Friday, April 6, 2007

Mmmm... this has been an active 24 hours...

Hypothetical question: You're an up-and-coming coach, wanting to move to a bigger conference. Lo and behold... the Big 12 has not one, but two vacancies. You expect your cell phone to ring at any moment but, which area code to you answer? The "785" code - representing the turmoil that is Manhattan, Kansas and the K-State program or the "979" code - representing the potential of College Station, Texas and the Texas A&M program?

I could tell you my answer, but that's a bit biased since I pre-dispositioned to wanting nothing to do with KSU.

Seriously though, at what point did Weiser and Weflad decide that was the right tone to take into a press conference? No matter the words they used, everything about their body language (especially Weiser), expressions (ditto) and attitude conveyed a "Woe-is-us" mentality and gave the distinct impression they felt as though K-State basketball would be nothing without Huggins.

To be fair, I've not seen how Texas A&M is going to respond to Gillespie leaving, but I'm giving the school the benefit of the doubt right now. No doubt, they'll be a bit bitter, especially since a new contract had been to agreed to in principle, but them's the breaks.

Especially for K-State. Let's put the cards on the table. What happened in Manhattan was a clear case of an organization using a person, and that person using the organization at the same time. KSU wanted someone to return them to national prominence and Huggins wanted another major college coaching position, in the Big East or Big Ten. The reality is Huggins got what he wanted sooner than K-State did. But if you are the administration of K-State, you can't act as this set back is phasing you in the least. Wefald and Weiser, I think, soured not only possible coaching candidates, but could also affect recruiting if they try to hold the recruits to the LOIs even if a new coach is willing to release them.

So, what will happen in Manhattan? I bet they panic, much like Kevin Bacon. I would expect them to hire one of the two assistant coaches to keep the recruiting as much in-tact as possible. Which is fool's gold. You sacrifice the long term prospects for one year of Michael Beasley and crew. And then where do you go? Both these guys were hired because of their connections with the recruits, not because of their ability to recruit.

The phone's ringing... do you answer?