SLATE: Senior Night for women’s basketball tonight.

Basketball

We’ve got Senior Night in Bramlage this evening for the Kansas State women’s basketball team. The Wildcats will honor their four seniors - Cymone Goodrich, Laura Macke, Rachel Ranke, and Savannah Simmons - in a ceremony following the 6:30pm CST contest against West Virginia. All four seniors do have their COVID year still available, and there’s still a possibility that Rachel Ranke might want to come back after missing this season due to injury, but with all four being honored it appears that all four will not be returning next season. If you can’t make it to the game (and if you want to see a Wildcat victory, this would be a good game for that), then you can watch on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ or listen to the K-State radio call online. And if you’re going, know that K-State’s mask requirement for games has been dropped, though they are still recommended inside Bramlage.

Since we last saw you, the WeberCats nearly pulled off the improbable in Lubbock on Monday night, even without Markquis Nowell, but didn’t have enough gas in the tank to finish off the Red Raiders after taking a lead in the final minutes thanks to some of Mike McGuirl’s season-high 18 points. With the 73-68 loss, their fourth straight, the Wildcat fall below .500 overall for the first time this season, now sitting at 14-15 and 6-11 in Big 12 play.

Whether or not Bruce Weber is the coach next season, the Wildcats will get a trip to the Cayman Islands in November, as K-State has been selected to participate in the fourth annual Cayman Islands Classic set for November 21-23, 2022. The Cats will be joined by will be joined in the field by Akron, Illinois State, LSU, Nevada, Rhode Island, Tulane, and Western Kentucky. The Cayman Islands Classic has not been played since 2019 due to the pandemic.

Fun note: The CIC is run by former Wildcat guard, and Carthage, MO native, Joe Wright. Wright holds the Big 8 record (by himself) and K-State record (with a couple of others) for most consecutive field goals made in a game, going 11 for 11 against Oklahoma State in January of 1985.

Baseball

The BatCats struggled early, but a 5-run 6th inning gave them a 5-4 lead. But a 3-run 8th inning from Fullerton was enough to doom the Cats to yet another loss, falling 7-5 on Tuesday night. The Cats, now 1-6 on the season, were again plagued by poor base-running discipline, plate discipline, and errors in the loss. The Cats were able to put up 10 hits, but eight came in that outburst in the 6th inning that included at 3-RBI double by Nick Goodwin. Junior lefty Wesley Moore started the game on the mound for the Cats and managed just a inning and two-thirds while giving up three runs. The loss went to Griffin Hassel who pitched 2 ¹⁄₃ and was responsible for the tying and go-ahead runs in the 8th.

The Cats will stay out west (they are actually not coming back to Manhattan this week) to take on Loyola Marymount this weekend, with the Friday game set for a 6pm CST start that can be seen online on the West Coast Conference Network (free!).

Football

Former K-State QB Skylar Thompson will begin possibly the most important part of his journey to the NFL this week, as the NFL Combine kicked off starting on Monday with interviews and testing, followed by media sessions and interviews today, and on-field workouts tomorrow (and the QB’s go in the first groups). Thompson has been getting draftable grades (like PFF, that has him #230 on their board (7th round), well ahead of Brock Purdy), and is primed to move up if he can have an impressive showing in Indianapolis. You can watch the on-field action on the NFL Network beginning at 3pm CST.

After elevating Brian Lepak to FB/TE coach, there was an opening at Offense Quality Control Coach. K-State football announced yesterday that the spot has been filled, and Clint Brown has been named to that role. Brown is actually a defensive guy, and has spent the last 13 years of his 25 + coaching as a defensive coordinator at FCS schools South Dakota State and Abilene Christian. Brown is originally from Nebraska, and was a member of the 1994 Cornhuskers national title squad.