Holiday Wish List For The Kansas City Area Sports Teams

Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

KANSAS STATE WILDCATS

The Wildcats won the the Big 12 Championship in football, basketball, and baseball last year. That is an incredible achievement but nearly impossible to duplicate, as Kansas State has already discovered.

They do however, get to play in the best named bowl game, the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl (Mmm, wings!), against the Michigan Wolverines this Friday. I always want a local team to clash with, and beat, a national titan from the east. It would be great to see the Wildcats send the Wolverines whimpering back to Michigan. This is a winnable game for Kansas State as long as they get the ball into the hands of their play makers.

In basketball, the Wildcats lost a big chunk of their production due to graduation and transfers. They have started off a bit slowly as they have found it very difficult to put the ball in the basket thus far. Yet, the Wildcats just beat a ranked team in Gonzaga, and appear to be heading into Big 12 play a much better team than which Bruce Weber started the season.

It will be tough sledding because the Big 12 looks to be better as a group than they have for several years. The conference has 4 teams ranked nationally in the top 16 in the AP poll, plus one other that received votes. It will be a very tough task to repeat as co-champions this season, but if the Wildcats can pull some upsets, and finish at .500 or better, they should make it to the NCAA Tournament.

My wishes for Kansas State is for them to thrash Michigan on Friday night, and for their basketball team to finish second in the Big 12 in basketball (Hey, my goodwill can only go so far!). On a more fantasical note, I hope, for a number of my friends’ sake, that Bill Snyder finds the illusive Fountain of Youth, and can remain the head football coach forever.