SLATE: We’re Number... Twenty-Something

Thanks to a little chaos toward the bottom of both polls and Kansas State‘s wise decision to not play anyone Saturday, the Wildcats find themselves ranked in both polls this week. K-State landed in the 24 spot on the AP poll, with considerable cushion between them and Michigan State at 25; in the coaches poll, where K-State was 24 last week, they moved up to 22 — jumping over Central Florida in the process.

That’s right, K-State is now ranked ahead of last year’s defending national co-champions. Cough.

Andy Wittry at Stadium, in a statement applying to multiple teams, implies this is the best team in Manhattan since this year’s seniors matriculated, and he’s probably not wrong. (His “if not this decade” addendum can’t apply to K-State, of course, because 2012.)

Last week, venerable Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel agreed with JT that K-State was the #2 team in the Big 12 power rankings. Yesterday, Berry did our intrepid pal one better, placing K-State in the top spot because, after all, K-State has actually beaten somebody with a pulse unlike, y’know, Oklahoma.

In this week’s edition of the ESPN Bowl Projections, Kyle Bonagura is still taunting your benevolent despot with his dream of K-State finally getting to play a bowl game in Florida. He has K-State headed to sunny Orlando to take on Wake Forest in the Camping World Bowl. Mark Schlabach, on the other hand, has given the Wildcats an upgrade: a trip to San Antonio to face Washington in the Alamo Bowl. (I’d still rather get to check off the Florida box at this stage.)

In our final piece of football news for today, we step outside Manhattan. You may recall a game against Texas back in 2006, a 45-42 win at the Bill. You may even recall that Colt McCoy left after one possession because his shoulder hurt. Jevan Snead took over, and did not have a great day. Sadly, the 32-year-old Snead was found dead in his Stephenville, Tex. home on Saturday night due to as-yet unrevealed causes. Police are investigating. Our thoughts go out to Longhorn Nation.

Golf

The K-State women are going to have to play 36 today at the East-West Match Play event in Madison, Wis. because yesterday’s first round was wiped out by heavy rains. The men, on the other hand, got round one in yesterday at the Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas. K-State finished Sunday tied for ninth (out of 17 teams) at 7-over, 12 shots back of SMU and Arizona State. They’re underway this morning, with the Cats gaining a stroke courtesy of Riccardo Leo. Jakob Eklund leads K-State at 1-over, tied for 25th; he hasn’t teed off yet this morning.

Tennis

Junior Rosanna Maffei claimed the Flight A Singles title at the Marliss Gruver Invitational this weekend in Auburn, Ala. Next up, K-State heads to Dallas this weekend for the SMU Invitational.

Women’s Basketball

Corbin McGuire spoke with Ayoka Lee about her experience playing alongside Jasauen Beard, Rachel Ranke, and Christianna Carr in the Red Bull USA Basketball 3x tournament earlier this month in today’s Sports Extra.

Stay tuned later as we cough up the latest iteration of FANPULSE.