2018 College Basketball Team Preview: #17 Kansas State Wildcats

Over the course of the next 30 days, the Def Pen college basketball staff will preview the top 30 teams in the country. Each day will present a new team running all the way up to the start of the regular season. Follow along with us as we share our top 30 college basketball teams in 30 days.

Nobody expected Kansas State to go on a run to the Elite Eight on Selection Sunday. The Wildcats were the eight seed in Virginia’s bracket and was seen as having no chance to get to the Sweet 16. Then UMBC happened and that allowed the Wildcats to scoot on by to a date with Kentucky they were able to pull the upset in. Their dream run came to the end at the hands of another Cinderella in Loyola-Chicago.

All of this was accomplished without their best player and leading scorer Dean Wade. Wade blossomed into All-Big 12 performer his junior year after two modest seasons as a freshman and sophomore. In addition to Wade coming back, the team returns just about every relevant piece including their backcourt of Kamau Stokes, Barry Brown, and Cartier Diarra. Those three along with Xavier Sneed and Dean Wade are why Kansas State is rated as high as they have been since Bruce Weber arrived in the preseason polls.

Key Returners

Dean Wade should continue to develop as he has every year in his time at Kansas State. Wade has the potential to put All-America caliber numbers this year as another year being the focal point in Bruce Weber’s offense. Brown was another player who took a step last year but has so much room to improve. Brown needs to improve from three-point range as he’s consistently been 33% or under from three in his three-year career. As far as Cartier Diarra, he is entering his sophomore year and should take the patented sophomore jump. He is also a guard who needs to improve his jumper but he showed great flashes of getting into the lane last year. These three are a good place to start when it comes to what Kansas State has returning this year which includes just about every relevant piece from last year.

Key Losses

Wainright is the only departure from last season’s team. Wainright only played 13 minutes a game so it isn’t a major loss. His departure stems from an April suspension in which he was charged with two felonies: fleeing and eluding and obstruction. These charges are related to an incident dating back all the way to January in which “a car belonging to Kansas State guard Amaad Wainright was involved in a shooting” according to an article in the Wichita Eagle.

Key Newcomers

Weber’s squad didn’t bring in a ton this year, but at the same time, they didn’t need to. With no real departures outside of Wainright’s transfer there wasn’t a lot of scholarships and immediate playing time to hand out. Williams is a guard out of St. Louis that was unranked by ESPN and rated as the 228th best player according to 247. These possible diamond in the roughs are the type of guys Weber usually finds. Lowly rated but he somehow turns them into solid contributors in his system. Trice is a junior college power forward out of Chicago. Weber has used a mix of junior college and players outside the top 150 to usually fill out his roster. He looks for tough defensive minded guys who will fit his motion offense and that’s what he feels like he got in this two man class. Two guys who can help combine with the amount of talent he returned to push those guys.

Projected Starting Lineup

G: Cartier Diarra
G: Barry Brown
G: Xavier Sneed
F: Dean Wade
C: Makol Mawien

Season Outlook

The Wildcats are one of those team who have the potential to hang around in the top 25 all year long. With Bruce Weber now coaching his best team in his time at Kansas State it will be interesting to watch how he handles them. The group is experienced but have never had the expectations they now do. This group of players has thrived off of the ability to play with a chip on their shoulders. It is when Weber’s teams are at their best when expectations are low and his players buy into a tough-minded defensive grind-it-out style.

This season could go one of two ways. The expectations could get to the players and they have a solid yet unspectacular year. Or Dean Wade is added to the same team that excelled in last year’s tournament and the Wildcats threaten Kansas for the Big 12 throne. Bruce Weber has never had expectations in Manhattan like this before, let’s see how he handles them.

Record Prediction

24-7 (12-6)

Kansas State is the second best team in the Big 12 but even that won’t help them escape a 12-6 record in conference play. The Big 12 isn’t top heavy but is solid in the middle creating more than a few tough road games. Road games are the toughest thing to win in college basketball and when it comes to ones in the Big 12 only Kansas has shown the ability to win them consistently. The nonconference portion doesn’t present anything overly tough although a game at Marquette could cause a stumble as I have predicted. Weber’s squad will play in the U.S Virgin Islands Tournament where Missouri should be the only team to give them a competitive game in the championship. Overall outside of a few power five games they should be able to navigate it with relative ease. The Wildcats should enter the tournament in the 4-6 seed range with a chance to win a couple of rounds.