The week in review, 4/9

And what a week it was. I'll start with the current sports news, and move on to the "other" stuff...

Baseball

Tough series for the Bat Cats in horrible weather this weekend. The series was supposed to start Thursday to avoid the Easter holiday, but bad weather forced it back to a regular weekend series. The Cats opened strong with a 12-0 win Friday, but were buzzed by Missouri ace Rick Zagone's one-hitter Saturday.

Sunday brought heartache as the Cats tried to take their second straight conference series, but failed when a two-out, two-strike triple by Mizzou's Brock Bond tied the game and an extra-inning homer by Trevor Coleman ended the game in the 12th.

Let's be honest. Even at home, it was likely No. 29 Missouri was going to take the series off us. The win on Friday was a huge boost, now we need to hope the tough losses the next two days don't kill that momentum. Taking a win off Missouri is a decent weekend, and it puts us in position to achieve our primary goal of making it to Oklahoma City. Here are the current conference standings...

1. Texas 9-3 (Beat KU, 2-1)
2. Oklahoma State 6-3 (Lost to NU, 1-2)
2. Missouri 6-3 (Beat K-State, 2-1)
4. Texas A&M 6-5 (Beat TTU, 2-1)
5. Texas Tech 5-6 (Lost to aTm, 1-2)
6. K-State 4-5 (Lost to MU, 1-2)
7. Oklahoma 4-5 (Lost to BU, 1-2)
8. Nebraska 5-7 (Beat OSU, 2-1)
9. Baylor 4-8 (Beat OU, 2-1)
10. Kansas 4-8 (Lost to UT, 1-2)

As you can see, K-State is 1.5 games ahead of Baylor and KU for the 8th spot, which ensures a berth in the conference tournament. A tough weekend awaits the Cats as they attempt to hold their position as they travel to Stillwater for a tango with Oklahoma State. The Cowboys dropped a series to struggling Nebraska in Lincoln this weekend, which may indicate vulnerability. A series win is probably out of reach, but we need to at least ensure we don't get swept.

Oh yeah, and in midweek action, the Cats dropped KU in a "non-conference" matchup, 10-6. Tomorrow they will be host to the Creighton Bluejays, who dropped their weekend series to Wichita State.

Men's Golf

The men's golf team finished in a three-way tie for 5th place with Northeastern State and Nebraska at the Shocker Classic in Wichita. Individually, golfer Bobby Streb finished in second place with a seven-over-par 220.

The Cats stood second after Monday's double round, but imploded with a team score of 318 on a windy second day, dropping them into their final position. Again, outside of Wichita State, the Cats did not face a lot of strong competition in this meet, but that will change this weekend as K-State travels to the desert to for the ASU Thunderbird Invitational.

Women's Golf

The ladies started off solidly yesterday in Norman, tieing for 5th after two rounds of the Susie Maxwell Invitational. The women only have a realistic chance of catching fourth-place Tulsa, as they trail third-place SMU by 13 shots, but they lead fellow Big 12 programs KU, OU and Texas Tech. The final round is probably concluding as I type this, but scores are not yet available.

Track and Field

The tracksters got to compete on a big stage this weekend in Eugene, Ore., as they competed at Hayward Field. And compete they did, winning seven events in finishing 2nd (women) and 3rd (men). Event champs included...

Women
Beverly Ramos (3,000 meter steeplechase, new school record time)
Marianne Schlachter (Triple jump)
Lindsay Grigoriev (Discus)
Kaylene Wagner (High jump)
Morgan Bonds (800 meters)

Men
Scott Sellers (Triple jump)
Kyle Lancaster (High jump)

The Cats will split up this weekend as they compete in both the Oklahoma Invitational in Norman and the UTEP Invitational in El Paso.

OK, the current events are updated, now on to other news.

Some final thoughts on the Bob Huggins saga...

We've had a few days to think about the situation we dealt with last week. I'm just going to say this; Bob Huggins must really love West Virginia (and Morgantown) to leave a #1 recruiting class and a team that would have been in the running to win a conference title next year, not to mention a good chance to make a Sweet 16. WVU is certainly no slouch of a program, but they're not in the same position we're in as far as competing in our conference. Anyway, we really need to get over this whole situation and move on.

