K-State Q&A: Jerome Tang, Coleman Hawkins and Big 12 football over/under win totals

Summer has arrived, which means fall is right around the corner and college football games will be here before you know it.

The first Kansas State game of the season is 75 days from Friday. Not that I’m counting or anything.

With the seasons changing, now feels like a good time to glance into the future and analyze the over/under win totals for every team in the new Big 12, with odds courtesy of ESPN Bet Kansas.

Here’s how I’m leaning:

Arizona: Over 7.5. You never know how things will go with a new coach, but there is a lot of returning talent on this roster. The Wildcats also don’t face a daunting schedule, outside of back-to-back road games against K-State and Utah.

Arizona State: Under 4.5. The easiest games on this schedule are Wyoming and at Texas State. I’m not sure the Sun Devils will win those.

BYU: Under 4.5. The schedule-makers didn’t do any favors for the Cougars.

Baylor: Over 4.5. The Bears will probably have to sweat this number all season, with the over/under coming down to a game at Houston in late November.

Cincinnati: Under 5.5. It wouldn’t take much for the Bearcats to win six games with this schedule, but I just don’t think they are very good.

Colorado: Under 5.5. This might be my favorite bet on the board. The Buffaloes are inherently overrated because of their coach, and their schedule is brutal. Opening up with North Dakota State, Nebraska and Colorado State won’t be easy. I could see Colorado winning just two or three games.

Houston: Over 3.5. Willie Fritz has been a head coach since 1997 and his teams have cleared this number all but one time.

Iowa State: Over 7.5. The Cyclones won seven games last season, and Matt Campbell is bringing back a ton of production. This is a team that could contend for a Big 12 championship.

Kansas: Over 8.5. If Jalon Daniels can get healthy and stay healthy the Jayhawks could have a dream season. But I’m not sure that will happen. I would advise waiting to see how preseason camp goes before locking in any bets with this team.

Kansas State: Over 9.5. There isn’t much value in this bet. It’s hard to win 10 games. Chris Klieman hasn’t done better than 9-3 since he arrived at K-State. Any number of things could happen to prevent the Wildcats from going over this number. Still, I see 10 wins when I look at the schedule.

Oklahoma State: Over 7.5. This is my favorite over bet of the preseason. I’m not sure why so many are sleeping on Mike Gundy, Ollie Gordon and the Cowboys.

TCU: Over 7.5. This feels like a good bounce-back opportunity for the Horned Frogs.

Texas Tech: Under 7.5. I learned my lesson last year when I naively picked the Red Raiders as my dark-horse team in the Big 12. They are destined for mediocrity until further notice.

UCF: Under 7.5. I am torn on the Knights. On one hand, Arkansas transfer KJ Jefferson seems like a perfect fit for that offense. Maybe UCF will be really good. On the other hand, this is a team that can’t stop the run and faces a tough schedule. I reluctantly choose to fade them.

Utah: Under 9.5. The Utes seem more than ready for the Big 12, but playing in a new conference is never easy. Here’s guessing Utah takes an upset loss (or two) along the way and fails to reach 10 wins.

West Virginia: Under 6.5. The Mountaineers didn’t beat a single team with a pulse last season and somehow lost to Houston. They were better than expected, sure, but let’s keep things in perspective. They will fall back to earth next season.

Hopefully I end up getting a few of these right. With that, let’s move on to your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

Now that the Cats have 13 members for men’s basketball, I’m thinking that Coach Tang’s biggest challenge will be to mold all these newcomers into a single, cohesive unit called a TEAM! Your thoughts? - William B. via e-mail.

Definitely!

On the surface, K-State looks like a much improved team compared to a year ago. College basketball statistician Bart Torvik has the Wildcats at No. 36 nationally and No. 8 in the Big 12 in his early 2024-25 projections. Those numbers are up considerably from last season when K-State finished at No. 69 nationally and No. 12 in the Big 12.

Thanks to a complete roster overhaul, the Wildcats are now looking like a NCAA Tournament team instead of a NIT squad.

