Big 12 Basketball: 2020-21 power rankings heading into New Year

There may be some complaints about the Wildcats not being dead last, particularly after how they looked in the first few weeks of the season. They started off with a home loss to Drake, although the Bulldogs are currently unbeaten at 11-0 overall. Kansas State then lost to Colorado and UNLV, before dropping to D-II program Fort Hays State by 13 points.

The team has won four of five games since, including a pair of close calls over both Milwaukee and Omaha. One of them was a 74-65 road victory over Iowa State, led by 15 points and 11 rebounds (11/11 from the free throw line) from Dajuan Gordon, along with 14 points from freshman forward Davion Bradford. There was some talk concerning the Wildcats potentially going winless, so it was nice to see them getting that discussion off the table.

As expected, there aren’t any stars on this basketball team. Senior guard Mike McGuirl (12.4 ppg) is the lone current player averaging in double-figure scoring. But there’s some solid depth surrounding him, with eight other players producing at least five points a night. Freshman starting point guard Nigel Pack (9.9 ppg and 3.9 apg) has shown long-term promise for the Wildcats, while Bradford and Selton Miguel have also impressed in their first year as well.

The hope is that Kansas State continues to improve, although they’ll have plenty of tough games on the schedule. As long as they can avoid giving up 100+ as they did against Baylor, they’ll be hope going forward.