Retire #30… Again.

When walking into any sports arena, one can usually expect to see something honoring the past greats of the home team.  Whether it’s a Hall of Fame, a Ring of Honor or banners of retired numbers, there’s few venues that don’t honor a team’s history.  At Bramlage Coliseum, it’s the retired numbers of former Wildcat greats that are the most prominent link to the team’s past.

Unfortunately, there’s one number missing from the Coliseum’s rafters.  The #30 worn by Michael Beasley during the 2007-08 season.  Beasley spent just one year in Manhattan, but did more in that one season for the program than most players could do in four.

There’s no doubt that Bob Boozer, Rolando Blackman and Mitch Richmond were great players for the Wildcats.  But it was Beasley who was the main catalyst behind the revival of the K-State men’s basketball program.  Not only were his stats amazing, but he gave K-State a superstar who drew the attention of fans and media outlets from around the country.

In the 20 years before Beasley first stepped foot in Manhattan, K-State had become largely irrelevant in the world of men’s college basketball.  Beasley took the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over 10 years while the team won a Tournament game for the first time in 20 years.  And you can’t forget the classic quote, that came (partially) true on January 30, 2008 when the Wildcats beat the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks, 84-75.  “We’re going to beat Kansas at home,” Beasley said.  “We’re going to beat them in their house.  We’re going to beat them in Africa.  Wherever we play, we’re going to beat them.”

According to a K-State press release, the criteria required to retire a jersey includes “statistical achievement, conference and national records, honors recieved, character and sportsmanship.”

Beasley finished third in the country in scoring, led the country in rebounds per game and his 28 double-doubles demolished the former freshman record.  Along with Boozer, Beasley is the second players in K-State history to earn first-team All-American honors.

There are those who argue that he did not stay long enough to deserve to have his jersey retired and others who claim that he did not care about K-State because he left after one year.  There was no reason for Beasley to stay in Manhattan, both in terms of basketball skills and in terms of money.  He wanted to support his family with the money from the NBA and had absolutely nothing to gain from another year at K-State.

To put the doubts to rest, Beasley said the following in his press conference where he announced his decision to go to the NBA:

“Kansas State will always be special for me… I definitely will come back and visit and support the school as much as I can… I thank everyone in the Kansas State community and I will certainly always be a Wildcat!”

Simply put, the man is arguably the best basketball player in the history of Kansas State.  And he definitely deserves to have his name and number raised in Bramlage alongside the past greats.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Blog It. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.