of sending Jevon Thomas and Tre Harris packing earlier Tuesday, Bruce Weber sent the biggest warning shot of perhaps his coaching career late Tuesday as he made it loud and clear that he's in charge and made Marcus Foster the latest example of a terrible, mismanaged season.

The move comes after Foster signed off on the wasted season by saying he was finally ready to commit himself a la Rodney McGruder-style and wanted to return for not just one year, but two. The renewed commitment speeches, made at different times at the end of the year, apparently didn't sell Foster's now former head coach.

What Kansas State loses; After a draining, year-long struggle between coach and player, K-State's leading scorer, and biggest headache, is gone. KSU sheds a talented tumor in the belief it can heal the program overall and, without Foster, improve from a deathly sick 15-17 season.

After the season's debacle, something had to change, but there's no question that the move is going to require some (or a lot of) faith in the addition-by-subtraction theory. Weber spent Tuesday cleaning house and ridding his program of two of the most public problems this program had experienced in a long time. He had to; this season was too much of a mess to allow the same parts to remain in place.

What Kansas State has moving forward: Holes ... this roster has holes. The top three scorers are gone. Two potential returning starters are now gone. The guard situation includes Nigel Johnson (who didn't break through until very late, and there's no guarantee of that same high level of output) and incoming youth. Past that, the back court, in its current state, is really dependent on combo-slasher types like Wesley Iwundu.

The front court may be in even more dire shape. Shortly, the Wildcats don't have a legit inside presence right now, which seems to beg that at least one of the now-open scholarships go that direction.

Regardless of how the scholarships are filled, Weber's next move(s) need to show there was a bigger plan here for restoring his program. Just cutting, even if it was necessary, and filling with whatever comes open won't do anything to help ease unrest that this season and Tuesday's dismissals have brought.