K-State Q&A: Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Patrick Ngongba, one last Texas football game and more

My advice to Kansas State football fans is to enjoy Saturday’s game against the Texas Longhorns, because it might be a while before we see another matchup like this.

The Big 12 will live on and probably thrive after Oklahoma and Texas leave for the SEC. But things will never be the same.

What made having teams like the Sooners and the Longhorns in the conference so great was that it gave us all someone to hate. Well, that might be too strong of a word. But you get my point. Everyone in the Big 12 wants to beat Oklahoma. And everyone in the Big 12 really wants to beat Texas.

Taking them down in football is the ultimate prize during the regular season. K-State used to proudly chant “we own Texas” when it built a nice winning strike over the Longhorns under Ron Prince and Bill Snyder. Fans love to joke that Oklahoma is leaving the conference mostly to get away from K-State.

To fully illustrate just how meaningful football games against OU and UT can be, take a look back at last year’s K-State victory over Oklahoma. The Sooners weren’t a good team. They finished the season with a losing record. Texas Tech, West Virginia, Baylor, TCU, Texas and K-State all beat them.

Looking back, it really wasn’t that great of a win for the Wildcats, but it is still regarded as a classic game because, well, it came against mighty Oklahoma.

K-State gets another chance to win one of those games at Texas this weekend in front of a sellout crowd of more than 100,000. A win will give the Wildcats an excellent shot at reaching the Big 12 championship game. And it will earn them bragging rights for years to come.

In time, I’m sure other teams will step up as kingpins in the Big 12 that everyone loves to hate. But it won’t happen immediately. Better enjoy this now before things change.

And with that, it’s time for another K-State Q&A. Let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

There honestly isn’t a good comparison to use for the indefinite suspension that has sidelined Nae’Qwan Tomlin.

The best player on the K-State men’s basketball team is out for an unknown period of time following his arrest for “disorderly conduct” and “brawling or fighting” in Aggieville.

Tomlin could remain suspended for only a few games, half the year or the entire season. Tang has made it clear that there is no guarantee Tomlin will ever rejoin the active roster.

“I don’t know if he’s coming back,” Tang said. “So I’m not even thinking about that right now.”

Every option is on the table.

I suppose if you had to compare it to something it would be a QB injury during the old Bill Snyder days when inside information was protected like nuclear codes and no one really knew what was going on.

My educated guess for Tomlin (if things go well for him over the next few weeks) is that he will miss most of the nonconference season and have a chance to play starting in January.

If things go poorly for Tomlin over the next few weeks, he may not be welcomed back.

What makes his potential return tricky is that, even if he does come back, there is a question about how long it will take him to get into playing shape. Can he still be the dynamic player he was last season when he averaged 10.4 points and 5.9 rebounds?

All I can say for sure is that he will be a big loss.

College basketball statistician Bart Torvik has K-State ranked No. 38 nationally in his preseason database. Take away Tomlin and the Wildcats drop to 57. That could be the difference between making a return trip to the NCAA Tournament and missing out on the postseason.

His absence hurts on defense, because he was capable of being one of the best defenders in the Big 12 this season. His absence also hurts on offense, because he could literally score from anywhere.

K-State’s best hope at winning without Tomlin is for David N’Guessan and Arthur Kaluma to stay out of foul trouble and thrive with extra playing time.

Why was Tomlin away from the team in October? Why did he miss a large chunk of preseason practice?

We may never get a straight answer on that one. But here is what Tang said about it:

“There were just a lot things that he needed some time away. Obviously, we didn’t give him the type of help that he needed to handle all the things that he’s facing, and so we’re going to do a better job as a staff of providing those things for him. We’re going to be there for him as he deals with the consequences of bad decisions.”

One could argue that Tomlin was already in the proverbial doghouse. Add on an arrest immediately after he returned to the team and you can understand why his future is now in doubt.

As for the best sports Halloween costume I saw this week, I’m going to go with the couple that paid homage to Randy Johnson and the bird he struck with a pitch many years ago.

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift was too easy.

