Pullen becomes K-State’s all-time leading scorer in his final game for K-State

By Ashley Dunkak

On a night his team fell short, losing 70-65 to Wisconsin in the third round of the NCAA tournament, Jacob Pullen cemented his place in K-State history. With his 38-point effort against the Badgers, which tied his career-high of 38 points scored against the Jayhawks earlier this season, he surpassed Mike Evans as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,132 points.

The post game press conference is probably finished already as I write this, but I hope – probably futilely – that Pullen is not asked about this record tonight. This evening, he does not care about the record. His college career is over. He’ll still be close with his coach, his teammates, and this school, but it won’t be the same. No more playing in front of 12,000 fans at Bramlage, no more tunnel dances, no more practices with the Wildcats.

In time, Pullen and fellow senior Curtis Kelly will be able to look back and appreciate how blessed they are to have had such an experience as playing Big 12 basketball, such a close-knit family as their team, and such a great opportunity to attend Kansas State University. Now, though, it’s sadness.

For me, as a reporter and a fan, it’s difficult to grasp that these guys won’t be here anymore. It’s just strange. For some reason, there’s this feeling that the upperclassmen will just always be there, and then they’re gone, and you’re wondering how it went by so quickly.

For the final word on Pullen, I’ll use a lengthy quote from head coach Frank Martin. He said this a few weeks ago, as the Wildcats prepared for the postseason.

“We’re all in this to win games, and that’s how we’re judged. And when we don’t win games everyone thinks that I’m dumb and the players aren’t good enough. We understand that – if not, we don’t accept the jobs that we have or we don’t accept scholarships as athletes. But behind closed doors, amongst ourselves, that’s [unimportant] in what it’s all about. It’s about maximizing each other – him pushing me to become a better coach, me pushing him to become a better player, about building a lifetime relationship, about building a culture here at Kansas State, and together we’ve got to build that, and that’s what he’s done. He’s never ran away from doing that. That’s always been number one on his desk, and taking pride that when he left here, he made this a better place than when he got here, and he’s definitely done that.”

Offense leads to defense: Frank Martin’s explanation

While the most popular consensus is that great defense facilitates efficient offense, Kansas State head coach Frank Martin made a case for the reverse of that analysis. When asked how the Wildcats became a better defensive team this season, one reason he cited was offensive growth – taking better shots, committing fewer turnovers.

“See, when you take a bad shot, that usually leads to a bad situation defensively,” Martin said. “Because that means you got bad, for me, bad shots are shots where you have bad floor spacing because then you can’t offensive rebound.  Then that allows people to get clean defensive rebounds and they’re gone … You never want to get put in transition defense where they got numbers.  Because when you are playing at this level, people will finish plays on you.”

That will be especially true tonight, as the Wildcats face the Badgers, who are infamous for maximizing every possession by draining the shot clock on each one.

Halftime Analysis: Kansas State vs. Utah State

By Ashley Dunkak

A few quick observations about the first half of the Wildcats’ first game of this 2011 NCAA tournament:

1) Pullen, despite having been under the weather with the flu yesterday, leads all scorers with 10 points. He’s 1-of-4 from beyond the arc, but the one that went in had an impact, as it sparked a 7-0 run for K-State.

2) The Wildcats are perfect from the foul line. 11 attempts, 11 makes. They happen to be leading by 11 points at halftime. Coincidence? I think not.

3) Utah State’s Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year Tai Wesley had two fouls early and then got a third a few minutes before halftime. That’s going to limit how aggressive he can be in the second part of the ball game.

Status Updates: Jacob Pullen, Frank Martin

By Ashley Dunkak

No one missed the pained expression on Jacob Pullen’s face after he landed on his right hand after going up for a basket in the second half of the Wildcats’ 75-70 win over Texas on Monday night. During the game, ESPN announcers reported that the early diagnosis was leaning toward a hand contusion but cautioned that it could be worse.

Of course, the automatic reaction was to freak out about K-State’s chances without its senior guard and locker room leader, whether his potential absence would affect the team’s NCAA tournament seed, etc. Fortunately for the Wildcats, it looks like none of those dire scenarios will be coming to fruition.

K-State sent out a press release saying that Pullen has a bruised right hand but that it will not cause him to miss any practice or games.

As far as the Wildcats’ sideline general Frank Martin, you may or may not have noticed him limping around in the past several weeks. While demonstrating a drill in practice some time ago, the head coach injured his knee, and the pain had been bad enough to cause him to lose sleep. As such was the case, he had surgery on the knee on Tuesday.

K-State’s release about Pullen also stated that Martin was “resting comfortably Tuesday after undergoing successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair torn cartilage” and that he was expected to be back at practice on Wednesday.

Pullen making a point for Big 12 Player of the Year

By Tyler Scott

At the beginning of the season, the candidates for Big 12 Player of the Year were hefty. Now, it looks like there may be a clear answer in who the award may go to.

