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@BlumbergOTB: #Mizzou's Laurence Bowers tore his ACL and will to miss the 2011-12 season. He averaged 11 pts. and 6 rebs. per game last year.
Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic
Texas-El Paso vs. Clemson
Kansas State vs. Southern Illinois
Long Beach State vs. Xavier
Auburn vs. Hawaii
Projected NCAA tournament teams: Clemson, Xavier
JerryZgoda Jerry Zgoda
Reports out of China suggest Michael Beasley broke his wrist playing on a team with Paul Pierce in China on Sunday night.
WHAT YOU CAN PRETEND TO KNOW: 1991. In a year of one of America's most protracted and pronounced recessions, LHC Bill Snyder pilots Kansas State to a 7-4 season after the two winning seasons of Wildcat football in the previous 34 seasons of play. He does so by taking every possible edge a ruthless football coach with limited resources and a program located on the far side of Agriculturesvania can take: scheduling obscure sparring partners from D1AA football, taking chances on any JUCO who can lace up their shoes, feeding the club little but canned vegetables and wholesale potted meats purchased at discount clubs, and working his young, underpaid staff to the bone and watching film until his eyes bled.
Flash forward to 2011, 20 years later. America sits in the worst recession since the 1991 roll in the economic mire. In the midst of deep national discontent, who stands at the helm at K-State? Who sits with a grocery cart full of transfers, including the talented and troubled Brown brothers Arthur (LB) and Bryce (RB)? The scheduling...um, never mind that, since for some reason K-State has an away date scheduled with the Miami Hurricanes. (Who are this close to Sam's Club discount football after potential suspensions, anyway.) The approach? A pounding run game designed to shorten the game and make you, the other team who actually tries to do adventurous things with the football, turn the ball over to the defense with three-and-outs and turnovers.
I am not saying that K-State football doing well is bad for our nation as a whole. I'm saying their turnaround years under LHC Bill Snyder are, and that the only good economic news we have for you is this: if K-State somehow wins nine games this year, we have hit the nadir of our recession, and you should dive with both feet back into the market. In the meantime, just note that LHC Bill Snyder is the master of how to buy good football on a budget, mention the promising youth of this team, and always bring up the word "Scrappy" when talking about them. Everyone else does.
SEASON CRUX: Every game after the opening cupcake slate of Eastern Kentucky and Kent State, because this is a toboggan ride taken in the wrong direction, with a four game stretch including Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas in succession.
26. Kansas
The geographic center of the U.S. is a flat land with a few surprises.
The Good: Kansas has two good college towns. Lawrence (University of Kansas) is one of the 10 best college towns in America. And Manhattan (Kansas State) is, despite its depressing name, apparently a good place to retire young. Kansas is the prototype of what you think about when someone mention's America's sprawling vastnesses of corn and whatnot. It's Kansas. It is what it is. Dorothy's from there. Y'know. Kansas. You can go see this.
The Bad: What's the matter with Kansas? A whole hell of a lot. There's lots of religious nuttery. And then even more religious nuttery. Some folks in the state don't think too much of reproductive rights. It's flat as hell, its amusement parks are abandoned, and it's full of tornadoes. The Kansas part of Kansas City is boring, including those snobby jerks in Overland Park. And while Dorothy might be from Kansas, the state isn't very nice to her friends. And, you can go see this.
Final Score: 5.09
"It's a dream to be able to sit in coach Snyder's office and talk to him about football," Bender said. "K-State fits me. I could listen to him talk all day and not get bored."