Slate: Kansas State Men Fall Short against West Virginia

Men’s Basketball

The New Year arrived painfully frigid, and for two of the “big four” players on the men’s basketball squad, their shooting touch mirrored weather conditions in a 77-69 loss to West Virginia. Xavier Sneed had the range, connecting on 6 of 11 shots, including 6 of 9 from three-point range, to lead the Wildcats with 20 points. Dean Wade added 17 on 5-of-8 shooting. Barry Brown scored 14, but was a chilly 5-of-13 from the floor. Kamau Stokes had a forgettable day, posting all six of his points from the free throw line, and finishing a terribly frigid 0-for-10 from the field.

The ‘Cats shot just 35.7 percent for the game, while West Virginia shot 53.6 percent.

In spite of the Wildcats’ shooting woes, it was a competitive game. K-State actually won the turnover battle against the physical Mountaineers and fought back to within four points with 3:45 to play. In the end, the ‘Cats just could not overcome a 38-27 rebounding deficit or a 40-18 disadvantage in points in the paint.

West Virginia was led by freshman Teddy Allen and sophomore Lamont West, who scored 22 and 19, respectively.

Recaps:

West Virginia Clamps down on Kansas State (Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle)

K-State Basketball Can’t Catch Up to No. 6 West Virginia (Ken Corbitt, Capital-Journal)

No. 6/7 Balanced Scoring Upends K-State, 77-69 (kstatesports.com)

West Virginia Men’s Basketball Extends Winning Streak to 13 Games (Dave Skretta, AP, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

No. 6 WVU Survies at Kansas State, 77-69 (Mitch Vingle, Charleston Gazette-Mail)

West Virginia Starts 2018 with Win over Kansas State, Final Score 99-69 (Michael Miller, The Smoking Musket)

Football

Wide-out Byron Pringle joined DJ Reed in announcing he will forego his senior season and declare for the NFL draft. Byron is 24 years old and has a son in Tampa. He earned his degree in December, and sometimes getting on with life is more important than playing another season of college ball. Pringle has accomplished what he came to K-State to accomplish, and unless we are being selfish, we can only thank him and wish him well.

Women’s Basketball

At 6:00 Wednesday, the women will try to earn their first victory of the conference season on the road against No. 12/9 West Virginia.

Athletics

The athletic department recapped the year, by ranking the top 10 accomplishments of K-State athletes in 2017. It’s easy for those of us who mainly follow football and basketball to overlook the efforts of many student-athletes who have carried the banner high for K-State in other sports. Congratulations to all the Wildcats for their accomplishments.