Senior guard Jacob Pullen has had a phenomenal season. Over the course of the last four games, he has scored at least 20 points in each of them. His biggest game came against Kansas when he recorded a career high 38 and was 5-of-6 from beyond the arc on Big Monday on Feb. 14.

He has also had a few weeks this season where he has been named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week and was also named National Player of the Week last week.

Senior forward Curtis Kelly put his performances this season in perspective.

“He’s playing big time and he’s making big shots when they are there,” Kelly said. “He’s our leader and we have to keep trying to score.”

Today against Missouri, Pullen recorded 24 points and also became the sixth player in Big 12 history to reach 2,000 points.

Head coach Frank Martin said Pullen has been a contributor ever since he put on a K-State uniform.

“He’s never shied away from becoming a special player,” Martin said. “He’s willing to accept the team’s responsibility for their success. He also has the will to grow and get better.”

Pullen and K-State still have two more regular season games before the Big 12 Tournament, but his streak of big point performances should continue throughout the rest of the season. There’s no word yet on what seed K-State will get in the tournament, but no matter who they play, the opponent will need to keep a good eye on this Wildcat star.

 

 

 

 

 

Plan to be surprised

By Ashley Dunkak

What goes around comes around after all. KU humiliated K-State in Allen Fieldhouse, and on Monday night the Wildcats returned the favor.

Last night, the Jayhawks were unrecognizable, even to Bill Self, who referred to his crew as “a team that doesn’t deserve to be ranked No. 1 in the country” and declined to put a positive spin on the game besides joking that KU held K-State to 48 points if Jacob Pullen hadn’t played.

I thought that if this game came down to who wanted it more, the Wildcats would have a chance. Between the crushing loss to Colorado and the lingering embarrassment from being manhandled by the Jayhawks in Lawrence, there was plenty of motivation for K-State.

But I never in a million years would have expected the Wildcats to completely control the game for 40 minutes and win by 16 points. I could not believe that with four minutes left in a game against the No. 1 team in the country, our senior point guard was getting a breather on the bench.

For me, there were three moments when the fact we were winning this game sunk in, bit by bit. I really thought I was dreaming – it had been a long weekend and longer Monday – but these events brought me back to reality.

1) I got a text message reading, “If I get arrested for storming the court, will you come bail me out?” (My reply, of course, was yes.)

2) Frank Martin took a timeout to empty the bench with 50.3 seconds to play. How cool for those freshman to see the court in a win over KU!

3) People jumped over the table where I and all the other media people were sitting to get on the floor. Everywhere I looked, there were camera phones immortalizing the magic.

As a student, I feel I’m obligated to admit this was the best Valentine’s Day ever. As a journalist, I covered one of the biggest upsets in college basketball, and it sure was fun.

My final conclusion from all this? It’s pretty useless to try to predict what is going to happen next for this team. We’ll probably be wrong, and it’s a whole lot more fun to be surprised anyhow.

First half analysis of Colorado/K-State

By Tyler Scott

K-State came into the Coors Event Center with four straight wins over the Buffaloes.  The first half was not the kind of play by the Wildcats that would help them to their fifth straight victory.  Even with 11 turnovers committed by Colorado, K-State shot an ugly 7 of 29 from the field.  The team’s leading scorer was also sophomore forward Jordan Henriquez-Roberts with five.

Junior forward Jamar Samuels picked up three fouls, while senior forward Curtis Kelly and senior guard Jacob Pullen picked up two.  Head coach Frank Martin didn’t seem pleased with the first half performance.

Early in the half, Kelly called a timeout after having trouble with putting the ball in bounds.  The players trotted over to the bench and Martin gave the team a big scowl – not speaking a word to any of the players.  The star watch for the game was not as expected at first. Pullen only had three points while Colorado’s Alec Burks was held to just two.

Early Diagnosis: K-State vs. Colorado

By Ashley Dunkak

“Pathetic.” That’s how head coach Frank Martin described the defense of his team in the Wildcats’ last game against the Buffaloes. He attributes what happened at Bramlage earlier this season to a bit of underestimation by the players. The scouting report detailed that Colorado’s offense was completely different and that – unlike previous games in previous seasons when K-State defeated the Buffaloes and always had the advantage on the boards – the Buffaloes had been rebounding very well.

That’s not to say Colorado doesn’t deserve credit for pulling off the upset of the Wildcats on Jan. 12. Guards Alec Burks and Cory Higgins and forward Marcus Relphorde combined for 33 points in that game.

“They put three guys that are all in that 6-5, 6-7 range that all shoot the three, all drive you, and they’re all strong with the ball, so you better have three guys with size that can guard the dribble,” Martin said,  ”because if you don’t have size on those three guys, they just kind of get it in the paint here and jump up and shoot it over you. Or they just post you. And if you guard them with size, then you better be somebody who can guard the dribble because all three of them are very good at driving the ball.”

