The shiny black SUV with Johnson County plates backs into a non-descript stall on the edge of the road near the Jardine Apartments at 8:02 a.m. on Thursday, as Kansas State football staff pours Dunkin Donuts coffee under a purple tent on the lawn, and defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt and offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson and director of player personnel and high school relations Taylor Braet roll blue carts filled with linens and clothes and washing detergents and books down the maze of sidewalk leading to each four-bedroom apartment.
John Cooper is driving as he discusses his first month as an assistant coach on the Kansas State men's basketball team. The 57-year-old Cooper, a native of Kansas City, Kansas, who was recruited by Lon Kruger to K-State, and who eventually starred at Wichita State, and who was one of a few to play at both Ahearn Field House and Bramlage Coliseum, is grappling with a serious issue that he'll face when the Wildcats take the floor for the first time in about six months.
Casey Alexander, wearing a lavender quarter-zip and a smile, grabbed the microphone at the 2026 Scott City Catbacker Nut Fry, and had the crowd of several hundred Kansas State fans in stitches as Alexander opened his first taste of western Kansas with quick-wit one-liners, revealing a jovial yet laid-back personality sure to win over audiences throughout the Sunflower State.
He tried out for the Kansas State baseball team. Joel Applebee, who grew up in Russell, Kansas, with a football and basketball in his hands, and who starred in the American Legion baseball league, entertained scholarship offers from community colleges, but he yearned for Manhattan, the education, the people, and the possibilities that could come upon graduation.
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