SLATE: Well, so much for Julian Phillips

Julian Phillips added two schools to his finalist list — Florida State and South Carolina — as well as floating the idea of joining the G-League. But he also made a big subtraction: Kansas State. Phillips cancelled his official visit to Manhattan for reasons unknown, but as Arne Green reports in the Capital-Journal one door closes while another opens.

Dexter Dennis, a senior transfer from Wichita State with one year of eligibility remaining, has stepped into the vacuum. Dennis earlier visited Manhattan as well as Maryland and Georgetown and called the K-State visit the best of the three; Wednesday Dennis listed K-State as a finalist for his final year along with Clemson, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt. Green also notes that Antoine Davis and Shawn Phillips are both still out there as well; Phillips made his official visit last weekend alongside Nae’Qwan Tomlin... who did commit to K-State on Thursday.

Tomlin, a 6’8” small forward from New York City by way of Chipola College in Florida, will arrive with two seasons of eligibility. The seventh-ranked recruit in the 2022 JUCO class, Tomlin was an honorable mention JUCO All-American last year and was the best player on a two-time JUCO national semifinalist squad.

On the women’s side, K-State will once again send a team to the Red Bull USA Basketball 3x3 Nationals in Springfield, Mass. Junior Taylor Lauterbach will lead the squad, abetted by sophomores Serena Sundell and the Glenn twins, Brylee and Jaelyn. Notably for those who want to think hard about this, the three sophomores have lots of experience together even prior to last season’s breakout as Wildcats; they were teammates on the Run GMC team which won the Prague Division U17 championship at the 2018 Nike Tournament of Champions.

Baseball

It’s time to destroy the Beakers. The BatCats (23-21, 4-11) will host Kansas (19-27, 3-12) for the first time since 2018 for a three-game set this weekend at Tointon. Games are at 6:00 Friday, 4:00 Saturday, and 1:00 Sunday; all three games will air on ESPN+.

Track and Field

The Ward Haylett Invitational, the final home meet and regular season meet of the 2022 schedule, kicks off tonight at 6:00pm. The guests for the meet are Kansas, Nebraska, and Haskell. Tonight’s action consists of the javelin events and the 400m, 1500m, and 5k; the remainder of the meet begins at 10:00am Saturday, with the Senior Day ceremony taking place at 12:15. That’s of interest because it’s the official send off for Wildcat star Tejaswin Shankar, who has seemingly been in Manhattan for a decade.

Golf

For the first time in 13 years, K-State’s men are headed to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats, seeded 11th in the Norman Regional, will hit the tee boxes May 16-18 at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club. D. Scott Fritchen reports on the atmosphere following the announcement.

The women, whose season was not so stellar as the men’s, still had a big result on Wednesday even though their season is over. Junior Haley Vargas won the PGA Works Collegiate Championship at Union League Golf Club in Philadelphia with a 1-under 215. Three strokes behind her, alone in second place, was sophomore teammate Gabriela McNelly.