Kansas State's lowly season is no longer just reserved for those in Manhattan, KS.
It's now being recognized on a national scale. CBS Sports analysts Jon Rothstein and Gary Parrish were the latest to scorch the Wildcats after an embarrassing home loss to Cincinnati.
"The Kansas State situation is now one of the biggest disappointments in power conference basketball," Rothstein said in the CBS postgame show. "There was a belief that when Kansas State added PJ Haggerty via the transfer portal, it would make a push to return to the NCAA Tournament. Early in the season, Kansas State's perimeter looked like it had the requisites to be part of a team that played in March Madness."
It was just a few points away from being the biggest loss in Jerome Tang's tenure at Kansas State...which happened just two games ago against Iowa State. And this was against Cincinnati, a mid-tier Big 12 team at best.
"It is one thing to lose games in the Big 12. It is another to show zero resistance, which is what the Wildcats did tonight on their home floor," Rothstein said. "And this has been a recurring pattern for Kansas State. It happened a couple of weeks ago against Iowa State in the Octagon of Doom. I know the Big 12 is the best conference in college basketball, but you had an opponent in Cincinnati that was extremely vulnerable a couple of weeks ago."
Cincinnati put on an absolute clinic, flexing in Bramlage Coliseum for 40 straight minutes with highlight dunks, star performances, and season-highs from 3-point range. The Bearcats shot 50 percent from the field and 57 percent from the arc, with Baba Miller and Jizzle James combining for 40 points on 80 percent shooting beyond the perimeter.
Worst of all, the Wildcats showed no effort or resistance. Now, a Tournament is beyond the program's vision, and the year continues to spiral into disaster.
"The story here is Kansas State; that was sad," Parrish said. "I’ve been to Bramlage Coliseum when it’s good. When it’s good, it’s great. You have students with paper bags over their heads. They've lost 10 of 11 and are on the way to missing the Tournament for the third straight year and finishing outside of the top five in the Big 12. This has gotten into a rough place, particularly when they've spent real money in the transfer portal. And next up? It's at Houston, so it's not gonna get better any time soon."
Now, Kansas State will face No. 3 Houston on Saturday afternoon. Yikes.