In absence of suspended starters Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly, who are serving suspensions for receiving improper benefits on clothing at a Manhattan department store, sophomore guard and the team’s 2nd leading scorer Rodney McGruder was expected to be one of the players expected to pick up the slack for coach Frank Martin’s Wildcats until his star players return to the line-up.
Although McGruder provided 11 points and 10 boards in a recent contest against UNLV, which included him losing a tooth on a hard, physical play, it wasn’t enough to prevent a 63-59 loss to the upstart Rebels last week. While the sophomore stand-out probably figured he would have to sacrifice some sweat and his body to overcome the loss of 2 starters he surely didn’t figure on making a trip to the dentist following the contest.
In Pullen and Kelly’s absence, McGruder, Jamar Samuels, and Wally Judge have helped pick up the slack offensively until the senior All American candidate Pullen, who is averaging 16.5 ppg and nearly 4 assists a game on the year, returns against Savannah State on January 3rd.
Kelly isn’t eligible to return until January 15th against Texas Tech after serving out a more severe 6 game suspension. The All Big 12 Pre-Season selection is Kansas State’s best front-court option but it isn’t even clear whether he will return to the starting line-up following his suspension since he was benched earlier in the season by coach Martin for “poor practice habits.” Surely it’s no fun being in Frank Martin’s doghouse.
Hopefully both players will be back at 100% soon as the Wildcats will surely need both of them to contend for a Big 12 Conference title against the likes of Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Baylor.
Check out Wally McGruder losing a tooth vs UNLV:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
