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The more things change...
The NCAA men's basketball rules committee is proposing rules changes to make up for last season's slow tempo, low scoring offenses and the glut of late-game timeouts that killed pace and momentum (Nicole Auerbach, USA Today).
The proposed changes include changing the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30 seconds (presumably to allow for more possessions and more scoring), increasing the restricted area in front of the basket from three feet to four feet (to reduce collisions in the low post) and several changes aimed at reducing timeouts, including prohibiting coaches from calling timeouts during live ball action, disallowing timeouts within 30 seconds of a media timeout, and reducing total timeouts from five to four.
It remains to be seen whether these new rules will even be formally accepted, not to mention what impact these changes will really have on the game.
For his part, Bruce Weber is prepared. He claims these rules changes have been expected for some time and that teams will adjust to the faster shot clock (Ken Corbitt, Topeka Capital-Journal).
Kansas State drew first blood in this latest series of the Sunflower Showdown blanking Kansas for an 11-0 win in the series opener. This was the largest shutout in series history, and extended the Wildcats' win streak in Lawrence to four.
Started Nate Griep tossed seven unblemished innings, stretching his scoreless innings streak to 16 frames. He is now 6-2 on the season and matched his career high in strikeouts with eight over seven innings. His 63 strikeouts is also the most for any Kansas State pitcher since 2012.
The BatCats had a solid day of hitting too. Leading the team was sophomore Jake Wodtke who had a career day, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a walk. Seniors Max Brown and Carter Yagi were also in the multi-hit column for the day, along with juniors Tyler Wolfe and Tyler Moore.
The second game of the series will be played today at 2 PM. The Wildcats have not announced a starter yet.
The Kansas State rowing team is in Oak Ridge, Tennessee this weekend for the Big 12 championships. The team will face off against their conference opponents in five races: 1st Varsity 8, 2nd Varsity 8, 3rd Varsity 8, 1st Varsity 4 and 2nd Varsity 4. The rowers hope to go one better than last year's second-place finish.
The event field has expanded with the addition of Alabama, Tennessee and Old Dominion who formerly competed in Conference USA with Kansas State. In addition, the Wildcats will face No. 11 Texas and the defending champions, Oklahoma.
The Kansas State women's team dominated the first day of action at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in Ames, Iowa, while the men's team is currently in fourth place. The throwers were particularly impressive, accounting for 37 of the team's 42-point total.
Sara Savatovic won her third consecutive hammer throw title, besting her own school record and the Serbian national record (also set by Savatovic) in the process. With the victory, Savatovic became only the second athlete to ever record a three-peat in the event in the Big 12, equalling the record set by former Wildcat thrower Renetta Seiler from 1997 to 1999.
On the men's side, Manhattan native Ivan Hartung finished second in the javelin throw with a personal best mark of 70.02m, also good for 4th all-time in Kansas State history.
Senior Laura Galvan finished fourth in the 10K, scoring for the second consecutive time in this event for the season. She is the first Wildcat since Sydney Messick in 2011 to score in the event.
In the multi-events, Adam Deterding is currently in 3rd place in the decathlon with 3,763 points. Sarah Kolmer and Joslyn Barnes are currently fourth and fifth in the heptathlon with 3,087 and 3,036 points respectively.
Action in Ames continues today, and you can follow along with @kstate_gameday and the hashtag #KStateTF.