Butler 63 - Kansas State 56.
The sight of that score, the thought of that game, the mere mention of the Final Four- It all still stings, like an unexpected pass caught by your nose. Two days after competing in one of the greatest games in NCAA Tournament history, the K-State Wildcats fell short in their bid to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1964. The loss wasn't an easy one to take. The Cats actually led by a point with just four minutes left in the game. As with any loss, there were decisions to question and plays to wish they could try again.
Really there seemed to be all sorts of things to regret. The loss had the author of this very blog so down that he actually boycotted sports for the next day-and-a-half. Yes, we're talking about the same blog author that has watched all seven rounds of an NFL Draft from start to finish. The same blog author who watched well-over 100 televised Royals games last year. The very same blog author that has read more books about Michael Jordan than exist in the Harry Potter series. This guy boycotted sports. Why? The Final Four was right there! They were so incredibly close! Why bother with sports if they always end in disappointment?
Thankfully, as has happened a bevy of times before, the author then realized that he was being moronic. K-State just wrapped up one of the greatest seasons in team history. They won 29 games, topped the then-No. 1 team in the nation, played in the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Jacob Pullen became on of the top players in the nation and Frank Martin was honored as the top coach in the conference. This was the season I was grieving over?
Really?
In the past 20 years I had witnessed K-State fall to the depths of the college basketball world, where prized recruits are drawn from towns like Brewster and Junction City. It's where your team loses exhibition contests to teams named after video game companies. It's where there's extreme disappointment when your team can't bring in a 7-foot volleyball player to protect the paint and where your only time on SportsCenter comes when your center commits one of the most boneheaded plays in the history of the sport. (See: Fiasco, Pasco)... As recently as five years ago, my hopes for a "successful" season hinged on the decisions made by the NIT selection committee.
The big picture point here is that I - along with many fans that continually shuffled into Bramlage Coliseum during the Asbury and Wooldridge eras - have seen some pretty rough basketball. (And by "rough," I mean horrible.) The progress made in the past four years has really been just short of incredible. The Wildcats have a very solid foundation returning next season - in essence, only losing Denis Clemente - and can expect to be a top-ranked team in 2010-2011 preseason polls. Depending on potential departures from that school down the road, K-State could even enter the season as the favorite to win the Big 12.
Will there be tough losses in the future? Absolutely. Grief that corresponds with the losses? Sure. But, considering where the program has been, it's pretty good grief.
The sight of that score, the thought of that game, the mere mention of the Final Four- It all still stings, like an unexpected pass caught by your nose. Two days after competing in one of the greatest games in NCAA Tournament history, the K-State Wildcats fell short in their bid to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1964. The loss wasn't an easy one to take. The Cats actually led by a point with just four minutes left in the game. As with any loss, there were decisions to question and plays to wish they could try again.
Really there seemed to be all sorts of things to regret. The loss had the author of this very blog so down that he actually boycotted sports for the next day-and-a-half. Yes, we're talking about the same blog author that has watched all seven rounds of an NFL Draft from start to finish. The same blog author who watched well-over 100 televised Royals games last year. The very same blog author that has read more books about Michael Jordan than exist in the Harry Potter series. This guy boycotted sports. Why? The Final Four was right there! They were so incredibly close! Why bother with sports if they always end in disappointment?
Thankfully, as has happened a bevy of times before, the author then realized that he was being moronic. K-State just wrapped up one of the greatest seasons in team history. They won 29 games, topped the then-No. 1 team in the nation, played in the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Jacob Pullen became on of the top players in the nation and Frank Martin was honored as the top coach in the conference. This was the season I was grieving over?
Really?
In the past 20 years I had witnessed K-State fall to the depths of the college basketball world, where prized recruits are drawn from towns like Brewster and Junction City. It's where your team loses exhibition contests to teams named after video game companies. It's where there's extreme disappointment when your team can't bring in a 7-foot volleyball player to protect the paint and where your only time on SportsCenter comes when your center commits one of the most boneheaded plays in the history of the sport. (See: Fiasco, Pasco)... As recently as five years ago, my hopes for a "successful" season hinged on the decisions made by the NIT selection committee.
The big picture point here is that I - along with many fans that continually shuffled into Bramlage Coliseum during the Asbury and Wooldridge eras - have seen some pretty rough basketball. (And by "rough," I mean horrible.) The progress made in the past four years has really been just short of incredible. The Wildcats have a very solid foundation returning next season - in essence, only losing Denis Clemente - and can expect to be a top-ranked team in 2010-2011 preseason polls. Depending on potential departures from that school down the road, K-State could even enter the season as the favorite to win the Big 12.
Will there be tough losses in the future? Absolutely. Grief that corresponds with the losses? Sure. But, considering where the program has been, it's pretty good grief.
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