hawkchief
02-27-2008, 12:55 AM
K-State basketball wallowing in negativity
The angriest place in college basketball is Bramlage Coliseum, home to the game’s most electrifying player, Kansas State power forward Michael Beasley.
When Beasley takes the court at Bramlage, it is no place for children and families. It’s fertile recruiting ground for militias, political talk-show hosts and other extremist groups that prey on the paranoid and hypocritically self-righteous.
Betrayed by Bob Huggins, emboldened by an inexperienced coach who boils from start to finish, and fearful that the risk taken to obtain Beasley won’t pay off and will make K-State a laughingstock, many Wildcats fans have turned embarrassingly vulgar, hostile and defensive.
Someone needs to explain to them that in basketball, there’s a very thin line between a healthy, us-against-the-world mentality and a destructive one.
You want to understand why the Wildcats’ on-court chemistry has regressed so suddenly and sharply over the past month, you want to know why Bill Walker constantly sulks, broods and erupts, get a tape of Monday night’s Texas-Kansas State game.
The Wildcats are being swallowed by the enmity, paranoia and feeling of victimization that permeates the K-State fan base and fuels first-year head coach Frank Martin’s coaching style.
You can’t consistently win basketball games while throwing a pity party.
Basketball is a game best played happy. There’s a reason Magic Johnson wore a wonderful smile, Larry Bird jokingly talked trash and Michael Jordan flew through the air with his tongue hanging out.
Basketball is fun, and winners don’t wear mean mugs.
Did Bobby Knight win 902 games, three national titles and angrily rip, shred and destroy everything in his path? Yeah. But he was the exception, and he never tolerated his players or fans mimicking his behavior or attitude.
Beasley and Walker, two good kids, too often ape the persona of their coach and fans. The players, having listened to the complaints of K-State fans, appear to hit the court believing they’ve been disrespected by the media and the college basketball world.
They have a chip on their shoulder that they don’t need. They had nothing to do with Huggins leaving, the long losing streak against Kansas or the inferiority complex that hampers Manhattan. Beasley and Walker don’t need to prove that Martin can coach and Dalonte Hill is worth the money.
Martin and Hill are grown men capable of fighting their own battles. Time will tell if they can coach and recruit. Beasley and Walker will be long gone when we reach a conclusion about Martin’s and Hill’s competency.
Kansas State’s nucleus, a group made up mostly of freshmen, needs to be filled with positive energy from Martin and fans. All the game-day, over-the-top negative energy/vulgarity directed at the refs, the opposition and (when it comes to Martin) K-State players not named Beasley and Walker is undermining the Wildcats’ growth.
It’s really laid the seeds for an immature squad, a team looking for excuses rather than a team that guts out tough games with effort.
Good teams and bad ones often reflect their coaches. Frank Martin fell into a job at the one place where fans would almost universally feed his defensive nature. It’s difficult to objectively self-reflect and adjust in an environment where everyone around you is telling you the world is unfair.
It takes a special person to evolve in that angry setting.
Martin should spend some time this week picking Bill Snyder’s brain. Winning at a high level at Kansas State is so difficult that Snyder rarely wasted a second feeling sorry for himself or trying to control things he couldn’t by definition. Snyder loved K-State fans, but he never wallowed in self-sympathy with them. He carried his players and fan base to a higher level.
That’s Martin’s challenge in the final weeks of the short-lived Michael Beasley era. Martin has to teach Beasley and Walker to play and carry themselves like winners for 40 minutes … even when the entire fan base is whining like a bunch of losers.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to
The angriest place in college basketball is Bramlage Coliseum, home to the game’s most electrifying player, Kansas State power forward Michael Beasley.
When Beasley takes the court at Bramlage, it is no place for children and families. It’s fertile recruiting ground for militias, political talk-show hosts and other extremist groups that prey on the paranoid and hypocritically self-righteous.
Betrayed by Bob Huggins, emboldened by an inexperienced coach who boils from start to finish, and fearful that the risk taken to obtain Beasley won’t pay off and will make K-State a laughingstock, many Wildcats fans have turned embarrassingly vulgar, hostile and defensive.
Someone needs to explain to them that in basketball, there’s a very thin line between a healthy, us-against-the-world mentality and a destructive one.
You want to understand why the Wildcats’ on-court chemistry has regressed so suddenly and sharply over the past month, you want to know why Bill Walker constantly sulks, broods and erupts, get a tape of Monday night’s Texas-Kansas State game.
The Wildcats are being swallowed by the enmity, paranoia and feeling of victimization that permeates the K-State fan base and fuels first-year head coach Frank Martin’s coaching style.
You can’t consistently win basketball games while throwing a pity party.
Basketball is a game best played happy. There’s a reason Magic Johnson wore a wonderful smile, Larry Bird jokingly talked trash and Michael Jordan flew through the air with his tongue hanging out.
Basketball is fun, and winners don’t wear mean mugs.
Did Bobby Knight win 902 games, three national titles and angrily rip, shred and destroy everything in his path? Yeah. But he was the exception, and he never tolerated his players or fans mimicking his behavior or attitude.
Beasley and Walker, two good kids, too often ape the persona of their coach and fans. The players, having listened to the complaints of K-State fans, appear to hit the court believing they’ve been disrespected by the media and the college basketball world.
They have a chip on their shoulder that they don’t need. They had nothing to do with Huggins leaving, the long losing streak against Kansas or the inferiority complex that hampers Manhattan. Beasley and Walker don’t need to prove that Martin can coach and Dalonte Hill is worth the money.
Martin and Hill are grown men capable of fighting their own battles. Time will tell if they can coach and recruit. Beasley and Walker will be long gone when we reach a conclusion about Martin’s and Hill’s competency.
Kansas State’s nucleus, a group made up mostly of freshmen, needs to be filled with positive energy from Martin and fans. All the game-day, over-the-top negative energy/vulgarity directed at the refs, the opposition and (when it comes to Martin) K-State players not named Beasley and Walker is undermining the Wildcats’ growth.
It’s really laid the seeds for an immature squad, a team looking for excuses rather than a team that guts out tough games with effort.
Good teams and bad ones often reflect their coaches. Frank Martin fell into a job at the one place where fans would almost universally feed his defensive nature. It’s difficult to objectively self-reflect and adjust in an environment where everyone around you is telling you the world is unfair.
It takes a special person to evolve in that angry setting.
Martin should spend some time this week picking Bill Snyder’s brain. Winning at a high level at Kansas State is so difficult that Snyder rarely wasted a second feeling sorry for himself or trying to control things he couldn’t by definition. Snyder loved K-State fans, but he never wallowed in self-sympathy with them. He carried his players and fan base to a higher level.
That’s Martin’s challenge in the final weeks of the short-lived Michael Beasley era. Martin has to teach Beasley and Walker to play and carry themselves like winners for 40 minutes … even when the entire fan base is whining like a bunch of losers.
To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to