Slate: Prepping for 12 straight

Early Slate before a busy day. Let’s get right to it.

Football

It’s hate week in the state of Kansas, but we’re building up gradually. Don’t want to waste all the delicious vitriol on a Tuesday.

We learned yesterday that one of the most entertaining players to don the Jayhawk football uniform in more than a decade, tailback Pooka Williams, has opted out of the remainder of the season so he can be closer to his family in Louisiana. Williams says his mother is battling health issues, and we sincerely wish him and his family only the best.

K-State athletics previewed the Sunflower Showdown (propose better names for this game, someone!), which will pit Kansas (0-4, 0-3 Big 12) against No. 19/20 Kansas State (3-1, 3-0) in Manhattan at 11:00 Saturday. The Wildcats have won the 11 most recent contests between the teams and 24 of the last 29, dating to 1991. This will mark the 110th consecutive year the teams have played. Because of COVID-19, the streak will become the nation’s third-longest at the conclusion of the year.

The KU athletic department also previewed the game, and it’s frankly hilarious how little effort they expended.

In his “Five Things to Know” column, Kellis Robinett notes that Kansas head coach Les Miles will return after his bout with COVID-19 and laments that the departure of Pooka Williams deprives the match-up of what could have been a fun duel with K-State’s freshman back, Deuce Vaughn.

Next week’s game at West Virginia will also kick at 11:00 CT and will be broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN2.

Basketball

Bruce Weber and the hoops squad began official practice sessions last week, and though it has been quiet thus far, expect some player highlight and pre-season analysis in the coming days. In the meantime, Gary Bedore at the Star notes that K-State and KU have both extended scholarship offers to two prep stars, Brandin Podziemski, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard from Delafield Wisconsin, and Cason Wallace, a 6-foot-4 combo guard from Richardson, Texas wo is ranked No. 16 in the class by Rivals.com and who has a correspondingly impressive offer list. Podziemski reports that KU assistant Curtis Townsend compared him to Svi Mykhailiuk, so insert your favorite “walk 500 miles” joke below.

Volleyball

Despite dropping two matches to No. 1 Texas this past weekend, Aliyah Carter and her freshman classmates showed that the future for K-State volleyball is bright. Carter broke the school record for kills in a single match with 26 in the Wildcats’ 3-2 loss to the Longhorns Friday.