Kansas State hasn’t surrendered

By Associated Press     Nov 10, 2007

? When Kansas State coach Ron Prince was in San Antonio in July for the Big 12 media days, he made sure to take three of his players to the Alamo Dome, site of the Big 12 Championship game.

He told his players he wanted come back to that building in December – as Big 12 North champions.

It was a vision Prince shared with all of his players, but now that dream has faded quickly. The Wildcats lost at Big 12 cellar-dweller Iowa State last week, giving the Cyclones their first conference victory.

Kansas State (5-4, 3-3) now trails Big 12 North-leader and fifth-ranked Kansas by 21â2 games.

The loss to Iowa State hurt, Prince said, but it doesn’t mean his team is ready to give in.

“When you have a game like this, you have no choice but to learn from it and not let it beat you a second time,” said Prince, whose team heads to Nebraska today. “Whether it’s the mistakes of that game or feeling sorry for yourself or down about it, there’s no room for that because the opponent doesn’t care, and frankly neither do I.”

At this point, the Wildcats have not shot at being Big 12 North champions. Even in the most extreme hypothetical situations, Kansas State would lose in a tiebreaker.

So now the goal has changed. Prince’s focus is on bouncing back and winning against the struggling Cornhuskers, who have lost five straight.

But Nebraska’s problems, including the Huskers’ inability to stop anyone on defense, hasn’t led Prince to overlook them.

“If we need any validation, all we need is to look at our own game tape,” he said. “We shouldn’t really think that way about anything or anybody if we just look at our own game tape. Our issues are many.”

So far this season, Kansas State has come back to win at least one game after each of its losses, winning by an average margin of 28.3 points. To avoid a late-season collapse, senior guard Logan Robinson said the team will have to display that ability again today.

“As long as there’s a game coming up, there’s some things that can be done,” Robinson said. “So we’re definitely being positive about the rest of the season. We can’t say this loss is going to ruin the season for us or anything like that.”

The game will be a unique one for quarterback Josh Freeman. While he was still in high school in Kansas City, Mo., Freeman originally committed to Nebraska. But after Prince was hired at Kansas State in December 2005, Freeman backed out of his commitment to the Huskers, opting instead to play for Prince.

This will be the sophomore’s first trip to Lincoln, and he said he doesn’t care what kind of reception he gets.

“We just have to win,” Freeman said. “I don’t care where we’re playing. I don’t think anybody does. We just have to go out and win. That’s the bottom line.”

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