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basketball Edit

From Fitz: This mediocrity should lead to a new coach

The second sentence of this column is reality, no matter how hard it is to grasp. The Kansas State Wildcats can still earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Yes, it’s true. The field this year is weak. College basketball is mired in mediocrity and Coach Bruce Weber’s K-State team fits that label. The Wildcats are mediocre. Heck, they’re worse. K-State will go to TCU on Wednesday night with records of 17-12 overall and 6-10 in the Big 12. Add in losses to Maryland and Tennessee, and wins over pitiful Washington State and Boston College, and the Wildcats are 8-12 in games against teams from power conferences. That’s a 40 percent winning percentage.

Yet, the Wildcats are still considered to be “on the bubble” of the NCAA Tournament by those who track such things, and if the Cats can win two of their next three — regular season games with TCU and Texas Tech, and then their first game in the Big 12 Tournament — they could very well earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament field.

Kansas State coach Bruce Weber pleads with his team during the Wildcats' 30-point loss at Oklahoma on Saturday.
Kansas State coach Bruce Weber pleads with his team during the Wildcats' 30-point loss at Oklahoma on Saturday. (USA Today Sports Images)

If you’ve actually watched these Wildcats, losers of eight of their last 10 games, that reality is hard to fathom. K-State’s last two NIT teams, in 2007 under Bob Huggins and 2009 under Frank Martin, would probably whip the current version of the Wildcats.

Of course, the reality is that this team probably won’t claim those needed wins. The Wildcats went to Oklahoma on Saturday — that is Oklahoma, as in the last place team in the Big 12 — and lost. By 30 points.

That loss rightfully raised the ire of many K-State fans. How does a team desperately needing a win appear to lay down in the road and get run over by Oklahoma?

Weber blamed poor shooting. Or nerves. Or pressure. Or his inability to reach their complex psyche.

The real reason for the loss is clear: Despite that unexplainable status with the NCAA Tournament field, Weber has taken the tournament-worthy program he inherited and turned into a pitiful, doughy and abhorrent version of K-State basketball.

The team loses by 30, Weber outlandishly claims he only hears criticism from a few people in the media, and then his players refuse to speak to the big, bad meanies in the media, I assume because taking time to do so would delay their swing through DQ to get some postgame soft-serve ice cream on the way to the airport.

But back to Weber’s postgame comment, which came in response to the Wichita Eagle’s Kellis Robinett about how he handles criticism: “I don’t know. I don’t have any criticism. The only one that brings anything up is you. And then the other dude at the thing, press conference. That’s the only ones to ever criticize me. If you want to be negative, that’s fine with me. My life is about being positive and good things and good kids. That’s all I care about.”

The press conference in question was the one following last week’s home loss to Oklahoma State, and the “criticism” was actually questions about Weber’s program managing to have a losing record this season in home Big 12 games. The “other dude” asking those questions, was GoPowercat’s D. Scott Fritchen, who has covered K-State athletics for roughly 20 years.

Bruce Weber has been at K-State for five seasons and doesn’t know the names of the reporters who regularly cover this program? If one wonders why fans view him as aloof and disconnected, it’s because he is.

Here is how Weber explained that 30-point loss to Oklahoma: “I thought the effort was fine, we just missed shots. And when you miss shots, what happens? Then we got to a point in the second half where we got emotionally whipped. There’s no doubt about that, that happened. Everyone’s got to play better.”

The effort wasn’t fine. It was far from it. It wasn’t just about shooting a tragic 25 percent from the field. K-State committed 17 turnovers and was out-rebounded by six. The Wildcats had just four assists. They took 23 of their 56 shots from beyond 3-point range, and made only three.

The effort was as bad as was their understanding of how to compete and compensate for not shooting the ball well.

Then the players proved after the game that they are not accountable, that they are soft and they are bereft of leadership.

And none of that is their fault. That is entirely Weber’s fault. He inherited strong and cohesive locker room environments at both Illinois and Kansas State, and temporarily succeeded. However, as soon as the programs became about the players he was constructing from the ground up, the locker rooms devolved into rudderless ships that led to his teams drifting from wins and losses with little rhyme or reason.

Like criticism from fans, apparently Weber cannot recognize the angry looks and defeated body language of his players when he yet again refuses to hold one of their teammates accountable for sloppy, self-serving and destructive play.

Those four assists at OU point to one thing: A roster full of players who are now simply trying to get their own without concern for the team. Again, that blame belongs to Weber.

If the decision was mine — and it certainly is not or Brad Underwood would be in his first season as K-State’s head coach, and not thriving at Oklahoma State — I would dismiss Weber now and let associate head coach Chris Lowery finish out this season in charge. Let's see if Lowery can stir this team to life because even though the players are loyal to Weber, they show it more on social media than on the basketball court.

That immediate change won’t happen, because athletics director John Currie is expected to give Weber that one final chance to earn that NCAA Tournament berth that has escaped K-State ever since the program became about Weber’s players and not someone else’s.

It’s time for a new head coach at K-State because this is no longer a brand of basketball that most K-State fans recognize. And Bruce Weber’s job should not be saved by the simple fact that the NCAA Tournament bubble is nearly as soft as his team plays.

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