The Kansas State men’s basketball team returns almost the entire team for next year, but after that the Wildcats will lose three core players.
The losses of current juniors Dean Wade, Barry Brown Jr and Kamau Stokes in the same offseason will leave K-State high and dry if head coach Bruce Weber cannot fill those spots with talented recruits.
It is a good thing for K-State fans that Weber is hot on the recruiting trail, apparently trying to leverage this season’s Elite 8 run to make a run at some high-value recruits.
Since K-State’s 78-62 loss to the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers last Saturday, Weber has offered scholarships to five recruits and received interest from another.
On Tuesday, K-State extended an offer to Elijah Wood, a four-star Maryland point guard from Bethesda, Maryland, in the class of 2020.
Wood is 247Sports’ number-69 player in the nation, he is the fifth ranked player in the state of Maryland.
He may be a long shot for Weber; K-State is one of 16 schools that have offered him, among those are the University of Kentucky, University of Connecticut and Purdue.
On that same day, Weber also extended an offer to New Berlin, Wisconsin’s Desmond Polk, another 2020 guard.
Polk holds only one other offer, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, but there is still plenty of time for the 6-foot-3 guard to pick up more offers.
K-State also offered 247Sports’ number eight overall recruit, Jalen Johnson, the next day. Johnson is considered a five-star recruit.
The class of 2020 forward also holds offers from in-state school University of Wisconsin, Duke, University of North Carolina and Kentucky.
K-State made the cut for 2019 guard Kevin McCullar, who named his final five schools: Texas Tech, K-State, University of Minnesota, University of Oklahoma and Houston. He is 247Sports’ 122nd ranked player and a composite four-star recruit.
Then, on Thursday, K-State offered 6-foot-8 forward Jamari Sibley for the class of 2020. Sibley, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, holds offers from four schools, including University of Nevada Las Vegas, Wisconsin-Green Bay, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The Wildcats have one recruit committed for next year: guard Shaun Williams. The 6-foot-1 Florissant, Missouri, product is 247Sports’ 150th ranked player for the class of 2018.
