Jug Of News (05.18.12)

Welcome to our humble abode. Pull up a seat and grab a glass for a sip from todays Jug of News. Hit the jump for Curtis Kelly leading his team to a championship in professional basketball, the K-State football team being mentioned as a national championship contender and having two preseason All-Americans, Phil Steele’s preview of the 2012 Wildcat football team is online, our academics kicking serious butt, and the baseball team facing a must-win series at TTU.

Curtis Kelly is at-last beginning to shed his maddening inconsistency. In his rookie season, he was a catalyst in leading his team to a championship, leading the team in rebounds, and the entire league in blocked shots. I delved deeper into the story yesterday.

A lot of news broke yesterday on the 2012 football team. David Ubben discusses how KSU is being considered by some as a potential BCS national championship contender. Additionally, Phil Steele released his preview for K-State’s 2012 football season, and named Arthur Brown and Tyler Lockett as preseason All-Americans. Thirteen other Wildcats were honored by Steele as well.

The athletic department is rolling along, and I delved deeper into John Currie’s role in that renaissance.

Kansas State academics are every bit as outstanding as our athletics. Further evidence of this comes with the revelation KSU has stolen one of North Carolina State’s top professors. World-renowned pharmacology expert Jim Riviere will be coming to KSU over the summer, as will his wife, Nancy Monteiro-Riviere, a leading nanotoxicologist.

Finally, the Bat Cats are facing a must-win series this weekend at Texas Tech. They took a major step in that direction with their 7-5 win over the Red Raiders yesterday evening. With one more win, the Cats will wrap up a spot in the conference tournament next weekend, no matter what happens between Missouri and Kansas the next two days. You can find the current Big 12 standings here.