shane southwell – Rush The Court

Rushed Reactions: #8 Kentucky 56, #9 Kansas State 49

Adam Stillman — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 05:00:37 +0000

Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCeastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCsouthregion and @RTCwestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

Julius Randle led Kentucky past Kansas State. (sportsillustrated.cnn.com).

Kansas State had no answer for Kentucky’s size. Starting big men Julius Randle and Dakari Johnson stand at 6’9″ and 7’0″, respectively. Then Willie Cauley-Stein comes in off the bench at 7’0 as well. That doesn’t include three guards who are 6’6″ each in James Young and Aaron and Andrew Harrison. UK’s quintet of talented freshmen [...]

Big 12 M5: 02.14.14 Edition

Brian Goodman — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 15:01:37 +0000

Media members are currently gathered in Indianapolis for the annual mock selection process, and while the seeding component won’t be finished until later today, the field was finalized Thursday night and it contained six Big 12 teams: Kansas, Texas, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. The results aren’t too surprising, but it’s important to note that the process doesn’t project any results from the remainder of the season (aside from assuming current first-place teams will win their automatic bids). With that in mind, West Virginia and Baylor may have something to say about it before all is said [...]

Looking Ahead To The Big 12’s Most Important Games This Weekend

Brian Goodman — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 19:31:30 +0000

This week has been highly entertaining for Big 12 fans. Whether it’s Kansas winning in a return to Hilton Coliseum, Kansas State putting the clamps on Oklahoma‘s high-energy offense, or the most recent development — Texas Tech springing the biggest upset of league play by beating Baylor on Wednesday night — storylines have emerged with each passing game. No school has played more than four games yet, but the Jayhawks are the only team still unscathed in conference play. After a quiet Thursday and Friday, the action resumes tomorrow with four match-ups that will have big implications on the conference [...]

Big 12 Midseason Merits and Demerits

Brian Goodman — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 16:20:25 +0000

It’s crazy to think that the season is already nearly halfway over. Over the last two months, the Big 12 had a terrific non-conference run. The league notched wins over the likes of Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Memphis, Iowa, Michigan and Gonzaga; the conference proved that it has its share of individual stars beyond Marcus Smart and Andrew Wiggins, viewed as the toasts of the league back in November; and an argument can be made rather easily that the Big 12 is the best league in the country (or at least has had the best run to date). With league play tipping [...]

Big 12 M5: 12.11.13 Edition

Brian Goodman — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:01:51 +0000

It’s been a long two weeks for Kansas, and the Jayhawks took another lump on Tuesday night, dropping their second straight game and their third in the last 11 days, in a loss to Florida. Andrew Wiggins was fantastic, leading all scorers with 26 points, or put another way, roughly one point for every time a draft analyst has changed his mind about him. The freshman phenom just didn’t get the help he needed as the Kansas guards turned the ball over at an astronomical rate, giving the Gators enough extra possessions to reel off a 21-0 run over eight-plus minutes in the [...]

Big 12 Observations a Month Into the Season

Taylor Erickson — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 19:45:41 +0000

With a month of action in the 2013-14 college basketball season now under our belts, the natural question becomes what exactly have we learned so far? We’ve been treated to some impressive performances, by both Big 12 teams and individuals, and a good number of less-than-impressive efforts. And while the buzz of Christmas season is firmly upon us, we’re also in the meat of a non-conference slate with several high-profile games involving the Big 12’s elite, allowing us further opportunity to draw more concrete conclusions. For the time being, though, four weeks into the season, here are a few observations [...]

Kansas State’s Early Struggles Possible Sign of Things to Come

Kory Carpenter (@Kory_Carpenter) — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:31:03 +0000

Not much has gone right for Kansas State since capturing a share of the Big 12 regular season championship last season. The Wildcats advanced to the Big 12 Tournament championship game, was beateen by Kansas for the third time, then lost to #13 seed La Salle in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Leading scorers Rodney McGruder and Angel Rodriguez graduated and transferred, respectively, and now, eight months later, K-State opened the season with a 60-58 loss to Northern Colorado, the same Northern Colorado team that was picked to finish fourth in the Big Sky Conference this season.

Yes, College Basketball Season is Finally Here

Taylor Erickson — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 20:40:40 +0000

College hoops fans everywhere, rejoice. Like Harry and Lloyd finally arriving in Aspen, we’re therrre. The anticipation for college basketball season has been building for the past several months, and we can finally take a deep breath and revel in the fact that the official start has arrived. Gone are the days of exhibition games and the abundance of preseason lists and rankings and speculation. Instead, they’re replaced by games that really count, and storylines that actually matter. Your weekends are about to get a lot more intriguing, and your weeknights a lot less boring. From Ames to Austin, Lubbock to [...]

