Jordan Willis is fit, Baylor was lit, and Parker Rigler says no hits

There were three big stories to follow in Wildcatland yesterday, and we’ll rip through them as succinctly as we can.

Football

Jordan Willis put on a show at the NFL Combine Sunday, which we reported yesterday. That piece includes a bunch of Slate-like material, with multiple story links we won’t repeat here this morning. Since that article, of course, there’s been some more reaction:

The Ringer’s Danny Kelly says to get used to the name Jordan Willis. Turron Davenport at Eagles Wire says yesterday may be the last time Willis flies under anyone’s radar. And Steve Balestrieri at PatsFans has his eye on Willis, suggesting some time in an NFL S&C program would make him a real beast.

Women’s Basketball

Karlya Middlebrook led the way with a 20-point night, and Bre Lewis, Kindred Wesemann, and Kayla Goth all reached double figures. But that wasn’t enough to get past the second-ranked and top-seeded Baylor Bears, who coasted to an 88-71 win in the semifinals of the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship yesterday at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Nina Davis scored 16 first-half points and 24 overall for the Bears, and was backed up by 18 each from Alexis Prince and Kalani Brown and a tournament-record 15 assists from Kristy Wallace. Nathan Ruiz of the Star has a K-State-centric recap, while the Capital Journal ran an AP story skewing more toward Baylor.

The loss was expected for the most part, and will have zero effect on the Wildcats’ seed in the NCAA Tournament, for which they’re already a clear lock. There was bad news, however, as in the fourth quarter Wesemann got tangled up with Baylor’s Lauren Cox and suffered an injury to her elbow. If it’s minor, that’s not a big deal. If it’s not, it will have a major impact on K-State’s NCAA run.

Baseball

As JT reported yesterday, K-State completed the weekend sweep of Eastern Illinois in big fashion. The BatCats (9-2) secured a 14-0 win over the Panthers, but the story of the day was the complete game no-hitter by starting lefty Parker Rigler. It was the first nine-inning complete game no-hitter in K-State history.

The win wasn’t enough to get into Baseball America’s top 25, though. TCU is atop the rankings, with Texas Tech 14th and Oklahoma State and Baylor at 23-24.

Men’s Basketball

Ken Corbitt of the Capital-Journal reports that Wesley Iwundu really, really wants to end his career in the NCAA Tournament.

If you want disrespect, the Wildcats were only represented on the 2017 All-Big 12 team by Iwundu (third team) and D.J. Johnson (honorable mention).

Golf

Roland Massimino, grandson of the great Villanova coach, was tied for third place, two shots off the lead, after a first-round 67 at the Auburn-hosted Tiger Invitational in Opelika, Ala. Play is already well under way this morning, and Massimino is even after three holes. That has caused him to drop to a tie for fifth, four strokes back.

As for the team as a whole, everyone else shot 75 or worse yesterday, and they’ve started poorly this morning as well. They were tied for ninth with a 2-over 290 coming into the day, and now they’re in 14th, 7-over and 17 strokes off the lead.