Sports media are stupid. All they do is parrot what's been spoon-fed to them by the respective school sports information departments.
UNC pimps Hansblow behind-the-scenes to all their ESPN buddies, and lo and behold, every ESPN anchorman talks up how Hansblow is the best player in the country on the air...over and over and over again.
UT has one of the best marketing/PR based athletic departments in the country. Dare I say KSU's is one of the worst/most small-time? We don't play "the game". And it kills us every year.
If KSU beats Okie State and wins out at home, we'll be 10-6 for the third consecutive year in the Big 12. We'll be in the Top 4 or better for the third consecutive year in the Big 12. But that only warrants one trip to the NCAA--as an 11 seed? We've become one of the most consistently good (but not great) teams in the conference, and get treated as an also-ran as if we were CU or Iowa State. Don't you think we've got a good selling line that even the dunderheads at ESPN can understand for why we should get in the tourney?
But the problem lies with us and how we market ourselves. It's pathetic.
The problem lies with us and how we sucked out loud for the first half of the season. Until 5 games into the Big 12 schedule we lost to crapty teams (Oregon has 20 losses!) and didn't beat anyone good (except Cleveland State). That's all there is to it.
WRONG!
If K-State fans can't convince ourselves we belong in the NCAAs, then how the hell can you think the Selection Committee should give us a shot? Osmosis? Pity?
We have a story to sell. K-State was an extremely young team this year, and not expected to do anything. We stumbled out of the gate, but turned our season around and played very well in January and February? Shouldn't the Selection Committee prefer teams who played well now as opposed to early December? What about our consistent record in the Big 12? Shouldn't a team that finishes in the Top 4 of one of the key power conferences for the past three years deserve a little more than one piddling 11-seed?
Instead, we get the "woe is us, let's go out in the back yard and eat worms" crowd that actually does the work of our detractors in the media by coming up with all sorts of reasons for not picking us. "Why should we feel sorry for K-State? Even their own fans think their non-conference sucks and they're just a fraud with a glossy record of beating the Iowa States and the North Carolina Centrals of the basketball world".
Good God, men, stand up for yourselves! The self-pity kick is nauseating.
