Kansas State Basketball: 2018-2019 season a success even with early exit

By Leigh Oleszczak | Mar 24, 2019

SAN JOSE, CA - MARCH 22: The Kansas State Wildcats bench watches the final seconds of the game as they take on the UC Irvine Anteaters in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament held at SAP Center on March 22, 2019 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Justin Tafoya/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) /

Kansas State basketball might not have made it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament this year, but it’s hard not to look at the 2018-2019 season as a big time success.

Kansas State basketball fans might still be upset about their team’s first round loss on Friday, but when we look back on this past season in a few years, we’ll remember it fondly.

Yes, the Wildcats, who were a four-seed in the tournament, ended up losing by six points to the 12th seeded UC Irvine Anteaters. Let’s just say it: UC Irvine was poised for an upset and they took advantage of K-State, whose best player (Barry Brown) was having an off day.

Brown was limited to just five points in the loss and Dean Wade didn’t play due to injury. When one of the team’s best players isn’t suiting up and the other isn’t having his typical type of game, it’s not surprising that the other team is going to win.

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Anyway, let’s reflect back on the 2018-2019 season.

For starters, Kansas State won the Big 12 conference title for the first time since 2013. They ended up sharing the title with Texas Tech, but most fans would agree that the biggest win here (next to winning the darn title of course) is that the Kansas Jayhawks’ consecutive streak of 14 titles ended at the hands of the Wildcats.

Speaking of the Jayhawks, K-State blew them out when the two met in Manhattan in February. It’s been a lopsided rivalry in hoops over the years, but Kansas State made it one of their goals to knock off their in-state rival at least once this season and they did just that.

Fans expected a lot this season after making it to the Elite Eight last year, but it’s hard not to look at this team and consider it as one of the best all-around squads. Brown and Wade will go down as two of the greatest ever for the Wildcats while other guys like Xavier Sneed and Mike McGuirl made their presence known this year and will hopefully continue to heavily contribute.

The seeding for the tournament didn’t seem promising from the start and not having Dean Wade out there seemed like a nail in the coffin. It wasn’t K-State’s year, but that doesn’t mean this season was a failure by any means.

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While Brown and Wade are set to graduate and hopefully go on to the NBA and have nice careers in the pros, Kansas State will hope to continue its run of being a top program in the Big 12. This season will be one that fans should remember dearly, even if it didn’t end the way we hoped it would.

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