Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports

6’1″, 180 lbs point guard Nigel Johnson from Riverdale Baptist School in Upper Marlboro, MD is officially a Wildcat. The second PG recruit in Bruce Weber’s inaugaral recruitment class originally committed to K-State on April 20 and has now signed with the team. He chose the Wildcats after narrowing his selection to K-State and Missouri.

Johnson had a journey in school selection before finally choosing to land in Manhattan. He was a verbal commit to George Washington in 2012 but a stellar senior season opened up additional doors for playing opportunities. The week before committing to K-State he took an official visit to Seton Hall and was offered a scholarship there. He also planned to visit both K-State and Missouri before making his decision.

Johnson’s pronouncement came earlier than expected, and was likely fueled by the announced that another highly touted PG – Shane Rector – had already decided on the Tigers. Johnson’s playing opportunities at K-State received another boost when Angel Rodriguez announced his intention to transfer to Miami after leading the Wildcats to a share of the regular season conference title. The two factors were likely the determinants in his decision to pick Kansas State.

Johnson joins Jevon Thomas as part of the two-headed point guard monster Bruce Weber will have battle for the starting role in the backcourt this year. And regardless of who prevails in that competition, both players should see time while attempting to fill the shoes left behind by Rodriguez. To read The Jug’s initial reaction to the announcement that Nigel made his verbal committment to K-State, click here.

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Following a month of speculation as to where he would land, Angel Rodriguez announced he would transfer to Miami on Thursday. The point guard took a tour of the campus Wednesday before announcing, although the Hurricanes were expected to be the frontrunners to land the star the day he announced his intentions to transfer from K-State.

Miami is coming off an unexpectedly strong season, and was the regular season champion of the ACC. However, pursuing Miami’s success is not the stated reason for his departure from Manhattan. Rodriguez attended high school in Miami and had a strong desire to transfer following a freshman year in which he was constantly hounded by the media for failing to make consistently good basketball decisions.

New head coach Bruce Weber was successful in convincing Rodriguez to return for his sophomore year, where he averaged 11.4 points and 5.2 assists while helping K-State to a share of the regular season conference championship and a fourth round seed only to experience an expected first round upset to La Salle. Yet Rodriguez maintained his desire to move closer to his family in Puerto Rico, making a university in southern Florida a natural fit (and truly, any university would gladly take a player looking to receive All-American honors as an upperclassman).

Rodriguez has applied for a hardship waiver from the NCAA according to the Miami Herald. If granted, he would be able to immediately join the team rather than sitting out a year. From the Jug’s standpoint, it’s difficult to see such an athlete leave the team, but we still wish him the best of luck wherever life takes him.

When Bruce Weber arrived on campus last spring, he immediately set about recruiting. Not in the sense of bringing new players to campus, but in convincing both returning players and incoming freshmen recruited by Frank Martin to buy into his system and stay at K-State. Jordan Henriquez obliged, Rodney McGruder said ok, and the rest of the roster followed suit. This year hasn’t been as fortunate, as Angel Rodriguez became the third player to announce his intentions to leave the program on Monday.

The earlier departures of Adrian Diaz and Michael Orris hurt, but their future contributions remained uncertain and neither seemed ready to take on the responsibility of anything more than a role player. Losing Rodriguez hurts. A lot. Arguably the best returning player on the squad, Rodriquez had the opportunity to be the best point guard in the Big 12 his junior year after being named second team All-Big 12 as a sophomore. Yet his stated desire to be closer to his family will likely take him south after he finishes this semester.

“After multiple conversations, Angel feels an obligation to be closer to his family,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber announced to the media. “His mother is raising his two younger brothers all by herself in San Juan and he just wants to be able to see them more often.” In leaving the Wildcats, the team loses 28 minutes and 11.4 points per game – both good for second on the team behind McGruder. He led the team in assists and steals and was also second in free throw percentage behind Will Spradling.

The departure creates some immediate questions for the Wildcats, who lose the conduit through which their offense flowed. Incoming freshman PG Nigel Johnson will likely see more playing time than expected, but his talents lie more in shooting than creating scoring opportunities for others. Combined with the departure of senior Martavious Irving, this position may be by committee during the first half of the season as Weber determines how he wants to approach Big 12 play. It also increases the odds of the team going bigger with a more traditional balance of two forwards and a center, making the departure of the 6’10″ Diaz even more painful. The opening means Weber will be scouring the JUCO ranks even harder for replacement players during this signing period.

The University of Miami has been widely speculated as Rodriguez’s landing spot. Weber also stated last year that he had to campaign hard to keep Rodriguez on campus, as he was unsure of staying following the departure of Martin for the University of South Carolina.

Feb 5, 2013; Lubbock, TX, USA; Kansas State Wildcats head coach Bruce Weber shouts instructions to guard Rodney McGruder (22) in the second half at the United Spirit Arena. Kansas State defeated Texas Tech 68-59. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Rodney McGruder was one of three Wildcats to be recognized by the league, while Bruce Weber was awarded Coach of the Year, during the Big 12′s annual regular season awards ceremony on Sunday. McGruder, who has found himself on several postseason watch lists, was expected to land on the Big 12′s First Team. The senior has led the team in both points (15.1) and minutes (32), and was also named a First Team All-Conference player by both ESPN and the Kansas City Star. His selection marks just the third Kansas State player to have received the recognition, joining Michael Beasley and Jacob Pullen.

