100 Questions: Basketball to football crossover?
***Yesterday's Question HERE***
In an attempt to pass the time this off-season we're fortunate to have secured the help of scottwildcat from Boscoe's Boys. Scott is going to provide 100 questions about the past, present, future (and who-knows-what) involving Kansas State sports, and I'll do my very best to answer them.
Let's dive in to the 100 Questions.
Question No. 83: Who are the three K-State basketball players you would most like to add to the current FOOTBALL team, and what position would they play? They can have three years to play two. You get the player at their peak athleticism from their time at K-State.
In thinking about this question you realize how little crossover there seems to be between these two sports, and how the types of frames and athleticism required in both differ so greatly.
It's hard to picture greats like Bob Boozer or even Michael Beasley having real homes on the football field. Mitch Richmond and Bill Walker were elite athletes, but can you really project them to the gridiron?
This list could be a surprise to some, as the basketball players I most want to try football with may not be the types you'd ever expect to see with a banner hanging in Bramlage Coliseum.
Then again, maybe some would.
XAVIER SNEED - Wide Receiver
This one is kind of easy, as Sneed was seen as a pretty major football recruit out of high school in St. Louis, as well on the hardwood.
At 6-foot-5 Sneed has tremendous straight line speed and leaping ability, and - at least according to the highlights above - the ability to use those skills to win jump balls on the football field.
We know how well Sneed has developed his body as a college athlete, and there's no reason to believe he couldn't have transformed it just a bit to fit this new sport better and provided a possible big-play threat for Skylar Thompson.
Or somebody else.
Lon Kruger - Quarterback
Fortunately a previous exercise in the 100 Questions helped teach me more about the former Wildcat basketball star and coach's athletic background, one which included a quarterback tryout for the Dallas Cowboys.
It looks like Kruger was listed at 6-foot-2 in his playing days, plenty big enough to play college quarterback in a time where six-foot-and-under stars Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray have helped people re-imagine ideal college QB size.
Kruger to Sneed? Would never happen without a time machine, but it sounds nice.
And no, I don't think QB is one of the biggest needs on the roster, but I'm going what I think to be best player available with this pick.
D.J. Johnson - Tight End
I'm breaking some rules here with Johnson, as his listed height (6-foot-9) would be quite an outlier for this position, but I'm just going to tell myself he's more like 6-foot-7 and it's going to work out fine.
I'm also probably (certainly) a bit of a prisoner of the moment, as being around Johnson lately reminds me what type of frame and build he has.
Johnson has taken fantastic care of his body even after leaving K-State, and he's one of the few lengthy former Wildcats (along with Thomas Gipson) who I think has the type of mentality to transition to the physical nature of football.
I'd be interested in what Johnson could do at defensive end - or even at tackle if you gave a load of time to add weight and change body type - if he were to flip sports. For this team, however, tight end is certainly the biggest need.