SLATE: Wildcats pick up wins on Tuesday

Basketball

It wasn’t exactly the snoozer it should have been, but Kansas State dug themselves out of an early hole before going on to cruise to the finish for a 74-59 win over McNeese State on Tuesday. At one point, the WeberCats were down 26-17 in the first half, and things did not look good. But a second straight 18-2 run to end the first half, capped by a walk-off 3pt make from Mike McGuirl, put them up 35-28 at the intermission, and the Cats never looked back. The second half was much more one-sided, with the Wildcats pushing the lead to 10 with their first make after the break, and McNeese never got any closer. K-State even had a fairly commanding 74-53 lead with a minute to play, before two garbage-time 3’s from the Cowboys closed the final margin to 15.

Next up for K-State is, well, unknown at the moment. It was supposed to be Morgan State next week, but the Bears have been shut down for a couple weeks due to Covid issues, so K-State is currently looking to fill the spot on the schedule.

Also, in case you missed it, not women’s basketball game tonight, as the opponent, the Flames from Illinois-Chicago, had to cancel due to Covid issues with their program.

Football

Chris Klieman picked up a big win yesterday when Eli Huggins announced he would return for one more season, utilizing his “Covid year” to compete in a fifth season for the purple. Huggins came to K-State in 2017 after a solid prep career in Georgia, and redshirt his freshman season before working his way up to a reserve role in 2019, and a full-time starter in 2020 & 2021. Huggins decision to return helps keep continuity along the line, and means the coaching staff doesn’t need to fill that spot with a transfer to help bridge the gap to the younger players on the roster.

And in recruiting news, the Wildcats did pick up a couple of commitments from preferred-walk-ons on Wednesday, with K-State legacy Joe Hall III announcing he would be coming to K-State next season, as well as a very impressive grab of Derby offensive lineman Alex Key, who helped paved the way during the Panthers state championship run, and of course their star running back Dylan Edwards. Non-K-State recruiting experts from the region are very high on Key, and consider the Wildcats landing him without a scholarship to be a big win.