SLATE: Okay, we like Baker Mayfield now

We get it. Baker Mayfield torched K-State, and he’s done some punkish things in his time. You, loyal K-State fan and BotC reader would be forgiven for wondering just what we’re on about with today’s headline.

But y’all. Watch what Mayfield did to noted garbage spewer Colin Cowherd yesterday. It’s glorious.

As a Sooner, we’ll never forgive Mayfield for putting us through so much torment. But you have to admire the way he took down Cowherd here. Cowherd’s take was absurdly stupid, and Mayfield deftly sliced him to pieces. And anyone who takes Cowherd down a peg scores points in our book.

Beyond that, though, in response to questions about Mayfield’s arrest in Fayetteville last year (not in the above video), Mayfield was pretty direct about what he learned and how poor a decision he’d made.

We’ll always remember him bitterly, but unlike a certain other former quarterback for a former Big 12 team who also went on to Cleveland, we’re really hoping Mayfield finds success there.

In other not-EMAW news, the Big 12 had six players selected in last night’s NBA Draft. The first to go, as expected, was Oklahoma guard Trae Young, who went fifth overall to Dallas and was then traded to Atlanta. Immediately afterward, with the sixth pick Orlando selected Texas center Mohamed Bamba, who’ll now be teammates with our pal Wes Iwundu. Another Big 12 player was drafted then traded later in the first round, as Phoenix took Texas Tech guard Zhaire Smith and shipped him off to Philadelphia.

In the second round, Memphis took West Virginia‘s Jevon Carter with pick 32, and then some of those fowls from down the river finally got taken. Devonte’ Graham went to Atlanta two picks after Carter was drafted, and the travelin’ man himself, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, was chosen with the 47th pick. For those of you looking for reasons to continue hating on Svi, his destination: the Los Angeles Lakers.

Other random bits to start your weekend:

The now-graduated Mason Schoen is staying in basketball as he heads to Clemson and a new gig as a graduate assistant under Brad Brownell. Corbin McGuire checked in with Schoen in today’s Sports Extra.

Ben Kern, a golfer at K-State back at the end of Snyder I, will be making his first-ever PGA Tour appearance in August. Kern, the resident pro at Diamondback Golf Club in Abilene, Tex., qualified for this year’s PGA Championship as one of the top 20 finishers in the PGA Professional Championship this week in Seaside, Calif.

The Big 12 Academic All-Rookie teams were announced Thursday, and 32 Wildcats were honored. Nine of those — volleyballer Brynn Carlson, soccer players Leah Kellogg and Shelby Lierz, tennis players Anna Turco and Maria Linares, and tracksters Alex Ferguson, Kassidy Johnson, Cara Melgares, and Ethan Powell — earned perfect 4.0 marks as freshmen. Other notables were soccer’s leading scorer Brookelynn Entz and basketball’s Mike McGuirl.

Trevor Holbrook at the Iowa State Daily takes a neat look at where each current Big 12 coach is getting his players from. Bill Snyder and Mike Gundy obviously have the largest data sets from which to pull, but it’s interesting that as far as the Big 12 is concerned K-State owns Georgia.

Finally, tuition at K-State will be going up 1.1 percent next year. Wait, don’t boo! That’s the lowest increase at K-State since Bill Snyder set foot on campus, and it’s much, much smaller than the increases at Kansas (2.8%) and Wichita State (2.5%). Pittsburg State went up by 2.6%, while Emporia State and Fort Hays State both saw 2.5% hikes as well. Interestingly, no figure was given for Washburn. (Dylan Lysen, the Mercury)