K-State Q&A: Football year in review, Matt Wells and Jerome Tang’s basketball team

It’s time for the first Kansas State Wildcats mailbag of 2024.

I hope all of you had a merry Christmas, ate a bunch of Pop-Tarts and then enjoyed a happy New Year.

No need for a longer intro than that this week. Let’s go ahead and dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

When do we admit the MBB team is not very good this season? - @shanekrull via X

I suppose it depends on your definition of “not very good.”

If you came into this season expecting another deep run in the NCAA Tournament, then now seems like as good a time as any to panic. Jerome Tang’s team currently looks very far away from doing that.

But a return trip to March Madness does remain on the table. If you think that simply competing for a spot in the field of 68 makes a team “good” then there is no reason to worry just yet.

Still, the Wildcats have much work to do in Big 12 play if they hope to return to the postseason.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Wildcats ranked 94th in the college basketball NET rankings, 79th at Bart Torvik and 75th at Ken Pomeroy.

Those are the numbers of a mediocre team.

Even though the Wildcats are off to a 10-3 start, they simply haven’t looked all that good outside of maybe three games. This is a team that needed overtime to beat Oral Roberts and North Alabama at home. Recent wins over Wichita State and Chicago State came by single digits. K-State isn’t capable of blowing out teams right now, which means most of its games are going to contain a high degree of variance and little margin for error.

Early on, it looked like Jerome Tang’s team was going to live and die by the way it shot from 3-point range. But lately all it has done is die. Even with excellent shooters like Tylor Perry, Cam Carter and Arthur Kaluma firing away from deep, the Wildcats are only shooting 30% from beyond the arc, a number that ranks 287th nationally. Anymore, this is a team that can only win by playing excellent defense.

There was hope that Ques Glover could give K-State a boost during the second half of the season, but now that the transfer guard is dealing with another knee injury there are no reinforcements coming to help the Wildcats.

What you saw during the first 13 games is what you are also going to get in Big 12 play.

Now, before this answer gets too gloomy I feel compelled to point out that it’s not like this team is hopeless or a lost cause. ESPN lists the Wildcats as one of the first teams out of its projected NCAA Tournament field. Wins over Providence and Villanova have aged well, though the Friars just lost their best player to an injury. If K-State can find a way to win eight or more games in the rugged Big 12 then it could easily return to March Madness.

Torvik projects K-State to finish 16-15, which obviously won’t be good enough for a bid. But if the Wildcats can steal just a few games then its resume will suddenly appear much stronger.

When this team plays well it is good enough to beat quality competition.

Starting conference play against UCF, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Iowa State will give K-State an opportunity to get off to a strong start. Will it take advantage?

Some of its shooting issues could potentially be solved by its best players taking open shots. How many times have we seen Perry and Kaluma pass up an open look for a harder look on the same possession?

K-State players have talked all season about building toward March and performing their best in Big 12 play. The journey starts now.

Who are Lady Cats’ biggest competition in B12 play this season? - @RobHud3

Baylor is undefeated and ranked in the top 10. So the Bears look like the team to beat.

But the Big 12 is just as strong in women’s hoops as it is in on the men’s side. West Virginia is also unbeaten and Texas has only lost to Baylor. TCU is also off to a strong start.

Five Big 12 teams are currently ranked in the top 25, with K-State sitting among them at No. 11.

It’s fair to expect the Wildcats to finish near the top of the conference standings this season with Ayoka Lee leading the way. How they play head-to-head against teams such as Baylor and Texas will likely decide if they can compete for first place.

What are your thoughts on Matt Wells taking over as offensive coordinator? And do you think Chris Klieman will let him call plays next season? I hope so. I didn’t like what I saw from Conor Riley at the bowl game. - Jeff M. via e-mail

Let me start by saying I think fans, in general, are being far too harsh on Riley.

NC State has a good defense. The Wolfpack allowed an average of 20.1 points per game during the regular season and held bowl teams such as Clemson (17) and Louisville (13) and Miami (6) to much uglier scoring totals than the Wildcats produced against them during a 28-19 win at the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

I thought the offense played well and Riley did a nice job calling plays, even though he was a tad conservative at times.

