Jerome Tang, Coleman Hawkins and Big 12 football over/under win total

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

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

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

Here’s how I lean:

Arizona: More than 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 don’t have a tough schedule either, aside from back-to-back games against K-State and Utah.

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

BYU: Under 4.5. The schedule makers did the Cougars no favors.

Baylor: More than 4.5. The Bears will likely have to toil with this number all season, with the over/under coming down to a game in Houston in late November.

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

Colorado: Below 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. It won’t be easy to open up to the states of North Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado. I could only see Colorado winning two or three games.

Houston: More than 3.5. Willie Fritz has been head coach since 1997 and all but one of his teams have reached this number.

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

Kansas: More than 8.5. If Jalon Daniels can get and stay healthy, the Jayhawks could have a dream season. But I’m not sure that will happen. I would recommend waiting to see how preseason camp goes before placing a bet on this team.

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

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

TCU: More than 7.5. This feels like a good chance at recovery for the Horned Frogs.

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

UCF: Below 7.5. I’m torn about the Knights. On the one hand, Arkansas transfer KJ Jefferson seems like a perfect fit for that offense. Maybe UCF is really good. On the other hand, this is a team that can’t stop the run and has a tough schedule. Reluctantly, I choose to let them fade away.

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

West Virginia: Under 6.5. The Mountaineers didn’t beat any team by a pulse last season and somehow lost to Houston. They were certainly better than expected, but let’s keep things in perspective. Next season they will fall back to Earth.

Hopefully I can get some of them right. With that, let’s move on to your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing it.

Now that the Cats have thirteen members for men’s basketball, I think Coach Tang’s biggest challenge will be to form all these newcomers into one cohesive unit called a TEAM! Your thoughts? – William B. via email.

Certainly!

On the surface, K-State appears to be 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 2024-2025 projections. Those numbers are significantly higher than last season, when K-State finished No. 69 nationally and No. 12 in the Big 12.

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

The Wildcats should be better when it comes to shooting and running the floor. They will also have a lot of rim protectors on defense. But (and you knew that word was coming) meeting those expectations, and possibly even exceeding them, won’t be easy. This team will look very different than 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 are all 6 feet or taller. And they should all be among the best players on the team. Overall, college basketball is getting smaller. Can K-State thrive with a high rotation?

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

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

The Wildcats will also rely on Dug McDaniel at point guard, a year after winning just eight games at Michigan.

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

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

I find it very hard to believe that Kansas State actually pays Coleman Hawkins the reported $2 million. As far as you know, is that number true or exaggerated? – Andrew B. via email.

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

It is undoubtedly a huge number. Only one other known NIL deal has matched this one in college basketball.

Considering that Nijel Pack left K-State for Miami two years ago for $800,000 and a car, it’s really wild to think that K-State is now landing a transfer for $2 million. But that’s just the way college basketball goes. Top flight transfers want big paydays, and they’re starting to get them.

From what I’m told, K-State donors rallied when it looked like Hawkins would take a recruiting visit to LSU earlier this month instead of committing to the Wildcats. 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 kind of thing is starting to happen more and more. Might as well get used to it.

What do you think would cause the biggest stir among K-State fans? Exit/re-entry disappears, or a whole season of alternative uniforms? -@scottwildcat via X.

Well, they would both cause a monstrous commotion.

Exit and re-entry have almost 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 staple of the game since 1989.

But you asked me to choose between these two, so here goes.

I think wearing alternate uniforms for twelve (or more) consecutive games would cause more of a stir among K-State fans. Why? Because they had to get used to new uniforms for a whole season. Every week would be a new adventure. And the Wildcats better stay undefeated in their new threads. You know the uniforms get blamed for every loss.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think K-State fans would get over the exit/re-entry loss pretty quickly. If fans were to remain inside the football stadium for four quarters, this would mean beer sales would be allowed throughout the venue. In my opinion, that is more than worth the trade-off.

Most Big 12 teams sell beer and alcohol in their stadiums. Fans like it and the schools make extra money. It’s been a long time since K-State joined the club.

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

Kicking and screaming.

I can’t imagine many of my readers will agree with my choice, but I stand by it. There’s no better comedy about a middle-aged man coaching his son’s youth football team.

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

Will there be cats at 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 great honor for him, I’m sure.

For those who don’t remember: Kynard took silver at the Olympic Games more than ten years ago. But the man who won gold at the time was later embroiled in a doping scandal. Kynard was therefore declared the rightful winner and this summer he will finally receive his gold medal.