Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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Shattered Ho e Wildcats find disappointment down the stretch CLOSE GA NIES were a trademark for the Wildcats ' season — the proof was in the last three seconds of their final game. With 1.8 seconds on the clock, K-State had a two-point lead over Colorado in the first round of the Big 12 tournament, the ball was inbounded and CU ' s James White banked a three point shot to end the Wildcats ' season, 77-76. You can ' t really blame it on one thing that happened, senior forward Malt Sicbrandt said. A lot of freak things took place. We just didn ' t learn how to win a close one. It was our fault. It would get down to the final five minutes and we could never pull them out. But it did not always happen like that. TheCats started thei r season 11.5 , including a seven-game winning streak going into conference playagainst No. 23 Texas Tech. K-State beat the Red Raiders 68-44 in front of a sold out crowd at Bramlage Coliseum. 1 was thinking that ' OK, we are getting better, Coach Jim Wooldridge said. We had a lot of things that we were doing pretty well and I think we all felt like we were seeingan improved basketball team. We had some guys returning who had had productive years for us and we liked the new play- ers who were coming in. At times we were a good basketball team and then we hit a stalemate and couldn ' t score the ball as easily and we lost some close games. Following the defeat of the Red Raiders. K-State lost two games on the road against Colorado and Kansas. They returned home for a victory over Nebraska. When you get wins it ' s real important to have a certain confidence level, freshman forward Marques Hayden said. At the same time in the back of our minds we knew that we had a lot more to come. The Big 12 is the toughest conference in the country. We were happy for that day that we won, but the next day we knew thai we were going to play against a bigger and tougher opponent. continued on page 276 DIVING FOR A LOOSE BALL, senior forward Matt Siebrandt reaches past Athletes First ' s Tony Heard during the first half of K-State ' s exhibition game Nov. 13.— Photo by Kelly Glasscock GRABBING A REBOUND, Hayden fights for the ball over Iowa State ' s Laren Homan during the first half of the game March 8. —Photo by Kelly Glasscock 274 I Sports KANSAS STATE ' S FRANK RICHARDS is fouled while shooting as Missouri ' s Travon Bryant and Jimmy McKinney defend during the second bailor the Wildcats ' 77-70 loss to the Tigers, March 1 in BramlageColiseum. I think overall the effort was there? freshman Toward Marques Hayden said. its Just the mistakes and the turnovers, that ' s the things that kill any team, and it killed us? —Photo by Kelly Glasscock

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K-STATE ' S SENIOR FORWARD KIWIS PASCO completes a dunk on an ally-oop from Janet Hart during the Wildcat ' s 74.63 victory over Iowa State Saturday. March 8. ' They were not successful down the stretch of the season, ' Coach Jim Wooldridge said, ' but they continued to work at it and had a belief system and that ' s credit to them! —Photo by Kelly Glasscock Shattered Hope continued from page 274 Following the win over Nebraska, the Cats did not pull it together, adding only two more wins to their record out of 12 games. Oursthedukduringthatsegment became verydifficult, Wooldridge said. After the Colorado game we won here and after we went to Missouri and played well, I thought we had an opportunity there, I thought our season was on the brink of being good or coming up short. The turning point for us was the Baylor game at home that we dropped. We might have lost some confidence and we had some guys struggling to score the ball and we played hard and the guys gave a great effort, but we were just having a hard time scoring. That was the pivotal game of the season for us. Nine of the Wildcat? last l l losses were by nine points or less, including a two-point loss to No. 2 Oklahoma in overtime and an eight-point shortfall to No. 11 Oklahoma State. It ' s tough to lose games like that, but it ' s all about sticking together and staying strong, Hayden said. If you look at the games we lost, we weren ' t blown out by a large margin —I just think it ' s one of those things that we should have won, but we didn ' t get it done. It doesn ' t really show up on our record, but I think we know in our hearts and our minds that we played our butts off. The team finished the season 14-IS overall, 4-13 in conference play. They made some strides, Wooldridge said We are all disappointed that we didn ' t do better in Big 12 play but I do think that this team continued to be competitive, and 1 think that ' s what we had to recognize. I know we all want more but they gave an effort and they gave us something. .4w 0 SI II Ira ir- ' ` Wiiti wevft lid • a •4 N - if ( .. • ' ‘ if Nk, Front Row: Matt Siebrandt, Josh Het Schyler Thomas, Jarrett Hart, Frank Richards, Janerlo Spurtock, Gilson Deimos, Tim Ellis, Marques Hayden. Back Row: Robbie Laing. Jim Wooldridge, Mike Miller, Quentin Buchanan, Travis Canby. Pervis Pasco, Maltel0 Da Burrosa, Charles Baker, Jimmy Elgas, Chris Salinas. 276 Sports