That brings me to the next situation...the hiring of Frank Martin and retention of Dalonte Hill. Those outside the program are taking their chances to laugh at us right now, but what's being said right now is nothing but conjecture. We hired a guy with no head coaching experience. Big deal, so did KU when it hired Roy Williams. The point is, none of us have any idea how this is going to turn out, not even fatass Jason Whitlock (way to cite sources for your claim that Huggins conned Weiser, Jason. Been a while since j-school, huh?). Martin might be the next great coach, or he might be a total bust. I'm not that worried about the lack of head coaching experience, because our other alternative would have been to hire a head coach from a mid-major program, which is no guarantee of success. We've seen promising head coaches flame out in the Big 12 before, most notably Barry Collier at Nebraska.

Martin is no bigger risk than anyone else we would have hired, and by hiring him and retaining Hill, we likely have kept our recruiting class intact. That will be a big help to the new coaches as they experience the inevitable growing pains of learning the day-to-day operations of a BCS-conference program. If we would have lost the recruiting class, we would have been left with David Hoskins, Clent Stewart, Blake Young and probably Bill Walker. Not to mention there's a decent chance Jason Bennett or Luis Colon might have left, leaving us with some decent talent but a dangerously thin bench and no post players (not that we really had one with Bennett and Colon anyway, but they should be improved next year). If we can keep the momentum of this last year going with a high conference finish and an NCAA appearance, we have a great chance at a good recruiting class for 2008-09.

Some say Martin is a huge risk because of some problems he encountered at Miami High, where he was the coach of a state championship team that was fined and forced to forfeit its championship in 1998. Martin was also apparently fired over the incident. Others have written that Martin was the victim in the whole situation and is a principled guy who would never cheat. What's the truth? Who knows, but I'm guessing it's somewhere in the middle.

Now on to those who claim we're doing this becuase we're all about winning (*cough* Joe Posnanski *cough*). Of course we're all about winning. That's what college sports is all about these days. Any delusions we had that it's about kids going to school and getting their degrees went out the window about 15 years ago when it started to become routine for players to jump to the NBA early. No coach is ever going to stand in the way of kids going to class, but it's no shame to encourage a kid to go down the best path for him, and if that's the NBA, so be it. College sports is about winning and big money these days, so get off your high horse about us being a bunch of sellouts. Iowa State had Larry Eustachy and Wayne Morgan, Mizzou had Quin Snyder, KU had Mark Mangino (and the history Roy-boy left you), Colorado had Bill McCartney and Gary Barnett, and Nebraska had its litany of off-field trouble during Osborne's latter years. And that's just to mention the Big 12 North programs who have gotten in trouble. So get the fuck over yourselves and deal with the fact that we have some major talent coming in next year.

Finally, even if it turns out Martin isn't the man for us, we will probably still be in decent shape. Former Wildcat player Tim Jankovich just signed on as the head coach at Illinois State, meaning he will get some head coaching experience, which would put him in good position to return to his alma mater if we ever need him. I'd love to have a K-State guy on our sidelines because it he'd be less likely to leave for another program, but I'm not as worried about Martin, considering his alma mater is Florida International.

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Surprising news from "Harvard" on the Kaw (that's KU to you non-Kansans) as sophomore forward Julian Wright announced today he's leaving for the NBA draft. Wright had stated at least three times previously that he intended to stay next year and get his degree before leaving.

This should be worrisome news for the beaks, as they now face the possibility they could lose 2/5ths of their starting lineup, as there's still a good chance Brandon Rush will turn pro as well. Gee KU fans, you were told one thing by one of your own and then he changed his mind and ditched you. Don't you feel betrayed?

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In other Big 12 news, it looks like Texas A&M will hire Wichita State head coach Mark Turgeon to replace Billy Gillispie. Pretty good hire for the Aggies, in my opinion, as Turgeon has made steady improvements in the Shockers' program without ever bringing in high-level talent. He has a system that works and proved he can coach in the tournament, taking the Shockers to the Sweet 16 two years ago.

Here's a link to some video of Martin's press conference today in Manhattan (right side of the page).