After the complete 83-58 dismantling of Coppin State Wednesday, the Wildcats sit at 7-1.
Coppin State very well might be the worst team that K-State had the pleasure of playing. Going in, everyone knew that there was not a whole to be learned from this game.
K-State looked good, then bad, then good again, then bad again … and then finally had a good push in the last 15 minutes or so, securing the blowout and the win.
The Wildcats have looked good all season. Not great. They haven’t developed the consistency for any kind of greatness but good certainly has been achieved.
So, where does that put K-State in the scheme of things?
The Big 12 has been dominant so far this season, landing three teams in both the AP and Coaches poll as Kansas, Iowa State and Oklahoma all find themselves among the best in the nation as of Monday.
They add two more teams in the top 20 in both polls with Baylor and West Virginia showing flashes of greatness in the early part of the season.
Where do the Wildcats fit? Do the Wildcats fit?
In K-State’s only game versus a ranked team they passed the eye test, nearly upsetting a North Carolina team that might be the best team of the country but was without star guard Marcus Paige.
Other than that, they have played mostly well versus teams with sub-standard talent, with a diamond in the rough in the buzzer-beating win against Georgia in Athens, Georgia.
This next stretch of four games includes No. 25 in the coaches poll Texas A&M, a good Colorado State team, and a Saint Louis team that might be in a down year but has, in the past, been a consistently decent to good team .
If this team survives those games, that Big 12 opener on Jan. 2 – the same day that Wildcat football take on Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl – becomes very intriguing as a possible top-25 matchup with West Virginia awaits.
As of now, the Wildcats aren’t in the picture for the Big 12. The ghost of the past still haunt this program’s perception.
Every win, effort, play and excited bench celebration between starters and walk-ons, seniors and freshmen exorcise the mistreatment of the game of basketball that took place last season.