Big 12 Microsite Roundtable: Predicted Standings

Brian Goodman — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 19:31:35 +0000

Yesterday, the four Big 12 Microsite writers (Kory Carpenter, Taylor Erickson, Brian Goodman and Nate Kotisso) named their preseason All-Big 12 selections. On college basketball’s opening day, we take a look at each writer’s predicted order of finish.

Some key takeaways:

You can have Marcus Smart and the Cowboys, but we’re picking Kansas until someone knocks them off: As we touched on in the Oklahoma State team preview, the Cowboys have as good a chance to dethrone Kansas as some of the top challengers in the Jayhawks’ nine-year stay atop the conference. But if a Big 12 coach is going to clown our [...]

Big 12 Team Preview: Kansas State Wildcats

Brian Goodman — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:31:11 +0000

This week, the Big 12 microsite will finish previewing each of the league’s 10 teams. Today: Kansas State.

Where We Left Off: As he did at Illinois, Bruce Weber took the wheel of a new program and immediately led it to a regular season conference title. Despite an unimpressive defense and an offense that relied heavily on crashing the boards, Kansas State outperformed preseason expectations on its way to a 27-8 record and sharing the conference crown with Kansas. The postseason wasn’t so kind, however. Kansas State bowed out to the Jayhawks in the Big 12 Tournament final, losing to Bill Self’s [...]

Big 12 M5: 11.04.13 Edition

Nate Kotisso — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 15:01:13 +0000

Kansas State took down Pittsburg State 75-54 in exhibition action on Friday night. The only problem was the Wildcats were hobbled in doing so. Bruce Weber said earlier in the week that guards Will Spradling (0 pts) and Shane Southwell (10/5 asts) as well as forward Nino Williams (13/13) were all battling injuries despite playing more than 20 minutes apiece. Thomas Gipson, who is expected to be more of a force on the offensive end, did not play either due to an unspecified injury. Another headline came from the three freshmen thrown into the action. Point guard Marcus Foster turned in 13 points, five rebounds and four dimes, while fellow Texan Wesley Iwundu scored 10 points [...]

K-State Unveils “Fresh Prince” Spoof During Midnight Madness

Taylor Erickson — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 18:01:48 +0000

Have you seen it yet? Kansas State is the latest team to get in on the video spin-off-craze that seems to be sweeping the nation, and this one’s actually pretty good. During their Midnight Madness event on Friday night, K-State athletics rolled out a spoof of the well known “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” television show featuring Shane Southwell in the role of Will Smith, and he appears to relish the opportunity for TV stardom.

As funny as the video is itself, the reaction from K-State’s players might be even better. This second video captures the debut of the spoof and it’s [...]

Big 12 M5: 10.25.13 Edition

Kory Carpenter — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:01:04 +0000

Here’s a great take on the Rick Barnes and Mack Brown situations at Texas by Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News. Texas is arguably the best football job in the country and a top 10 basketball job, but both Brown and Barnes have struggled as of late. If it is any consolation for Barnes, he likely has a longer leash than Brown at this point in time. The Longhorn basketball team has little in the way of expectations this year, and like almost every other year, they have little expectations from locals. I wouldn’t be shocked if an NCAA [...]

Big 12 M5: 10.23.13 Edition

Kory Carpenter — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 14:01:30 +0000

Maybe it was because of the comments that Marcus Smart made about Andrew Wiggins, maybe it was because he actually believed it, or maybe it was because he was just trying to quell any war of words that may have been brewing, but Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford had nothing but praise for Kansas heading into the season, and he was not shy about claiming the Jayhawks are still the team to beat, even with Marcus Smart leading the Cowboys this year. “Winning a Big 12 Championship is something that we strive to do. It’s something we talk about, but [...]

The Big 12 All-Drone Team: Five Guys Flying Under the Radar

Taylor Erickson — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:31:45 +0000

On Tuesday, CBSSports.com released a ranking of the top 100 players in college basketball for the 2013-14 season. Andrew Wiggins and Marcus Smart were slotted as the top two players in the list, highlighting the type of talent we will be fortunate enough to see this season in the Big 12. Even for the casual Big 12 basketball fan, Wiggins and Smart are household names, but what about those “other” guys out there? The ones who will take a back seat to the Wiggins and Smart media exposure, but are fully capable of putting on a show in their own right? [...]