100 Questions: Last basketball scholarship?
***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. 74: Is K-State done trying to fill the open scholarship spot for this season?
I wouldn't say Kansas State is "done trying," but I would be surprised, at this point, if the Wildcats do add another scholarship player to the roster prior to the 2019-2020 season.
K-State, of course, currently has 12 players on scholarship and is allowed to have 13. The Wildcats were one under last year, too, before adding Goodnews Kpegeol. Kpegeol didn't feel he would have an opportunity to play early at K-State, however, and the two parties mutually went their own ways.
We know (thanks to this interview with John Kurtz) Weber was spending some time - while coaching Team USA to a gold medal - watching foreign players potentially worthy of consideration.
We don't know, however, what Weber may have found on the trip.
Now that he's returned to Manhattan after his brief Team USA run, Weber and his staff can take one more look at this.
KSO hoops recruiting analyst Grant Flanders and I met with some basketball sources last week, and they assured us (with examples) of K-State continuing to dig into the transfer portal to be caught up with and in contact with any possible options. At that moment, however, there weren't any names seriously being looked at or felt to be ideal fits.
For better or worse, expect the Wildcats to likely carry the open scholarship into next year's recruiting class. Last year they took a shot with Kpegeol; this year I think they'll try and find more value using that scholarship earlier in the 2020 class as opposed to at the very end of the 2019 cycle.
As the scholarship allocation currently sets up (and we were reminded), there are just two scholarship seniors (Makol Mawien and Xavier Sneed) on the roster. Those two, coupled with the opening, leave three scholarships to give.
One has already been given to Nijel Pack (who is impressing at the Peach Jam), meaning, barring further attrition, only two scholarships remain.
K-State signed four new players (DaJuan Gordon, Antonio Gordon, Montavious Murphy, David Sloan), so it stands to reason the Wildcats should be confident in their ability to identify and sign two more products - along with Pack - who are likely of a higher caliber player than what's available right now to fill the final scholarship.
This is not to say leaving a scholarship open is a good thing, as I don't believe it is.
It's not rare - at all - for major college basketball programs to play with less than 13 scholarship players. Today's era of rapid roster turnover has made it somewhat normal. Still, though, there's no positive way to spin having less depth and talent than you're allowed to have.
And, while there are only two more spots open for next year at this time, it's hard to imagine there won't be at least one roster departure to bump that number up to three, again.
You don't want to get in a habit of leaving a scholarship open on an annual basis. But, to be fair, there's no real indication that's going to become a habit with K-State. Last year's got filled, and I agree with the strategy of holding it in this instance.
But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong, and this will end up getting filled - like it did a year ago - later than most anybody would have expected.