The Week in Review, 3/25

A busy week in K-State sports, and as always some bad and some good.

Men's Basketball

The Cats ended their season with a disappointing home loss to DePaul. Still, it capped the most successful season in 10 years for K-State as Bob Huggins took us to the postseason in his first attempt. For my full season review, click here.

Women's Basketball

Lazarus, err, the K-State women's basketball team, has now recovered from its dreadful 4-12 record in conference play to win three games in the women's NIT (remind me how a 4-12 and last place conference team gets into the NIT?). Freshman forward Ashley Sweat has been the team MVP in the tournament, averaging 15 ppg the last three. Probably would have been a much better season if former Big 12 All-Rookie forward Marlies Gipson wouldn't have gone down with a leg injury. Good luck to the women against either Wyoming or South Dakota State.

Baseball

After two dreadful games against the ninth-ranked Texas Longhorns, the Bat Cats finally remembered how to hit today in Austin. After totalling six runs and 12 hits through two games, the Cats hammered out 17 hits and 11 runs today to take the final game of the series, 11-9. I think we all pretty much admitted we were going to drop this series to UT, especially on the road, so I'm happy to take one game when it would have been easy to mail it in. The conference is pretty much wide-open this year, as the current standings show.
1. Texas 5-1
2. Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State 2-1
5. Texas A&M, Texas Tech 3-3
7. Baylor, KU, Nebraska 2-4
10. K-State 1-2

Obviously we're tied with Baylor, KU and Nebraska in winning percentage, but I have us lower because of the fewer games. Next week, the Cats will be host to Texas Tech in a winnable series.

Men's Golf

Tim Norris' squad headed to Arizona for the Ron Moore invitational earlier this week, notching a third-place finish in a 17-team field. Don't let the high finish fool you though, the Cats trailed team champion and perennial power Wichita State by 19 shots and conference rival Nebraska by two, and did not finish in front of any highly touted teams. So far this spring, the Cats have finished last twice and in the middle of the pack twice against mediocre competition. Golfweek currently has the Cats rated #150, behind every other Big 12 program. Seems like a long time since the days when Matt Van Cleave and the crew only missed nationals by a shot.

Women's Golf

The women's golf team also traveled to Arizona this weekend for the Mountain View Collegiate. After one day, the women stand 7th in a 16 team field, behind primarily Big 12 competition. It's been an up-and-down spring so far for the women, who are rated 78th by Golfweek. Play concludes today.

Track and Field

The men's and women's track teams participated in the Jim Click Shootout this weekend against some solid competition from the Pac 10 and SEC. The women won six events, including Beverly Ramos (3000 meter steeplechase), Kaylene Wagner (high jump), Jenny Glodowski (shot put), Laci Heller (hammer throw), and Ashley Reider (hammer throw).

On the men's side, the Cats had one champion in Kyle Lancaster (high jump).

In other news...

I've been unimpressed by the officiating in the NCAA tournament. Individual calls are difficult, given the speed of the game, but the state of officiating these days is sad. My dad is a high school and college volleyball official back at home, and he went to an informational session for a mid-major college conference, where he was told by the director of the conference that officials who made close calls late in the game would not be hired. People who complain about officiating usually make two tired arguments...
1. Officials need to be more consistent
2. Officials shouldn't "decide games" by making a close call at the end of a game.
I have news for you. When a player commits a foul at the end of the game, the official is deciding the game by NOT calling it. Also, by not calling it then, the officials are being inconsistent with their earlier calls. It doesn't matter if it happens in the first 30 seconds or on the last play of the game, if it's a foul, it should be called.

This whole rant goes to the Georgetown-Vandy game on Friday. I don't care what Billy Packer says, that was a travel by Jeff Green on the game-winning shot. He had established his pivot foot, slid it, and then lifted it in order to create separation BEFORE jumping. Walk.

The other poorly officiated game was today between Oregon and Florida. Oregon was apparently not allowed to breathe on the court, while Noah and Horford continually got away with assault. I'll also never understand how Horford can back a guy down 10 feet with his shoulder and back (like he did against Butler) and that's any less of a foul than the touch on the arm he suffered on the shot.

***

I looked up Nebraska's disturbing the peace statute, and if Sam Keller really did what is alleged, he is probably guilty as charged. It certainly appears to me that he used "Provacative language consisting of profane, indecent or abusive remarks directed toward the person of the hearer." Like I said on Friday, a disturbing the peace by itself is really no big deal (it's a Class III misdemeanor). But I'll defer to AJ the HuskerH8er on why it's a bigger deal because of who the person is. And to the Husker fans who say they wouldn't even have been as calm as Keller, I suggest you try if you're ever in my current hometown (Houston) and are unlucky enough to have someone take "your" parking spot. Texans don't throw cups in retaliation.

***

Tough loss last night for KU. It looked to me like experience won out in that one, as UCLA did more than lose to two mid-majors the last two years in the NCAA tournament. Also, KU's lack of a go-to scorer seemed to hurt them, as it looked like nobody wanted to take a shot when the going got tough in the second half. I will be interested to see what this means for KU's players. There was speculation in the KC Star this morning that Brandon Rush, among others, may consider leaving. I won't be surprised if Rush at least tests the waters, but it sounds like Julian Wright is pretty firm about coming back. Mario Chalmers is one heck of a good player, but his primary selling point is his defense, which is less important in the NBA. Another year of working on his offensive game would do him some good. Darrell Arthur better not even think about it, he's nowhere near ready. But anyway, congrats on the good season Beaks, we'll see ya next year.

***

Congrats to Ohio State, UCLA, Florida (well, not really you bastards) and Georgetown. KU fans everywhere rejoice in Roy Williams' misery.

Sure wouldn't mind seeing this again in the UCLA-UF game next week.

Have a good one.