Who can end Kansas’ Big 12 streak? Loaded Kansas State is up for the task

Kansas State returns five starters and much else from last year’s Elite Eight team and the Wildcats would love to end their hated rival’s record streak.

During Kanas’ unprecedented and record-setting stretch of 14 consecutive Big 12 regular-season titles, the Jayhawks have been co-champs four times. The last came in 2013 and the team sharing first place was Kansas State.

That was Bruce Weber’s first season in Manhattan replacing the fiery and popular Frank Martin. The purple people unhappy over Martin’s departure were cool to Weber. While equaling the league record of their hated in-state rival provided some solace.

But then K-State gagged in a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to LaSalle – in Kansas City’s Sprint Center – and Weber spent the next five seasons hearing how much he wasn’t Frank Martin.

“If you worry about every negative fan and every media person you’re not going to be able to coach,” Weber said last month at Big 12 media day. “I just worry about coaching. Everybody says how do you deal with it. Very rarely does somebody come up to me in the grocery store and say, ‘God, you suck as a coach.’ … I’ve thought it’s always been positive for me in Manhattan. It’s always fun when people like you. It’s human nature.”

Weber’s popularity is high going into this season and has the potential to climb off the charts. Kansas State made a surprising run to the Elite Eight last season and return all five starters, with plenty of bench depth plus newcomers who should contribute. If there is a team positioned to finally end KU’s Big 12 streak, it’s the school just an hour down I-70.

Dean Wade, a 6-foot-10 senior who is a matchup nightmare for opposing teams, grew up in small town St. John, Kans., northwest of Wichita and basically in the middle of the state. He understands the fan dynamic and says it would “mean everything” if the Wildcats put a stop to Kansas winning the Big 12.

“K-State fans, KU fans … they hate each other,” he said Wednesday during Big 12 Media Day. “It’s a pure hate. That’s the best way to explain it.”

Senior guards Kamau Stokes (Maryland) and Barry Brown (Florida) didn’t grow up in the state but have quickly acclimated to the rivalry.

“It’s like Florida State-Miami, Texas-Oklahoma in football, it’s Duke-Carolina in basketball,” Brown said. “It’s not like people think of us as KU’s little brother, it’s just that they think Kansas is so far above everyone else.”

“I don’t think people outside of the state know or understand the rivalry,” Stokes said. “Before I got here, I didn’t understand the rivalry, all I heard was KU. It’s always, always KU.”

The team from the Little Apple is Jan in the “The Brady Bunch” complaining about Marsha, except it’s Kansas, Kansas, Kansas.

Kansas State was picked to finish second in the coaches’ preseason poll; coaches can’t vote for their own teams and Kansas was “unanimous” with nine votes for first place. At media day, though, Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton said his ballot listed K-State in first place. The Big 12 office acknowledge an error in tallying the votes – all 10 of them.

And then there was the voting for the Associated Press preseason All-American team. The Jayhawks’ Dedric Lawson, a 6-9 junior who sat out last season after transferring from Memphis, made the team. The vote totals released by the AP showed that Wade didn’t receive any votes.

Weber was incredulous – “How can that be?” – and he’s also curious about why K-State wasn’t ranked higher than 12th in the AP (11th in the coaches’ poll).

“It still baffles me a little bit,” Weber said. “We have everyone back, we were in the Elite Eight without our best player, with some of the best stats in … probably the best conference in the history of a 10-team league, and we are not rated as high. Sometimes they just don’t pay attention, I guess.”

Wade, Brown and Stokes are a veteran trio. K-State’s NCAA Tournament run was all the more surprising because Wade missed all four March Madness games with an injury and Stokes was not entirely healthy. The team’s point guard, Stokes suffered a foot injury in the middle of conference play and missed 13 games. When he returned, he could only provide limited minutes as a reserve.

Cartier Diarra, 6-foot-4 sophomore, stepped in for Stokes and played well. Xavier Sneed, a 6-foot-5 junior, was perhaps the team’s best player during the NCAA Tournament. Center Makol Mawien and guard Mike McGuirl also return after making solid contributions. Plus, K-State added a rebounder in junior-college transfer Austin Trice, a tough 6-7 rebounder, and freshman guard Shaun Neal-Williams, a highly regarded recruit.

“We dealt with so many bad things last season that if we face that sort of thing this year, I don’t think it will freeze us,” Weber said. “That’s important. They surprised me. They kept coming back last season.”

Kansas lost three starters and top three scorers from a Final Four team but adding players like Lawson plus some stellar recruits has everybody assuming the Big 12 streak will reach 15. Everybody will probably be right.

“Everyone in the league hopes to be the one to do it,” said Weber, who is 3-12 against Kansas as K-State’s coach. “It would be nice if we do it. It’s about K-State and it would be great for the fans. I think we have a chance. And Kansas is picked No. 1 … not just our league, but the country.”

Brown, whose fearless drive to the basket provided the winning points in the Wildcats’ Sweet 16 victory over Kentucky, eats at the same underdog buffet as do the teams in the SEC not based in Lexington.

“We’re picked second in the conference and 12th in the nation, but we’re keeping that chip on our shoulder,” Brown said. “Second is still not first.”