Well, let me start off this answer by reminding everyone that recruiting is never over until it’s over.

Momentum certainly seems to have shifted toward Duke in the pursuit of five-star center Pat Ngongba. Several predictions, including one from mysterious X (formerly Twitter) insider Trilly Donovan, have him committing to the Blue Devils instead of the Wildcats. But a million things could happen between now and this weekend to make those predictions turn out wrong.

For the sake of argument, and your question, let’s imagine that those predictions are correct. It is hard for any team to beat Connecticut, Duke and Kentucky for basketball recruits, after all.

What, then, could have made Ngongba prefer Duke after spending a weekend at K-State in which the entire community of Manhattan rolled out the red carpet for him?

The best fictional answer is obvious: He was able to look into the future and see that if he committed to K-State he simply won too many games with the Wildcats.

In the process, he became so famous that he couldn’t leave his house without getting moved around town incognito by a security team like Taylor Swift when she somehow sneaks into Chiefs games without being spotted until she is sitting in Travis Kelce’s private suite.

His fame and fortune also have a negative impact on the rest of the world. College basketball teams get so jealous of him and K-State that it causes another wave of COVID to hit.

Nobody wants that.

After seeing all of this, Ngongba decided he wanted to live a more normal life and avoid another year of quarantine so he decided to go with Duke.

Just to be clear: I don’t know what will happen when Ngongba makes his decision this weekend. It seems like Duke is now in the lead, but I never hold my breath when dealing with this stuff.

Sadly, I think the days of secondary Big 12 football rivalries like K-State/Iowa State, KU/Iowa State, TCU/Texas Tech and Oklahoma State/Baylor being played every single season are over.

I suppose some of these teams could decide they can’t live without those games and re-schedule them as nonconference matchups, but I doubt that happens.

Look, I would much rather have seen the Big 12 protect its oldest rivalries than prioritize every team in the conference playing the other 15 at least twice over a four-year span. But it’s not like the league ended all of the rivalries I listed above.

Farmageddon will still be played in each of the next three seasons before it goes away for one year in 2027. As much as I love a good game between K-State and Iowa State I think playing the rivalry three out of every four years is mostly fine.

It’s not like anyone is going to go on a hunger strike because Farmageddon goes on hiatus for one season. I hope no one does that, at least.

Same thing for KU and Iowa State or TCU and Texas Tech. As long as those games are played most of the time I think things will be fine.

That being said, I still would have preferred a pod system in which more regional rivalries were protected. I would much rather see K-State sacrifice the occasional game with Cincinnati for more games with Iowa State and Oklahoma State.

At least we will continue getting the Sunflower Showdown every single year.

I assume the tiebreakers will be the same as they are this season with 14 teams in the conference. Not sure why they would change just because that number goes up to 16.

The days of the absolutely amazing round-robin schedule are already over.

Head-to-head results will still be used first to break any tie. In the event of a three-way tie then the team with the best record against the other two would win.

Next, the Big 12 goes to your record against the next highest placed common opponent in the standings on down. That means that the team wit the best conference victory will win the tiebreaker.

After that, it’s win percentage against all common conference opponents.

Things get a little tricky from there. If there is still a tie the Big 12 then looks at your conference strength of schedule. Combined win percentage of conference opponents is the next tiebreaker.

If somehow there is still a tie overall record is considered. Then they turn to the highest ranked team by SportSource Analytics.

Finally, if none of those tiebreakers solve the issue, the league will flip a coin.

Chris Klieman would be a big favorite in that matchup.

Klieman is a former defensive back who still lifts weights as often as he can. I once asked him how much he can bench press and the number was big enough that he didn’t feel like adding up in his head. I imagine he uses quite a few 45-pound weights whenever he lifts the bar.

My guess is he could whip Jerome Tang at arm wrestling.

That’s not to say Tang couldn’t beat Klieman at other things. I bet Tang could beat Klieman at the 100-yard dash. And Klieman would definitely get served if he went up against Tang in a dance contest.

But Klieman has more muscles, and that’s what counts in arm wrestling.