SLATE: Gearing up for Kansas State’s biggest chance in years

Today, it’s still Monday. K-State still hasn’t faced off against their arch-nemesis, over whom they hold a half-game lead in the Big 12 standings. The talking heads are still focused not on whether this is the year the Wildcats finally bury the Jayhawk corpse, but on whether Kansas still has it in them to pull out yet another Big 12 regular-season title.

But tomorrow could change everything. This year’s seniors have still never managed to topple their cross-state rivals. Should that happen tomorrow night — especially if Baylor or Iowa State (or both) also win their mid-week games — the entire narrative of the conference season will be permanently altered. Kansas would find itself in a hole out of which it may simply be too hard to escape.

The vast majority of the media, like our pal CBBToday’s Matt Zemek, is still looking at Kansas and what they might accomplish, even as the first two words in his article are “Kansas State”. On the other hand, the Star’s Blair Kerkhoff is looking at things from the Manhattan angle, asking if this may be K-State’s best chance ever.

In the standard media polls, K-State comes into today’s poll releases waiting to see if their lone game of the week is enough to push them back into the top 25. Gary Parrish of CBS, for his part, was impressed enough with the Cats’ win on Saturday to push them up two spots to #22 in his weekly ranking.

We’re not without football linkage today: Corbin McGuire introduces you to new cornerbacks coach Van Malone in today’s Sports Extra.

Finally, the Collegian’s Bailey Britton asks a burning question to which everyone would like an answer: how does K-State keep winning crops titles?