In addition to McGruder’s accolades, Angel Rodriguez was awarded Second Team recognition on Sunday. The sophomore has brought consistency to play that showed flashes of brilliance last year, providing lockdown defense and constantly finding ways to create opportunities for teammates. Rodriguez is second on the team in points (11.5), and leads the team in assists (5.5) per game. His assist average is the second-highest in school history, trailing only Jim Roder’s 1983-84 record of 5.62. Additionally, Shane Southwell received All-Big 12 honorable mention. Southwell was expected to contribute more offensively this year, although his 8.3 points per game are accompanied by an amazing 45.5 shooting percentage from three. The tallest of the team’s four starting guards, Southwell has been largely asked to step up and guard bigger players this year while helping the Wildcats to the league’s best defense.

The least drama of the night was the selection of Bruce Weber as the league’s Coach of the Year. Kansas State was picked to finish 5th in the conference this year and came into the season unranked. The Wildcats were only 10-8 in 2011-12, watched head coach Frank Martin depart for South Carolina, and graduated two of the best players in recent memory in PG Jacob Pullen and F Curtis Kelly (Pullen is the only Wildcat to be named All-Big 12 First Team twice). In addition to losing its floor leader and best inside presence to graduation, three players transferred to other schools at the end of the year. In spite of all this, Weber managed to reach #8 in the country at one point in the season, finished #11, and won a share of the Big 12 regular season title along with KU. Despite the media’s low expectations, K-State finished 25-6 on the season with a 14-4 mark in conference play. Weber has had a healthy dose of talent to work with, but has also done a great job of squeezing every ounce of it out of his players. This team is marked by the same defensive tenacious that previous Wildcat teams trademarked, and there was little doubt of how deserving of the award he was.

The Wildcats are the number two seed in the Big 12 tournament, and will take on the winner of TCU/TX on Thursday.

Scott Sewell-USA TODAY Sports

Will Spradling is a beast in a boy’s body. A week after Grantland declared only one other player in the nation looks less like he “belongs on a basketball court” than Spradling, #55 showed more heart, guts, and straight up blood than any other player on K-State’s team this year. Spradling got nailed – absolutely nailed – in the nose with an elbow in the first half and immediately went down. Everyone at the bar simultaneously agreed that that’s a broken nose as blood began pooling on the floor. When a coach is holding a towel over your nose and the towel starts dripping blood because it’s so saturated, that’s not just a ding on the snout – that’s some misaligned cartilage. Gonna miss the game against Oklahoma, plastic mask for the rest of the year, sucks to be Will Spradling. So what’s the kid do? Comes back in the second half to get a rebound and knock down a trey before coming out with about ten minutes to go and the game firmly in K-State’s pocket; not wearing any facial protection. Gotta love a player like that.

Overall, the Wildcats were able to dominate this game from almost beginning to end and the outcome was never really in question after they jumped out to a 21-9 lead, with a 38-19 margin at halftime. Steals seemed to flow all night as Shane Southwell recorded three of K-State’s nine takeaways – most of which led to fast break opportunities and ended in layups or foul shots. The free throw shooting that has dogged the team all year finally became a strength as the team hit 17 of 21 attempts (81 percent), although they could have missed every attempt and still won the game by nine.

Rodney McGruder was not called on to win the game, and spent the majority of the match on the bench (only 15 minutes of playing time). He wasn’t terribly effective during the moments he was on the court, missing his two three point attempts and shooting 40 percent on the night with one rebound, one assist, no steals, and three fouls. It was his lowest output since December 15 against Gonzaga, when he was held to four points on one-of-nine shooting.

In McGruder’s absence, Angel Rodriguez has been excellent at picking up the slack by knocking down threes and slashing his 5’11″ frame to the basket. However, tonight’s spotlight shown on bench player Thomas Gipson. Although only averaging 6.8 points on 19 minutes per game, Gipson shot a highly efficient 70 percent from the field to go along with three-of-three free throw shooting to finish with 17 points and seven rebounds on the night. Rodriguez managed 11 points on only 3-12 shooting, including 1-5 from behind the arc. However, he did finish with eight assists on the night.

Overall, the Wildcats did not completely shut down the Longhorns offense, allowing 41.3 percent field goal shooting by Texas. However, the Longhorns only managed to hit two of their nine three point attempts and finished with eleven fewer rebounds (28) than their average (39) – an average that ranked 30th overall in the nation.

Bruce Weber was incensed during much of the first half by the quick whistles of tonight’s referees, which sent McGruder and Martavious Irving to the bench early on in the game. He demonstrated said frustration by yelling at the officials. A lot. Weber engaged in multiple shouting matches with the refs and seemingly followed them from baseline to baseline during one change of possession. However, he was much relieved by the end of the game as K-State (16-4, 5-2) remained tied for second place in the Big 12 with the blowout win. Despite playing a team missing McGruder, Irving, and Spradling for much of the game, Texas (9-11, 1-6) was sorely beaten and remains ninth in the conference with only one league victory.