Oklahoma City — For reasons only computer geeks understand, Kansas State coach Bob Huggins and his players who have grown up so much in their first year playing for him must sweat out the Selection Sunday television show.

Bracketologists are split on the tournament-worthiness of the Wildcats.

"You know and I know that the people they're relying on do nothing but crunch numbers," Huggins said after K-State lost to Kansas University, 67-61, Saturday in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament. "You know, they're sports accountants is what they are."

Huggins is hopeful the selection committee puts more weight on the team Kansas State has become than on the one that was in the throes of culture shock in the early weeks of playing for the orally aggressive coach whose Cincinnati teams were tournament regulars.

"Anybody who follows us knows we took guys and tried to really change a culture and change the way they played," Huggins said. "And to their credit, they readily accepted it, and they tried. You guys saw us early. We weren't very good because they were thinking so much. They weren't reacting. They were thinking."

The team then underwent another transition period, Huggins pointed out. Bill Walker became eligible, quickly developing into the team's best player. Then he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Kansas State lost its first two games of the Big 12 season (Walker was injured early in the first, against Texas A&M), including in Manhattan against Texas Tech. K-State defeated Texas Tech by 21 points in Friday's conference tournament quarterfinal.

"We started out 0-2," Huggins said. "Since then, counting today, we are 11-5."

And, Huggins pointed out, three of those losses were to a likely No. 1 seed, Kansas.

Huggins pointed to more evidence of the Wildcats' improvement. On Nov. 21, K-State lost to New Mexico by 24 points. On Dec. 23, the Wildcats defeated the same team by 16 points on a neutral court.

"They're saying we lost to New Mexico, and we lost to Colorado State," Huggins said. "There isn't anybody in their right mind that thinks we would lose to those people now. We have gotten so much better."

K-State defeated Texas in Austin and Southern Cal in Las Vegas and compiled a 9-9 record in games that were played either on the road or at neutral sites.

"I have been told that these people watch a lot of games, and they tape games and they look at games, and I would think they probably would have seen our Texas game," Huggins said. "It was a great game. : You can't watch us play and think that we're not pretty good. We guard pretty good now. Cartier (Martin) has come so far. I think he struggled early because he was thinking too much. He's more comfortable now. He can play. And I think all of the guys are that way now."

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Big 12 Tourney: KU vs K-State

They just aren't playing well enough to defeat Kansas.

"I think it is their talent," Wildcats senior Lance Harris said of what makes Kansas so tough. "They've got a lot of talent. They can make errors and still make up for it with their talent."