We should have a decent team this year.

[SCKSCat]

Joe Lunardi is picking us to make the Big tournament. I think our newebsite guys will bring a lot of energy.

[IStillLikeHarv]

There are obvious challenges this season, but there are many potential positives as well. KSU will have three returning starters in Makol, Xavier, and Cartier (31 starts) from teams over the last two seasons that accomplished two noteworthy program milestones. That is a good core to build around, particularly with the position flex Xavier and Cartier bring to the roster.

One fun way to look at things is to put together potential starting line-ups and analyze the positives and negatives.

1. Mawien, Stockard, Snead, McGuirl, and Diarra. This is the most experienced line-up (2 seniors and 3 juniors), and it keeps Snead at the three spot. Obviously this would depend on a slimmed down Stockard being effective as a power forward.

2. Mawien, Snead, Diarra, McGuirl, and SNW. Decent experience with 2 seniors, 2 juniors, and a sophomore, and it actually is a two point guard line-up to take some of the pressure off SNW, and McGuirl is a combo guard to boot. This is a "small ball" line-up to some degree, but the athleticism would be a challenge to a lot of teams -- even high major teams.

3. Mawien, Snead, D Gordon, Diarra, and SNW. OK, small ball, but now you are talking some REALLY serious athleticism. there are still two point guards, and D Gordon may be the kind of freshman who can start.

4. Mawien, Murphy/Gordon, Snead, McGuirl, and Diarra. Starting a freshman at the four spot, but otherwise good experience and still two point guards. Mawien, Murphy/Gordon, and Snead could be a pretty athletic front three for rebounding purposes.

You can keep moving things around to get other variations, but these line-ups include what may be the top nine players in various combinations. One key point would be who backs up Mawien. Life gets a lot easier for the KSU coaches if Love/Shadd can provide enough back-up to hold down the center position.

I haven't included Sloan in this (though I confess I am impressed by his skills) because he hasn't been on the radar much. Hopefully that is just because of his injury. He is a potential wild card depending on how much of his JUCO game can translate to the high major level. My sneaking suspicion is that it may translate better than some expect it will.

[Puffdad]

Good post Harv. I think you hit on the various potential lineups. I just don’t think that they want to play Sneed at the four much though. I think we’d have a tough time inside (rebounding and scoring) if we have to do that very much. I think the key to the season will be how good the freshman 4’s are going to be. And they don’t have to be world beaters. Just hold their own.

[xtrawildcat]

Thanks for the post. Nice to talk about basketball.
I hope they go with M Murphy and A Gordon at the four for a majority of the minutes. Maybe small ball with Sneed at the four at the end of games or if we get behind and need to do some pressure defense to try to get back in a game.

I think McGuirl is going to be a guy who makes threes at a fairly high % this year and combined with his defense will get good minutes.

D Gordon is going to get a lot of minutes (20 plus).

Most interesting will be the use of SNW and Sloan. Posters on other forums see SNW as a very high level player. Possible but now I need to see it in games and evaluate how he makes the overall team play better. I am not sure Diarra won't beat both those guys out for playing time at point guard with D Gordon getting lots of time at shooting guard. Diarra, A Gordon, Sneed, Murphy, and Mak would put a big line up on the floor that still has a lot of athleticism.

Who gets playing time may end up being determined by who can play the toughest defense while still being able to make threes.

Should be a good team but going to be hard to replace the way the three seniors played on defense. Sneed and Brown were lock down defenders and Dean and Mak were really good defenders and particularly good with hedging screens and help. Stokes was a good on ball defender but also very smart in defense off the ball. Going to be hard to replace how good Brown, Stokes and Dean were at reading and jumping passing lanes.

[KITNooga]

Joe Lunardi is picking us to make the Big tournament. I think our newebsite guys will bring a lot of energy.

LOL, when I first read this post I read' make the Big TWELVE tournament'.

just goes to show how easy it is for the mind to play tricks.

[KITNooga]

Going to be hard to replace how good Brown, Stokes and Dean were at reading and jumping passing lanes.

don't overlook not only the players, but the fact that they were battle-tested upperclassmen.

replacing athleticism is a hell of a lot easier than game experience and toughness. those things only come with tme.

[learnin]

Good discussion. I agree with those who think SNW has a big upside. I saw this young man make some passes last year that knocked me back in my seat. I think anytime you have a good core of returning players and some interesting newcomers, you can be hopeful of some good surprises. I remember back to when we lost Rodney, Angel, et.al. It looked to be a down year, but one Marcus Foster was able to ignite the mixture of returning players so to speak. That year was a surprising and fun year. I know I'm ready for the season to begin.

[kinsleycat]

I read somewhere a few weeks ago that K-State was predicted to finish 9th this season. I hope we can do better than that.

[bhoovy]

I read somewhere a few weeks ago that K-State was predicted to finish 9th this season. I hope we can do better than that.

Really?? So predicting us 9th for both football and basketball for the upcoming year?

Guess we’ll have to prove them wrong in both.

[kinsleycat]

I read somewhere a few weeks ago that K-State was predicted to finish 9th this season. I hope we can do better than that.

Really?? So predicting us 9th for both football and basketball for the upcoming year?

Guess we’ll have to prove them wrong in both.

Yes, we need to prove them wrong on both sports. It was one of the bigger honks, Yahoo sports or USA today or something like that.