K-State out to make a statement, build resumé against No. 18 UNLV

By Ryan Greene

Friday, Dec. 11, 2009 | 2:29 a.m.

When you've been burned in March as much as Kansas State has the past three years, it's never too early to start thinking about your NCAA tournament resumé.

Obviously, a victory over No. 18 UNLV (7-0) could go a long way for Kansas State (8-1), as the two will do battle at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Orleans Arena.

In 2007, the Wildcats' lone season under Bob Huggins, they capped a 22-11 record with a victory over Texas Tech in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, which many thought punched the team's dance card for good. K-State, however, was snubbed in favor of, well, Texas Tech.

Last year, a lack of marquee nonconference wins dragged down a 21-11 mark, and the Wildcats again were NIT-bound .

The past week junior guard Jacob Pullen — the team's leading scorer at 18.2 points per game — helped lead K-State to solid, resumé-friendly victories over Washington State (86-69) and Xavier (71-56). While a loss to UNLV wouldn't kill his team's NCAA tournament hopes by any means, a win could do nothing but help.

"We look at it as one of those great opportunities to build a resumé for March," Pullen said. "That was part of the reason we didn't get in last year. You look back at some of the games we lost last year — to Oregon, to Kentucky and to Iowa — and if we win those games, we're in. It's one of those games you really need when it comes down to March, and, you know, if we lose this game, they're a good team, so it wouldn't hurt us. So it's a great opportunity for us and hopefully we can come out with a win."

The losses to Kentucky and Iowa actually came at the Orleans Arena, as the Wildcats took part in the Las Vegas Invitational over Thanksgiving weekend.

"I remember it was cold — It was real cold inside there," Pullen said of the Orleans, which has hockey ice underneath the hardwood. "I'll just probably start warming up a little earlier so we can get warm."

Despite handling their last two opponents with relative ease, Pullen knows that he and backcourt mate Denis Clemente — a Miami transfer who is second on the team with 14.0 ppg — are in for their toughest test to date.

They've watched tape the last two days and seen just how pesky UNLV's 11-man rotation, which includes seven guards, can be on the defensive end.

"They really attack the guards, really try to make you uncomfortable the whole game," he said. "We really haven't seen a team that tries to do that. We've probably got some teams in our conference that will try to do that, but this will probably be our first test against guards who will really try to take us out of the game. It should be a good test for us, and their guards are really the strength of their offense, too, so there are a lot of things we've got to worry about."

Pullen so far has taken a good amount of pleasure from the Wildcats' hot start to the 2009-10 season, as he's seen it as a return on the investment he and several others made on coach Frank Martin three years ago.

When Huggins departed for the job at his alma mater West Virginia, Kansas State was placed in the hands of Martin, who had served as a Huggins assistant. Many thought that Martin was given the job solely to keep K-State's stellar incoming recruiting class in place. That group was led by current Miami Heat forward Michael Beasley, who was one of the nation's top recruits. He was flanked by Pullen and 6-foot-6 swingman Dominique Sutton, who is averaging 6.7 points and 4.9 boards this season and doubles as the Wildcats' top defensive stopper.

The combination of those three and returning youngster Bill Walker — who currently suits up for the Boston Celtics and came to Manhattan, Kan., with Huggins — gave many K-State fans great hope, though some though the success of a second-round exit in the 2008 NCAA Tournament would be short-lived.

But Martin and his staff have used deep connections to bring talent in from Washington, D.C., and Florida. His players have bought into his hard-nosed, defensive-minded style.

No longer are the Wildcats looked at as simply a talent-rich flash in the pan.

"I'm proud," Pullen added. "Coming in, I really believed in Frank, and I think all of us who came wouldn't have if we thought that it was just gonna be a one-year Mike Beasley and Bill Walker flash, and we'd never be good again. I don't think any of us would have come here and we would have taken our other options. But we really believed in Frank and believed in the foundation he was laying and I think everybody that's on board right now bought in.

"This team can prove to be a really good team this year, and it would really help him out if we can go deep into the tournament and make more people want to come to Manhattan, Kansas."

One piece to the puzzle Martin was able to attract in the post-Beasley/Walker era, oddly enough, has a bit of a UNLV twist.

Junior forward Curtis Kelly, who checks in at 6-foot-8 and a hulking 250 pounds, joins the likes of 6-foot-7 Jamar Samuels and others in forming a lengthy, athletic front line for the Wildcats.

The UConn transfer's decision in terms of his new destination in the summer of 2008 came down to a choice between K-State and UNLV. The Rebels got in on Kelly via a connection through UNLV assistant coach Lew Hill.

"I remember that summer, they were recruiting me pretty hard," he said. "I had a pretty close relationship with one of the coaches, went out there for a visit with a couple of my family members and I liked it. I liked it a lot. I almost committed there but chose K-State."

Kelly said it came down to K-State telling him more of what he wanted to hear, including ways he'd end up being utilized. He also said he saw Martin as a father figure after he was provided with some "warm advice."

He sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules and is averaging 11.6 points to go with a team-high 7.2 rebounds per game.

He, too, knows that facing a guard-heavy UNLV lineup will present a new kind of challenge for not just the KSU guards, but for the big men, too.

"A lot of dribble-drive, a lot of spread offense," he said. "I'm expecting to be guarding a guard and I'm expecting to have mismatches in different areas of the game. They're really guard-oriented and they do a really good job on the ball. They get each other involved real well. We've just got to buckle down, play defense and keep them out of the lane."

Kelly added that going against UNLV adds no personal motivation to Saturday's game. Instead, he, like Pullen, knows that a chance to make a statement is at hand.

"We think about it, we talk about it, but as a team we try not to focus on that," he said. "We've just got to play. We play, do the things we've got to do and the outcome will tell it all."

Reserved seating tickets sold out for Saturday

UNLV officials announced on Thursday afternoon that all reserved seating for Saturday's game at the Orleans is sold out.

A limited number of space-available tickets are being made available online at OrleansArena.com or by calling (702) 284-7777.

Space-available tickets allow fans into the arena 10 minutes after tip-off, allowing 30 minutes to find an empty seat in the venue. Any empty seat claimed by someone with a space-available ticket can be taken by the reserved ticket holder if they eventually show up. If no seats are available, the tickets can be taken back to the Orleans Arena ticket office for a refund.

More national attention for Kruger's club

UNLV was featured in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, which hit newsstands on Thursday morning.

The one-page piece was featured in the Inside College Basketball section on page 40 of the magazine.

Also, Lon Kruger's team was ranked as the nation's No. 2 team of all programs not in college basketball's 'Big Six' conferences (the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, Pac-10 and Big East) by Yahoo! Sports national college basketball writer Jason King.