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The men's basketball team, picked fifth in the preseason, is hanging a banner. For all his success, Frank Martin never did that. Neither did Lon Kruger. Rodney McGruder was mentioned as a candidate for conference player of the year, but either way is graduating as the best player of a senior class with the most victories in school history.
Sports have always been a major part of K-State's vision of growth. Football's national emergence was built on an all-in bet on a quiet lifetime assistant coach, and this current football-basketball run of success is backed by another big financial commitment. In the last two years, the school has begun or planned around $100 million of facility construction to benefit nearly every sport from football to rowing.
The success of right now is a direct result of a stubborn resilience that's come to define K-State athletics. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, administrators spent money they didn't actually have to allow Snyder to transform what had been college football's worst program. When the program lost its way under Ron Prince, Snyder came back to save it.
When basketball needed a shot of energy six years ago, K-State hired Bob Huggins. When he left for his alma mater, they took a chance on Martin. He took the program to new heights - a school-record 29 wins and one short of the Final Four in 2010 - and when he left many panned Weber's hiring.
K-State, unranked in the preseason, played its way into the top 10. The Wildcats are four wins away from Martin's school record and in position for a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The coaches and players aren't completely happy at the moment, not after losing on Saturday. But step back, and the bigger picture is beautiful.
