From The Couch – Unique Motivation Methods For The Men’s Basketball Team And The Stanleys Are Going To The Super Bowl
It was an up and down week for K-State basketball and Bruce Weber is finding even more unique ways to try to motivate the team.
In other news, make sure to click on Mike Stanley’s Twitter feed at the end of this post to read his story about going to the Super Bowl tomorrow. It’s a great feel-good story…
“Obviously it doesn’t get easier with Baylor and they’re coming off a really tough loss today at Kansas and we’re gonna have to play at a high level and we’re gonna have to have the same production and hopefully a great crowd on Wednesday night.”…Bruce Weber, after a 75-63 victory against TCU last Saturday, February 5th, 2022
JM: The “Big Three” (Nijel Pack, Mark Smith, and Markquis Nowell) had solid games against TCU. Pack had 20 points, Smith had 16, and Nowell added 14 points. Bruce Weber was hoping for a great crowd Wednesday against Baylor. He didn’t get it. The announced attendance was 7,581. The capacity of Bramlage is 12,528. It appeared that the students showed up, but apathy towards this program from alumni and other supporters has set in and looks unlikely to change.
“They’re just smart. They know each other, they push it when they can. We had to be a little smarter, a little more disciplined, stay out of foul trouble, and then hope somebody else stepped up…”…Bruce Weber, after a 75-60 loss to Baylor on Wednesday night, February 9, 2022.
JM: “They’re just smart?” That statement jumped off the page at me. It’s not only giving Baylor credit but insinuating that your team is NOT smart. Quite the indictment.
JM: An interesting thing I have noticed throughout this season is that the official media releases, both in print and video, of Bruce Weber’s press conferences have been edited for content. Kellis Robinett mentioned the “Chinese Bamboo Tree” story on Twitter, but there is no mention of it on K-State’s website and there is no video of it that I can find anywhere. Stuff like this has happened a lot this season. Weber says some strange things in his press conferences. Sometimes it’s charming, sometimes it’s funny, and sometimes it’s infuriating. Someone is editing or censoring the content before it is posted to the masses on the K-State Sports website. This hasn’t happened in the past. I wonder why it’s happening now? It makes me think of these guys from the movie “Good Morning, Vietnam.”
JM: Some people like this kind of stuff and some people find it really odd. My take? Bruce Weber is unable to motivate his team by using traditional coaching methods and he is resorting to strange methods like this to motivate his players.
JM: You get paid millions of dollars to prevent things like this from happening. It’s a small thing, but this team has little margin for error.
“I mean it just feels good getting the hard work to pay off, but the thing that really matters most to me is getting the win, and everytime this has happened we took a loss, and that really hurts on the inside. Just being a player and wanting to be a winner so bad that you are willing to do anything to make sure we win, so that’s something I need to focus on and make sure we get it done next time.”…Nijel Pack, 2/9/22
JM: Nijel Pack had another great game Wednesday night, scoring 31 points. Earlier this week, I wrote about Pack’s place on some of the all-time records lists of K-State basketball. He has been a bright spot in another dim season for K-State basketball.
JM: Want to read a pick-me-up story this Saturday? Read this thread by Mike Stanley. I’ve never met Mike personally, but I hope to in the future. We’ve gotten to know each other a little bit virtually by following each other on Twitter. He’s a big K-State fan and an even bigger Cincinnati Bengals fan. Mike and his wife Marcella have been through quite the ordeal with their young son Brody. They were surprised with free Super Bowl tickets for the game tomorrow. Read the thread that Mike posted. If you didn’t know who to root for tomorrow, now you do!
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