Reconnaissance: The Little Apple

Despite a 22-11 record, and going 9-7 in the Big 12, the Wildcats were spurned by Joe Lunardi & Co. last season.  Kansas State returns the vast majority of that team, including four starters.  There are a great deal of similarities between the Kansas State Wildcats and our Flyers, but also one fundamental difference.

This will be one of the few, perhaps only, games this year where the opposition will be at Manhattan, Kansas: a city that may be as lame as Daytonleast as athletic and perhaps more so.  Across the board they have players who can run and jump, namely UConn transfer Curtis Kelly and big time recruit Wally Judge.  But it's more than these two, a good chunk of their roster is dedicated to the type of long athletes we won't see much more this year.  But where we try to utilize our athletes to limit the opposition, the Wildcat's modus operandi is akin to that of Pop-A-Shot Luke. Fuck the amount of points the opponent scores, we'll just score more. In their four games thus far this year they've put up 92, 82, 80, and 86. Last year they averaged over 75 while playing in the considerably more challenging Big 12 conference. We prefer to play games in the 60s, they want score 100. A battle of wills shall ensue.

The backcourt of Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen fuels the Wildcat offense. They'll both look to get out and go, and neither is afraid to fire as they led the team in scoring last season and are second and third this season. But both could certainly be classified as volume scorers. Last season Clemente and Pullen averaged 15 and 14 pts/gm respectively, at 41% and 38% from the field. And the early returns of this season haven't been much better, with Pullen upping his field goal percentage to 39% and Clemente struggling out of the gates at 32%. But either is capable of getting the hot hand and torching the opposition. Clemente had games of 44 and 33 last season, while Pullen had 7 games over 20.

Curtis Kelly was a five star recruit for Jim Calhoun coming out of high school. The bright lights and trashy cocktail waitresses of the Mohegan Sun proved too tempting, as Kelly succumbed to a gambling addiction and accumulated thousands in debt before being escorted out of the Husky program .   Outright fabrication aside, White was never able to crack the rotation for the Huskies. Despite his inauspicious start in Storrs, Kelly was much sought after announcing his intention to transfer with Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Xavier offering a bevy of shapely co-eds and a free education.  Though, I trust official measurements about as much as Ted the guy who drinks 40s on my corner, it sounds like Kelly's gained 35 lbs. and has shown more of an interest in spending time in the paint.  In a lot of ways he's very similar to our very own savior Chris Wright, though he seems to realize where he is most beneficial to his team, in the paint. In the first three games, he's led the team with 15/8.5 and almost a block and a half a game.  If he BG's drink of choicewants to bring his athleticism down low, he could cause problems. Sunday could be a big test for the Big Dog. If he gets in foul trouble, it may be up to Benson or Kavanaugh to try to check the Wildcat's best player.

The Wildcats have five players currently averaging double digits.  After White, Pullen, and Clemente,  there's freshman Rodney McGruder and sophomore Jamar Samuels, both formerly of the aforementioned DC Assault AAU program. McGruder plays the 2, though his stats are a bit deceptive as his average is skewed by his 20 pts on 6 for 8 from 3 against Boston U. Samuels is an athletic, 6'7" wing who can score inside and out while also grabbing almost 5 boards a game. Another player to keep an eye out for is Wally Judge. ESPN had him as the 15th best player in the country last year. His minutes have been limited, but he's been productive when on the floor. He's described as a hyper-athletic big man with a developing shot (aren't we all "developing our shot"?). As the season progresses, most K-State fans expect big things from him.  Let's hope this progress doesn't occur Sunday.

And then there's the interesting story of Frank Martin.  While he's never been explicitly accused of any recruiting violations, he was fired from powerhouse basketball program Miami High in the wake a school-wide athletic scandal (two NBA players, Udonis Haslem and Steve Blake, just so happened to matriculate through the school during Martin's time at the helm).  He's also managed to build in-roads with the DC Assault AAU program that has helped yield 4 current Wildcats, as well as Michael Beasley. He's also still reaping the benefits of southern Florida, as three current Wildcats hail from the state. While there's been no allegations, Martin seems to have some smoke swirling about him. And lest we be accused of casting stones, we certainly aren't immune to the scourges of modern day recruiting.  It wasn't long ago the Brooks Hall family was receiving some atypical loans from the Bank of Purnell.

Kansas State will certainly prove a stout opponent.  But I think our defense frustrates the Wildcats and we pull out a close victory.  The trip to San Juan will be remembered as a thorough success and Luke Hendrick will never forget his night in a Puerto Rican jail.