Before Bruce Weber coached his first basketball game at Kansas State, he shared some telling words on what he expected from his upcoming time with the Wildcats.
“I don’t think anyone builds dynasties in college basketball anymore,” Weber told The Wichita Eagle all the way back in 2012. “These days, you do the best you can for five years and then you move on.”
Weber shared those remarks soon after he had been fired following a 10-year run at Illinois, so perhaps he was a little low on confidence. But his expectations quickly grew as he adjusted to life in Manhattan.
He went on to win 184 games with the Wildcats. He also reached the NCAA Tournament five times, claimed a share of two Big 12 championships and led his team to one Elite Eight. By any measure, those incredible highs made him one of the most successful coaches in school history.
As time went on, he grew so comfortable in purple that he said his goal was to retire at K-State.
But he didn’t last quite long enough for that.
Weber will not return as the Wildcats’ coach after 10 years with the program. He resigned on Thursday morning, according to an announcement from the school.
“Coach Weber has provided selfless leadership to our basketball program and university for the last decade,” K-State athletics director Gene Taylor said in a statement. “With two conference championships and an Elite Eight run in 2018, our program reached exceptional levels of success under his direction. His development of young men on and off the court, while representing K-State in a first-class manner with the highest level of integrity is unmatched in today’s game and something all K-Staters should take great pride in.”
The news release did not include a statement from Weber.
The shine of Weber’s first seven years faded after K-State suffered through three straight losing seasons, punctuated by a 14-17 record this year and a 73-67 loss to West Virginia in the opening game of the Big 12 tournament.
The Wildcats haven’t reached the postseason since 2019. Nor have they finished the regular season with a winning record or played in front of 10,000 fans at Bramlage Coliseum over the past three years.
Apathy has set in for many K-State fans. It was clearly time for a change.
Weber seemed to realize as much earlier this week when he responded to a question about his time coaching at K-State with an emotional answer that lasted seven minutes and felt like a farewell to his supporters.
“We won titles,” he said, “and we did it the right way.”
That was more than he imagined when he took over for Frank Martin 10 years ago. At the time, he was hesitant to take the job and used back channels to ensure that star players like Rodney McGruder were willing to remain in Manhattan and play hard for him, should he move to town.
Weber went on to win at an impressive rate during his first seven seasons at K-State. The wheels simply fell off after the Wildcats suffered an upset in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament against UC-Irvine. Since then, their record is an unsightly 34-58, including a 13-41 mark in conference games.
That wasn’t good enough for him to warrant a contract extension. His current deal runs through 2023. The Wildcats announced they will honor the terms of his deal, even though he resigned. They owe him a buyout of $1 million.
His time at K-State can best be described as up-and-down. Even when he had things rolling early during his tenure in Manhattan, his teams twice missed the postseason.
He coached memorable players such as Barry Brown, Dean Wade, Wesley Iwundu and McGruder. He also struggled to consistently recruit a high level, retain players for a full four years and rarely had a big man worth of all-conference consideration on his roster.
His best season in terms of wins came right out of the chute when the Wildcats won 27 games and shared a Big 12 regular-season championship with Kansas. His longest NCAA Tournament run came in 2018 when the Wildcats reached the Elite Eight. They also won 25 games in 2019 when they shared another Big 12 championship, this time with Texas Tech.
His worst seasons came recently. The Wildcats struggled the most during the 2020-21 season, when they won just nine games while playing through the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Weber’s teams in Manhattan advanced beyond the opening round of the NCAA Tournament just once.
There was hope Weber would guide K-State back to the NCAA Tournament this season, especially when the Wildcats got off to a 14-11 start and surged into the top half of the Big 12 standings. But they ended the year with six straight losses, which sealed his fate.
This is the second time Weber has been let go by a team from a power conference. Coincidentally, his time at Illinois also expired after 10 seasons.
Weber, 65, could look to continue coaching in the future. Milwaukee, his alma mater, is currently in the market for a new basketball coach.
He got his start coaching college basketball as an assistant at Western Kentucky more than 40 years ago. From there, he followed Gene Keady to Purdue and then became a head coach at Southern Illinois. While there, he led the Salukis to a Sweet 16, which earned him a shot at Illinois. He guided the Fighting Illini to a national championship game.
Next, he took K-State to an Elite Eight.
Few coaches can match Weber’s highs. He just had too many lows to continue coaching at K-State.
He fell short of building a dynasty with the Wildcats, but he gave the university a decade’s worth of memories.
