Before mingling with Kansas State fans and accepting awards at the basketball team’s annual banquet earlier this week, departing seniors Jacob Pullen and Curtis Kelly spoke with the media about all sorts of different topics.
Both are pursuing professional hoops careers and both have signed with agents. Both are looking forward to moving on to the next level, but said they will also miss college life.
They reminisced on their careers with the Wildcats, and the season that was. They seemed to talk the longest about that lost topic.
Here is what they had to say:
“It was a great run,” Pullen said. “It was a difficult year, but at the same time it was a memorable year. We went though a lot together and we lost some players.
“We really had to find our identity. My other three years being here we found our identity a lot earlier than this year’s team did, but at the same time when we found it I felt like we were one of the best teams in the country.
“When we got hot, we were hard to beat. At the same time, some things happened, we didn’t make plays and it ended very fast and abruptly. So it was a great run. My teammates are great. They call me old now because I’m leaving.”
Kelly remembers all the ups and downs as much as the ending.
“We pushed through,” Kelly said. “We did things that people didn’t think we were going to do, especially since people thought we were going to do things that we didn’t do. It is what it is, but the main thing I’m proud of is that we kept it together and pushed through.
“Through all the trials and tribulations, we still rose to the occasion when it was time to. We had some great wins this year. There are a lot of things I regret, and a lot of things I stay up late at night thinking about. But I can’t take them back now. I’m happy for my team and I’m happy I got to play here. I’m going to miss it a lot.”
Kelly went on to say he thinks K-State is capable of being a top 25 team next year, as long as it learns from the mistakes it made last season.
“As long as they have leadership from the jump next year they’ll be fine,” Kelly said. “I don’t think we had that this year. It took a little time.”