Rodney McGruder said it with such conviction, it is hard to disagree.
"By the end of the summer,"
McGruder said, "we're going to be the No. 1 recruiting class."
Maybe that assessment of Kansas State's 2009 recruiting class is premature. Maybe it isn't.
The few hundred fans who showed up Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum for the inaugural Manhattan Classic can judge for themselves. The tournament drew about 400 AAU players to Manhattan, three of whom look to figure prominently into K-State's future plans.
There is McGruder and Wally Judge, teammates with DC Assault. McGruder and Judge committed to K-State early, meaning the tournament offered a chance to play on their future homecourt.
"I love it here,"
McGruder said. "The fans came out here to watch me and Wally Judge play. It was nice."
Then there is Latavious Williams, a 6-foot-8 forward who suited up for the Brandon Bass Allstars.
Though Williams has yet to make a public commitment, the five-star forward said K-State remains at the top of his list.
"I'll probably come here,"
he said.
It certainly appears, then, that Saturday's action provided a glimpse into the future of K-State basketball.
If so, there should be reason for optimism. Williams showed why many believe he will be one-and-done in college, slamming lob passes at will and slashing to the basket on dribble drives.
"You won't find too many kids that athletic who are that tall,"
said Allstars coach Scooter Owens. "He's 6-8½ and extremely athletic."
McGruder displayed a consistent stroke from 3-point range, while Judge showed flashes of the athleticism that made him a top-50 player in the 2009 class.
And they did it under less than ideal circumstances, after travel woes delayed their arrival in Kansas City until early Saturday morning.
In fact, the three players bumped into each other in the airport terminal before boarding a van for Manhattan and catching a couple hours of sleep at K-State's Ford Hall.
The rough night of travel might help explain Saturday's results. Both the Allstars and the Assault went 1-2 and will face an uphill climb when bracket play starts this morning.
"We played back-to-back games, and our team didn't come out with any energy the last game,"
McGruder said after the Assault's 82-65 loss to Spiece Mo-Kan. "We came out sluggish."
Chances are, most Wildcat fans didn't care. Most showed up simply to catch a glimpse of the incoming recruits, just as they did when Michael Beasley's Notre Dame prep team played at Bramlage Coliseum last year.
Judge even donned a pair of purple Adidas shoes for Saturday's event, a look Beasley sported in his first Bramlage appearance.
"I had these shoes last tournament,"
Judge said. "I figured they'd be great to come out here and show some school spirit."
Clearly, Beasley played a part in assembling K-State's 2009 class. Ask Williams, Judge or McGruder what they like about K-State, and Beasley's name is quick to come up.
Beasley even made a special trip to Manhattan a few weeks ago to spend time with Williams during an unofficial campus visit.
"He and Beasley are big buds,"
said Owens, Williams' AAU coach. "Mike flew in just to hang out with him."
Beasley, a product of the Assault organization, was equally instrumental in landing commitments from Judge and McGruder.
"He's taken on a role model role,"
Judge said. "He's always trying to get me in the gym. He's making that jump to the pros, and he wants to do the same for me."
As the pieces of K-State's 2009 recruiting class fall into place, the comparisons to Beasley's 2007 class become all but inevitable.
The similarities aren't lost on Judge, who said K-State's 2009 class will look to pick up where Beasley left off.
"Mike came in, him and Bill Walker, and they took the freshmen and the core group of guys that was here, and they bonded,"
he said. "They did better than was expected. Hopefully when me and Rodney come in here, we can keep that trend going."
