NCAA Tournament hopes alive -- for the Kansas State women, anyway

Two final pieces of Kansas effluvia: Eric has your recap, and Jeff has your visual box score. Let us speak no more of this.

First, as much as we hate those guys in Douglas County, injuries are never something to cheer about. So good news for Perry Ellis; the Star's Jesse Newell reports that Ellis will practice today after being absolutely abused by his own teammates Saturday. Ellis got 12 stitches courtesy of Carlton Bragg and a scratched eye from his buddy Wayne Selden. Presumably Medicare covers these injuries.

Texas previews from other places: Stats Inc.'s Alan Ferguson (via FOX Sports) quotes Stephen Hurt saying K-State is a "fighting team", while Jacob Martella at the Daily Texan writes about how Texas needs to break out of a slump.

Decked out in pink for Play 4Kay Day, the distaff Wildcats improved to 17-9 (7-8) with a 65-53 win over Texas Tech (11-13, 2-3). Breanna Lewis led the way with 14 points and six rebounds, while Megan Deines added 11 points. Wednesday night, the ladies visit Iowa State (13-13, 5-10).

It may be their last chance for a regular-season win with Baylor coming to Manhattan on Sunday and a trip to Stillwater next Monday closing out the schedule. As of a week ago, K-State was in the last four in per Charlie Creme's bracketology at ESPN, which he should be updating again tomorrow. Losing to Texas last week probably didn't hurt, but beating Texas Tech at home was effectively a neutral result. If Creme is already presuming losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State, a win Wednesday would pretty much seal the deal for the Cats; if he hasn't factored those games in yet, it may be WNIT time again unless the ladies stage a Big 12 tournament run.

After two days of relative quietude from the first part of their common appellation, the BatCats (2-1) exploded yesterday. Tyler Wolfe and Steve Serratore each had three RBIs, all coming with two outs, as K-State ripped Cal-Riverside 8-1. Levi MaVorhis threw a gem, tossing seven shutout innings in his first start of the season and departing with a 6-0 lead. Colton Kalmus, who has already taken the hill this season (closing out the 1-0 season-opening win), will start at 8pm tonight for K-State; Cal-Riverside (1-2) has still not named their starter

The women's team had a splendid Sunday, shooting a 4-under 284 in the second round of the Westbrook Invitational and moving in to a tie for second place with UNLV, six shots behind first-place Oregon. Katherine Gravel-Coursal -- who dropped a hole-in-one on the par-3 fourth -- and Connie Jaffrey are each at four-under, tied for second just a stroke behind Oregon's Caroline Inglis. The third round begins at 9:30 this morning, and you can follow via live stats courtesy birdiefire.com

As double-ought reported yesterday, the men are also in action today, playing two rounds at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate. Live stats for that event are available via golfstat.com.