Eight more days, and basketball dies. Of course, for those of the "cheer for the underdogs" persuasion, it all but died last night, and it's almost certainly going to be crushed under the inexorably advancing heel of oppression tonight.
But we're not here to talk about that. (Check in with us at 10am, when today's Sunday recap/Monday schedule goes live.) We're here to talk about EMAW.
Bruce Weber's got a new recruit. The mysterious JUCO PG Corlbe Ervin has committed to K-State, as first reported by Kellis Robinett and expanded upon by your benevolent despot.
Weber still has a scholarship to give. Who will get it? We may find out by Wednesday, as 6'4 guard Jamall Gregory is set to make his decision. The fun part? He's deciding between K-State and South Carolina. Gregory is originally from Arlington (VA) O'Connell and then Washington (DC) Coolidge, but pulled up stakes and spent last year at Elev8 Sports Academy in Delray Beach, Florida. There are scraps of red cloth waving around me as I type that. Gregory has narrowed his choices to the Wildcats and Gamecocks, but has not visited K-State and doesn't intend to; he visited Columbia on Saturday. Interestingly, he's got other solid offers from Rutgers, UNLV, Dunk City, DePaul, and Canisius, so while he's still highly likely to go play for Frank Martin, the fact that K-State is in his final two means we can't really rule him out just based on a lack of visit.
The BatCats go down again, dropping a 4-1 decision to Oklahoma State in Stillwater. K-State was held to just two hits on the day by Michael Freeman, and both of those were in the ninth inning. (Ahem.) The Cats fall to 12-14, 1-5 in conference play. The Cats finally return home this weekend for a Thursday-Saturday series with West Virginia at Tointon.
Sonia Gaskin (W 400m), Morgan Wedekind (W steeplechase), Kain Ellis (M 1500m), and Danie Plank (W javelin), as well as the women's 4x400 team of Gaskin, Sarah Kolmer, Joslyn Barnes, and Jordan Matthews, all captured first-place finishes at the Emporia State Spring Open on Sunday. Wedekind, Gaskin, and the 4x400 team all set meet records. Next up is the Baylor Invitational on Friday in Waco.
The next-to-last hurrah for the equestrian team was a second-place finish at the Big 12 championships. The ladies led Baylor 5-4 after the first two events, but were crushed 4-1 in equitation on the flat and weren't able to make up the difference in horsemanship. Baylor earned the victory, 11-8. Henley Adkins, Taylor Schmidt, Danielle Kemper, and Kara Guy earned all-Big 12 honors while coach Casie Maxwell shared Coach of the Year with Baylor's Ellen White. The K-State Equestrian team takes its final bow April 16-18 in Waco at the national championship.
Clarification: the Equestrian team still has one season left to ride. We got confused, and apologize for the error.In Wichita on Saturday, K-State was swept 4-0 by the Shockers, but came back to post a 5-1 win over Division II Newman in the late match. The Wildcats (8-11, 1-3 Big 12) face Kansas in Lawrence on Saturday.
All three top crews qualified for the grand finals at the San Diego Crew Classic in Mission Bay over the weekend. The Varsity Four finished sixth overall, while 2nd Varsity 8 took fifth in their race. The stunner: 1st Varsity Right took second place, finishing five seconds back of Duke and edging out Sacramento State and Tennessee. The overall field included crews from USC, UCLA, Texas, Miami, San Diego, and others, so it was a quality performance. Next up, in three weeks, is the SIRA Championship at Oak Ridge, Tenn., where K-State exploded onto the crew scene last year with an attention-grabbing five wins and a 13-1 record.