Rally Falls Short

Previously

Yesterday, Gracey went live on Facebook for her weekly chat with Wildcat and BotC fans. If you haven’t checked this out yet, you really need to, Gracey does great work!

Women’s Basketball

It was a tough night for the ladies in purple in Norman. Less than a week after a huge home win over #12 and previously undefeated West Virginia, the #25 Wildcats went on the road to face #20 OU. The Cats dug themselves a big hole early, and were down by 13 at the end of the first quarter. But the Cats won the second quarter, holding OU to a mere 8 points, and cut the halftime deficit to just 7. The Sooners and Cats were basically even through the third, but a huge fourth quarter from K-State pushed the game to overtime. In the end it was just too much for a career night from Karyla Middlebrook, who scored 27 points in the contest to lead all scorers, to overcome and the Cats fell 80-85. You can read full recaps from K-StateSports.com, and the AP report from the Wichita Eagle. The ladies fell to 11-4 (1-2) with the loss, but three of the four losses are to Top 25 teams, and two of those were road games at the Big 12’s best.

The Cats return to action this Saturday in Bramlage Coliseum as part of a Big 12 double-header, as the women will play Texas Tech following the men’s game against OU earlier in the afternoon. Bring on the Cats will have you covered for both games this weekend.

Football

Football is still getting attention this offseason. Yesterday, the Associated Press announced it’s All-Bowl Team and freshman Scott Frantz was named as one of the five-best lineman during the bowl season after his impressive performance against Texas A&M star DE (and likely first-round NFL draft pick) Myles Garrett (Robinett, Eagle). To quote the quote:
“Frantz was the primary man responsible for holding All-America defensive end Myles Garrett to zero sacks and only one assisted tackle in Kansas State's 33-28 Texas Bowl victory over Texas A&M.”

There was some buzz last week after it came out that Jim Leavitt’s new defensive coordinator contract included a very specific buyout clause. Kevin Haskin at the Topeka Capital-Journal was able to talk to Leavitt, and according to Jim it was all about his feelings towards K-State and that there has been no communication with Bill Snyder or John Currie regarding a future opportunity at K-State (yeah, likely story).

After K-State’s impressive finish to 2016, the Wildcats are generating some early buzz. Athlon Sport’s recently released way-too-early 2017 Top 25 ranking includes the Wildcats at #18. #Respect?

Other

We read a little bit yesterday about the Lawrence and Riley County PD’s trading some Twitter barbs after Teusday night’s game in Allen Fieldhouse, but according to Pete Grathoff at the KC Star the fun went a little deeper than first reported, as the Lawrence PD roped the KU Public Safety Office into the mix.

Also, our own Wildcat00 checked in over at SBNation’s Minnesota blog The Daily Gopher to drop her take on the situation surrounding the football team and athletic department there (yes, she’s a UM grad too).