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The Kansas State men’s basketball team was far from full strength during its last two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Dean Wade, one of the best players in school history, broke his foot days before the postseason arrived in both 2018 and 2019. Talk about bad luck. It was a cruel twist of fate that severely limited the Wildcats not once but twice during March Madness.
For that reason, K-State fans still ask hypothetical questions about those two seasons. The main one: What if Wade stayed healthy?
Kamau Stokes, who played point guard for those teams, is happy to provide an answer.
“We definitely would have won the NCAA Tournament,” Stokes said during a wide-ranging interview you can listen to on the SportsBeat KC podcast. “For sure. Absolutely, no question.”
K-State came close to winning it all even without Wade in 2018. That season, Barry Brown and Stokes led the Wildcats to wins over Creighton, UMBC and Kentucky on their way to the Elite Eight before bowing out against Loyola-Chicago.
With a healthy Wade back in the lineup the following year, K-State won 25 games and shared a Big 12 championship with Texas Tech. But its postseason run was much shorter, as the Wildcats suffered a first-round upset against UC-Irvine with Wade watching from the bench.
Which year would K-State have won a national title with a healthy Wade? Stokes had an answer for that, too.
“I would say both, actually, to be honest,” Stokes said. “When we were seniors, I wouldn’t say we had an easy road, because of the tournament. Anyone can win on any given day. But it was a very promising road to the Sweet 16 again.”
Stokes scored 1,242 career points during his four seasons with the Wildcats. He helped Brown and Wade guide K-State to three straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament under former coach Bruce Weber and remains a fan favorite at Bramlage Coliseum.
Right now, Stokes is living in Manhattan while he recovers from a knee injury. He has spent the past few years playing professionally overseas and hopes to continue his pro career when he returns to full strength.
Stokes has been in the stands for every K-State game this year. During this interview, he shared his thoughts on the current team and new coach Jerome Tang. He likes what he sees, but he thinks his teams were better.
That is one of the reasons he still wonders what could have been during K-State’s last two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
“We talk about it all the time,” Stokes said. “I would have really liked for Dean to be there. Dean makes the job easy. He would have made everything way easier.”
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