14. Kansas State (6-4)
Jerome Tang’s first season at Kansas State was an unparalleled success, taking his team to the Elite Eight and quickly establishing his head coaching career. Last year was a mess, with his Wildcats finishing a bit below expectations with far inferior offensive play. The first six weeks of play this season have unfortunately shown us to expect more of a repeat performance from last year.
Kansas State pursued and invested heavily in former Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins, though his early performance has been disappointing. Fellow Big Ten transfer Dug McDaniel came over from Michigan and has decent numbers, though David N’Guessan is the leading scorer and rebounder, really establishing himself in his third season with these Wildcats.
The easy games have gone the right way for Kansas State, but their best win to this point in the season is probably George Washington. The Wildcats have lost all four games to more solid foes, losing by double-digits to LSU at home and St. John’s on the road while recently dropping that overtime thriller to unbeaten Drake also at home. Clearly, they’ve done almost nothing to build a resume and it’s fair to wonder what will happen in conference play.
The new faces are underwhelming and Kansas State is heading towards another somewhat irrelevant year in the Big 12. This team was actually picked to finish 8th in the Big 12 but it’s almost impossible to defend that ranking based on what we’ve seen from them. They desperately need Hawkins to prove his worth because this team has great shooting potential; they’re just wasting opportunities and cannot do that against their conference foes.