Kansas State Basketball: Expectations are high for Dean Wade
The hype is through the roof when it comes to Kansas State basketball this year and a big part of that is senior forward Dean Wade.
When looking back at the 2017-2018 season for Kansas State basketball, the Wildcats might have overachieved a bit. They made it to the Elite Eight and barely missed out on going to their fifth ever Final Four.
A large reason for why K-State was such an admirable program a season ago was because of senior forward Dean Wade. Wade averaged 16.2 points and 6.2 rebounds last season and was such an exciting player to watch in the Big 12 (and in collegiate hoops as a whole).
It’s definitely a fair argument that had Wade been healthy last season for the tournament, that Kansas State would have not only made it to the Final Four, but even the title game (though there’s little chance they’d have beaten Villanova). That’s got to be a tough pill to swallow for Kansas State fans, but Wade is returning for his senior season and that means there’s hope for this program to duplicate its success from a season ago.
Wade is healthy now and that brings a lot of excitement to the K-State hoops program for 2018-2019. The Wildcats are returning virtually all of their team from the 2017-2018 roster, which only adds to the list of reasons why the expectations are so high for Wade and the Cats.
Wade will be one of the more talked about players for KSU hoops this season and deservedly so. The hype is already there for the Saint John native, as he was named Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year this week, an honor that Kansas State hasn’t seen much in their hoops program.
https://twitter.com/KStateMBB/status/1052576317378564096
Wade, a native of Saint John, Kansas, was a star for the Wildcats from the beginning, averaging 9.9 points per game as a freshman in 2015-2016. He’s only blossomed from there and is now heading into a crucial season in Manhattan.
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Wade, along with fellow seniors Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes, and junior Xavier Sneed as well as redshirt sophomore Cartier Diarra and sophomore Mike McGuirl, will look to take Kansas State to their third straight NCAA Tournament. Obviously the hope is to be a high seed and make a run at the title game this year, something the Cats came up just short of a season ago (when Wade wasn’t healthy).
Dean Wade’s injury last year stunk, but in a way, it might have been the best thing for this program moving forward. When Wade missed time, it forced some of the younger guys to step in and get minutes on the court. That might have not been the best thing for that period of time, but now those players have valuable minutes played and that experience will go a long way in 2018-2019.
Those guys know what to expect in the biggest moments now and that should make regular season games pale in comparison. Hopefully those experiences from last season shine through this year.
It’s an exciting time to be a K-State basketball fan and there’s no reason not to have high hopes for this team this upcoming season. They have the ability to be a really fun and dangerous team down the stretch and a lot of that is in thanks to Dean Wade.
Big 12 basketball season gets underway with media day on October 24th at Sprint Center while K-State tips off their season on November 2nd against Pitt State in an exhibition game. This has the makings of a special season, so let’s hope Dean Wade and the Wildcats can deliver the hype!