While the Wildcats at least contained Burks and Higgins, they were surprised by a 20-point effort from senior guard Levi Knutson.

The Buffaloes also outrebounded the Wildcats 30 to 27, a rarity in K-State games this season. But Wildcat forward Jamar Samuels said he doesn’t think that will happen again, with the way practices have been going recently.

This time, K-State senior guard Jacob Pullen said the Wildcats have to exploit their size advantage in the paint.

“With them not being very big, we’re going to have to get some plays just into the post, really make them guard and make them have to foul,” Pullen said. “Last game we started out well in the post and then we kind of faded away from it, and it kind of hurt us toward the end of the game; they weren’t in foul trouble other than a few guards. For us, the main focus is rebounding the ball. We can’t get outrebounded. Any game I think we’ve been outrebounded we haven’t won.”

The senior said there will be two emphases for the Wildcats tonight: keeping the opposing players out of the paint and rebounding the ball.

“If we can do those two things, it can set us up for transition offense and also being able not to expose ourselves in transition defense.”

 

 

Don’t say it can’t get worse, please

By Ashley Dunkak

Just when we thought there could not possibly be any more trauma and drama for the men’s basketball team this season, it turns out we were wrong.

Earlier this season, seniors Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly were suspended for 3 and 6 games, respectively, for “receiving impermissible benefits.” About three weeks ago, junior forward Freddy Asprilla left the team. Not two weeks after that, sophomore forward Wally Judge left the team. Now, tongues are wagging that Kelly is in trouble again.

The Topeka Capitol-Journal reported today that Kelly is being investigated for a potential violation of department policy. The violation, which school officials could not confirm because of student privacy, could result in his suspension for the rest of the season, according to an article by Austin Meek.

Kelly, an All-Big 12 selection, has struggled throughout this season. Of the 24 games the Wildcats have played so far, the senior has seen the court in only 15. Six of those absences were due to suspension, as mentioned earlier, but before any of that came to light, head coach Frank Martin had elected to leave the forward on the bench in the first three games of the season – James Madison, Virginia Tech and Presbyterian.

Since coming back from his suspension, Kelly has been inconsistent at best. In K-State’s route of Texas Tech, he scored 12 points. Against Missouri, he got 4. At Texas A&M and versus Baylor, he had double-digit performances, but then he had zero in the KU game, sitting out the entire second half.

After a 16-point effort in the win over Nebraska, Kelly put up only 6 points in the victory in Ames, Iowa. What Martin said about his senior in the post-game press conference after that Huskers game seems especially poignant in light of these recent issues – whatever they may be.

“Curt’s biggest wrestling match is with himself,” Martin said. “When he makes a mistake, he can’t let go of that mistake, and then it affects his demeanor, his approach, everything for periods of time.”

“Then that’s when I engage with him. He can’t do that. He’s too good a player, number one, to our team, to be wrapped up over a mistake.”

“I tell him all the time, there’s people making a gazillion dollars a year make mistakes, but the reason they make a gazillion dollars a year? It’s because as soon as they make a mistake it’s over and they’re on to the next play. We need him to do that for our team.”

Pullen’s ‘Player of the Week’ recognition very much deserved

By Ashley Dunkak

For averaging nearly 20 points per game in this past week’s victories over Nebraska and Iowa State, K-State’s senior guard Jacob Pullen has been named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week.

Truly, whoever bestowed this recognition certainly knew what he was doing.

Of course, the play everyone remembers from the 86-85 win over the Cyclones is Pullen’s painful but effective (he actually lost the ball as he went to the hoop) drive to the basket for the game-winning layup, after which only 2.6 seconds remained on the clock.

What they should remember is the Pullen’s entire second half, relative to his entire first half. In the opening 20 minutes, he scored one basket and made a pair of free throws. Period. Granted, he only shot the ball four times, as he deferred to the hot hands of freshman Will Spradling and sophomores Martavious Irving and Nick Russell.

Still, this performance was very impressive to me. I’m not saying Pullen’s perfect, because no one is, but the duality he displayed in this game was amazing.

Being easily the most recognizable face on this team, he had the humility and patience to set up others (to the tune of a season high of 8 assists, mind you) and watch them get the razzle-dazzle plays and the high point totals for the first half.

Conversely, after only scoring one bucket in 20 minutes, he had the confidence to step up when needed to keep K-State neck and neck with its opponent and eventually overcome it. In those 20 minutes, he scored 17 points, including that memorable last one.

At the moment that layup went in, hope was restored for the Wildcats. But really, fans should have been excited long before that. Head coach Frank Martin has been calling for leadership all season long, and recently he said he is trying to help players learn how to lead. Based on the play of K-State on Saturday, his lessons have not fallen on deaf ears.