The Wildcats should be better when it comes to shooting and running the floor. They will also have lots of rim protectors on defense. But (and you knew that word was coming) living up to those expectations, and possibly exceeding them, won’t be easy. This team will look quite a bit different than it has in the past, and Jerome Tang will have very little returning experience.

K-State will be much bigger than it has been since I started covering the team.

Coleman Hawkins, David N’Guessan, Ugonna Onyenso, Achor Achor and Baye Fall all stand 6-foot-9 or taller. And they should all be some of the best players on the team. In general, college basketball is getting smaller. Can K-State thrive with a tall rotation?

I can envision a scenario in which the Wildcats use three bigs at the same time and that lineup works just as well as Markquis Nowell, Keyontae Johnson and Nae’Qwan Tomlin did two years ago. I can also see all that size working against them.

Incoming transfers like Max Jones, Brendan Hausen and CJ Jones will need to make shots for this team to truly click.

The Wildcats will also be relying on Dug McDaniel at point guard a year after he only won eight games at Michigan.

Like it or not, that’s a red flag at the moment. He has more than enough talent to be an excellent player for the Wildcats but he may need to prove himself before we start writing in K-State as a Big 12 championship contender.

Can Tang find a quality rotation and help this team jell in one short season? I’m not sure. But that’s why they are paying him the big bucks.

I find it very hard to believe that Kansas State is really paying Coleman Hawkins the $2 million that has been reported. From what you know, is that number true or exaggerated? - Andrew B. via e-mail.

My sources have confirmed that Illinois transfer Coleman Hawkins will indeed earn around $2 million during his lone season at K-State.

It’s a huge number, no doubt. Only one other known NIL deal has matched it in college basketball.

When you consider that Nijel Pack left K-State for Miami two years ago for $800,000 and a car it really is wild to think about K-State now bringing in a transfer for $2 million. But that’s simply the way college basketball is going. Top flight transfers want big paydays, and they are starting to get them.

From what I’ve been told, K-State donors stepped up to the plate when it looked like Hawkins might take a recruiting visit to LSU rather than commit to the Wildcats earlier this month. His rumored asking price was $2 million. K-State found a way to give him exactly what he wanted.

Kudos to them and Hawkins.

This type of thing is starting to happen more and more. Might as well get used to it.

What do you think would cause the biggest commotion among K-State fans? Exit/re-entry going away, or a full season worth of alternate uniforms? -@scottwildcat via X.

Well, they would both cause a monstrous commotion.

Exit and re-entry has just about always been a thing at K-State football games. And the silver-and-purple uniforms that Bill Snyder popularized during his time as coach have been a game-day staple since 1989.

But you asked me to pick between the two, so here goes.

I think wearing alternate uniforms for 12 (or more) consecutive games would cause a bigger stir among K-State fans. Why? Because they would have to get used to new uniforms for an entire season. Every week would be a new adventure. And the Wildcats had better go undefeated in their new threads. You know the uniforms will be blamed for any loss.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think K-State fans would get over the loss of exit/re-entry pretty fast. Keeping fans inside the football stadium for a full four quarters would mean that beer sales are allowed throughout the entire venue. That is more than worth the trade off, in my opinion.

Most Big 12 teams sell beer and alcohol throughout their stadiums. Fans like it and the schools make extra money. It’s long overdue K-State join the club.

What is your favorite Will Ferrell movie? The people need to know! -@garrettb89 via X.

Kicking & Screaming.

I can’t imagine many of my readers will agree with my pick, but I’m standing by it. You can’t find a better comedy about a middle-aged man coaching his son’s youth soccer team.

Step Brothers would be my second choice, followed by Anchorman and Semi-Pro.

Will any Cats be in this year’s summer Olympics? -@RobHud3 via X.

Former Kansas State high jumper Erik Kynard will be in Paris to receive the Gold medal he should have won at the 2012 Summer Games in London.

That will be a cool honor for him, I’m sure.

For those who don’t remember, Kynard took Silver at the Olympics more than a decade ago. But the man who won Gold at the time was later caught in a doping scandal. So Kynard was named the rightful winner and he will finally receive his Gold medal this summer.