MANHATTAN, Kan. _ The Kansas State men's basketball team opens practice this week with something it has never previously experienced under coach Bruce Weber _ legitimately high expectations.
Weber has coached some good teams since arriving in the Little Apple six years ago. He has led K-State to the NCAA Tournament four times and shared the Big 12 regular-season championship in 2013. But things feel different, and bigger, this preseason. The hype is real.
For good reason. The Wildcats, who return their entire starting five and several key reserves from a team that won 25 games and reached the Elite Eight last March, are universally viewed as a top 25 team. Some media outlets have them in the top 15. A few even placed them in the top 10.
Every team handles outside expectations differently. Some ignore them. Others soak them up.
For now, Weber is embracing them. If anything, he thinks they are too low.
"It still baffles me a little bit," Weber said Wednesday at a K-State basketball media event, "that we have everyone back, we were in the Elite Eight without our best player, with some of the best stats in ... probably the best conference in the history of a 10-team league, and we are not rated as high. Sometimes they just don't pay attention, I guess."
Weber is taking this approach because he believes in this group. He thinks this roster has the rare combination of talent and experience that often leads to big things in March. Senior forward Dean Wade, now healthy, is one of the best players in the Big 12. Senior guard Barry Brown isn't far behind. Junior wing Xavier Sneed could be a rising star. Kamau Stokes, Cartier Diarra and Makol Mawien all have starting experience.
He's also high on Mike McGuirl, Levi Stockard, as well as newcomers Austin Trice and Shaun Neal-Williams.
When asked to compare this group to his famous 2005 Illinois team, which won 37 games and reached the national championship game, Weber didn't back down. He even lumped in some references to his best teams at Purdue (as an assistant) and at Southern Illinois.
"We have more depth than that team," Weber said. "We went seven or eight guys there. Right now, if everybody stays healthy, we probably have more depth than that. All of those teams had special seasons and left legacies. Hopefully this group will do the same thing."
That's some high praise from a coach who has been in the business for several decades.
Still, as much as he is willing to talk about where the finish line might be, Weber wants his players focused on the here and now. They don't seem distracted.
"The ceiling is really high, but we can't let that get to our heads," Stokes said. "We talk about that every day. We have still got to play with a chip on our shoulder out there on the court. Nothing is promised in this game. If you don't work towards it you are going to fail."
"Our only goal is to get better every day," added Wade. "If we do one little thing every day, we will be a lot better by the end."
The Wildcats will start the improvement process later this week with their first official practice Friday. Then they will host Madness in Manhattan, a season kickoff event, Oct. 12 at Bramlage Coliseum. They will also play a closed scrimmage against Oregon and an exhibition game against Pittsburg State before the season begins against Kennesaw State on Nov. 9.
All offseason, Weber has texted the same words to his players: team ... improvement ... better.
He's not going to stop now. He wants this team to leave behind a memorable legacy.
Much like his coach, pumping up preseason expectations, some players are already picturing what that might be.
"I envision greater than Elite Eight," Diarra said. "I envision a (Big 12) tournament championship. I envision going undefeated. Those are things that are remembered forever. Knocking Kansas off as Big 12 champs, things like that are how you become legends."