Fans like to point to what Collin Klein was able to do against LSU during his OC audition in the Texas Bowl, when the Wildcats did everything they wanted and scored 42 points in a blowout victory. But let’s not forget the Tigers sent their JV team to that game. The K-State offense was going to look great that day no matter who was calling plays.

But I digress ...

I like that Klieman is bringing Wells aboard as a co-offensive coordinator. Any time you can add a former Big 12 head coach to your coaching staff who helped Jordan Love to the NFL you should probably do it. Wells didn’t work out at Texas Tech, but neither have plenty of other coaches. He should be energized and able to help Avery Johnson and the K-State offense next season.

Were there better options out there? Possibly. But K-State could have done much worse.

My guess is that Wells will call plays next season. I say that because it’s simply easier for the QB coach to move up to the press box on game day than it is for the offensive-line coach. Riley is in charge of five different players on every snap. Wells will only oversee one.

That is probably why you don’t see many O-line coaches make the jump to coordinator.

But I honestly haven’t heard anything one way or the other on play-calling duties yet. Their official job titles don’t make it clear. Riley is the offensive coordinator and Wells is a co-coordinator, which might make you think that Riley will be in charge of the offense and call the plays. But Wells also gets the title of associate head coach, which could potentially outrank the OC. So I don’t know what to say on that. But it would make some sense for Wells to do it.

What will it take to get a quality 6’3” + receiver in the program? - @LonRuger via X

A substantial NIL deal would be a good place to start.

Recruiting quality wide receivers hasn’t exactly been Klieman’s forte with the Wildcats. It’s telling that he was never able to recruit over players like Malik Knowles and Phillip Brooks. Nothing against them. They were both good receivers for many years with the Wildcats, but they wouldn’t have been the No. 1 WR on many other Big 12 teams the past few seasons.

Jayce Brown did look really good as a freshman this season, though. Maybe if he continues to develop and Keagan Johnson stays healthy the Wildcats will upgrade at WR with Avery Johnson at quarterback.

Transfer portal - are there anymore surprises leaving? And for future TP arrivals - what areas are we targeting? Are they expecting any of the newly signed freshmen to contribute immediately? - @ChadFullington via X

The transfer window is closed until the spring, so I’m not expecting anymore departing transfers for the time being.

A few older players could still elect to leave as graduate transfers, but Austin Moore, Brendan Mott and Taylor Poitier have already announced that they will be back at K-State next season.

Klieman is looking at many different positions for incoming transfers. But wide receiver, running back, offensive line and linebacker seem like priorities.

Sadly, it’s far too early for me to speculate on playing time for incoming freshmen. Ask me again during spring football.

End of season football grades!! Offense, defense, special teams and coaching grades. Offensive and defensive MVP. Play of the year and way-too-early prediction of over/under 8 wins for 2024. - @bfullingt1

Sure, let’s wrap up football season with a Year in Review.

Offensive MVP: Cooper Beebe. I don’t care what position he played. K-State’s starting left guard was the best offensive lineman in the country this season. He deserves this honor even if he didn’t personally gain a single yard.

Defensive MVP: Desmond Purnell. This was a tough one, but I went with the sophomore linebacker because he did a little bit of everything and finished the season with 51 tackles, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception. Whenever the Wildcats needed a big play he was usually the one to make it.

Best Win: 31-27 at Kansas. The Wildcats came from behind for their lone victory over a ranked team this season and continued their winning streak against KU in the process.

Worst Loss: 42-35 to Iowa State. Losing to the Cyclones in the snow was no fun for anyone in purple.

Best Play: Nothing tops the time Beebe shoved a defender into oblivion to open up a running lane for a DJ Giddens touchdown against Houston.

Worst Play: Harrison Mevis booting a 61-yard field goal on the final play to give Missouri a 30-27 win in Columbia.

Grades:

Offense ... B+. Defense ... B. Special Teams ... C. Coaching ... B+.

All in all, it was a solid year (if not spectacular) season for the Wildcats. I’m predicting more than eight wins in 2024.