SLATE: Kansas State heads to Waco

We come not to bury Bruce Weber, but some people will think we are anyway because reasons.

Seriously, Saturday’s win over TCU Horned Frogs set a program record, which is fine and Weber deserves acknowledgement:

But it’s important to remember something, and our irritation over this sort of puffery has absolutely nothing to do with the person being puffed up and everything to do with the complete lack of historical context involved.

Let’s take Tex Winter. The legend only had 14 chances to play a top-25 team at Ahearn over his entire career, so obviously he didn’t get 16 top-25 wins. Hell, Tex literally went entire seasons without playing a top-25 opponent at home. Jack Hartman only got to coach 26 home games against ranked teams over his career.

Weber’s already coached 24 such games. Now, granted, Weber’s won two-thirds of them while Tex was just a bit over .500 and Hartman only won a third of his, and that’s (a) meaningful and (b) why we’re being very clear that this isn’t an assault on Weber. He’s pretty good at coaching the Kansas State Wildcats against tough competition at Bramlage, no question.

But therein lies the problem. The accomplishment isn’t the 16 wins. It’s his record in those games that’s worthy of praise. And the “let’s throw out a stat and make a record out of it” brigade always forgets this. How often do you hear some nonsense about a modern college football team winning ten or more games a few years in a row or whatever?

Okay, now how often do you hear the people dishing you that information pointing out that it wasn’t that long ago that teams only played 10 games a year?

Grains of salt, my friends. Always have some handy.

Men’s Basketball

Continuing with basketball, the Wildcats take on Baylor Bears in Waco tonight, an event about which we shall have more content later in the day.

Kellis Robinett at the Star and Eagle has a quick preview, and he expects us to be angry and frustrated when it’s all over. Robinett also reports on the respect Baylor head coach Scott Drew has for Amaad Wainwright, whose brother Drew coached.

Via the Tacoma News-Tribune, the AP’s Aaron Beard offers a top-25 rewind, which ends with his suggestion that maybe the Wildcats should be ranked now.

Sean Frye at Diehards has his Big 12 Power Rankings, and the Cats are sitting in fourth — ahead of Oklahoma Sooners.

Our sister site Our Daily Bears has a pretty good preview of tonight’s game — complete with a wee bit of film study — courtesy of Kendall Kaut.

Today’s Sports Extra sees Corbin McGuire singing the praises of Dean Wade and Makol Mawien ahead of tonight’s contest.

Football

K-State nabbed a JUCO commit for the trenches with Butler CC defensive tackle Tyquilo Moore.

Chased down by director of recruiting operations and special teams assistant Taylor Braet, Moore is an unranked recruit, so he does nothing for the typically anemic recruiting ranking for K-State. That said, the Lexington, S.C. native is the fourth addition to a defensive line class that needs a good reload. Expect a bit more on this signing from JT in a bit.

This week’s edition of Wildcats in the NFL quietly announces the end of Wildcats in the NFL for 2018, since Darren Sproles is broken. Emmanuel Lamur and Terence Newman saw their seasons end as the Vikings got trucked by the Eagles yesterday.