Winners and losers: Big week for Kansas State basketball

KSO covers the biggest winners and losers in the world of Kansas State and college athletics.

Winners

1.) Kansas State: It did not come as a surprise, but Kansas State is playing in the Pop-Tarts bowl vs NC State. The bowl game will be the first K-State matchup against the Wolf Pack and first ever bowl game in Florida. It is also one of the only non-New Year’s Six bowl games involving two ranked opponents.
2.) Volleycats: Aliyah Carter will be returning to the Kansas State volleyball team next season. That is huge news for Jason Mansfield going into his second season. Carter is a three time All-Big 12 first team member, including this season.
3.) Texas: As much as I hate to say it, Texas is one of the biggest winners. The Longhorns dominated Oklahoma State to win the Big 12 Championship and are in the College Football Playoff.
4.) Cougars: Who would have guessed the two teams at the top of the first NET basketball rankings would be Houston and BYU? The Big 12 continues to be a deep league in basketball. In the first rankings, next season the Big 12 would have four of the top six with the addition of Arizona along with Baylor being ranked No. 6. That doesn’t make the schedule any easier for K-State.
5.) Tang: Not only have the Wildcats won five straight, three of them in overtime, but it also includes back-to-back impressive wins over Villanova and LSU. Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang deserves credit for his incredible leadership in what has been a challenging couple weeks that were full of distractions.

Losers

1.) Linton: In regards to the K-State president, c’mon man.
2.) Florida State: It wasn’t good for Florida State, either. Getting left out of the College Football Playoff was probably the correct decision, but going 13-0 and not making it while in a Power Five league stings.
3.) Villanova: Villanova may be the strangest team in college basketball. The Big East Wildcats were 6-0 against teams not from Philadelphia this season before falling to Kansas State, but 0-3 versus Philadelphia teams Penn, Saint Joseph’s and Drexel.
4.) Cowboys: Not only was Oklahoma State smacked by Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game, the Cowboys are struggling in basketball as well. Oklahoma State is the second-lowest ranked Big 12 team in the first NET rankings this season. The Cowboys also have three losses to quad three and quad four teams.
5.) Non conference schedule: While at one point it looked like the K-State non-conference basketball schedule was going to be a rough one, it turns out that none of the games before Big 12 play currently qualify as a quad one contest. I bet that changes, though.