K-State's Beasley meets the press
December 17, 2007
He looked up, back down at the plastic bottle of water wedged between his hands, and then up again.
Michael Beasley needed an answer of his own.
"What is 'The Michael Beasley Show?'" he wondered.
The simple response, if that's what the Kansas State star freshman was seeking, would have been 25.0 points and 14.3 rebounds per game, which is what Beasley is averaging this year. That's good for fifth and first, nationally. But as Sunday illustrated, it's never as simple as it seems with Beasley, the likely No. 1 choice in next year's NBA Draft, who nevertheless continues to profess his love for college life.
So Beasley provided his own answer.
"If I score 30 points and the rest of our team doesn't score, we lose, right?" he said. "So this is 'The Kansas State Show.'"
Poised, on message, and selfless — Beasley was all that and more at times inside a third-floor ballroom at the Downtown Marriott in Kansas City on Sunday, the first time he and his first-year K-State teammates were made available to the media. The reasoning for the ban, according to coach Frank Martin, was that they were ill-suited to speak on behalf of the program.
"They've never stepped foot on this court for this university," Martin said before the season started. "The people who have are who we want to talk about our story, our future."
Quickly, though, Beasley has become the story not only in Manhattan, but perhaps the entire country. And this day, whether K-State officials dreaded it or not, would come soon enough.
It's impossible to forget Beasley is only 19 years old because he constantly acts his age, except perhaps when he steps on the court. Otherwise, he's a kid.
Sure, he's 6-foot-10 and 245 pounds, but he's still a teenager who said Sunday he was adjusting to being surrounded on campus by other kids he is "3 feet taller than," kids he jokingly labeled "midgets."
Beasley meant no disrespect.
"He's just Lil' Mike," says his mother, Fatima Smith.
This past summer, while representing K-State on the athletic department's annual Catbackers tour, he was asked about beating rival Kansas.
Beasley took the bait, saying, "We're going to beat KU at home. We're going to beat them at their house. We're going to beat them in Africa. Wherever we play, we're going to beat them."
Those types of comments explain why K-State assistant sports information director Tom Gilbert stood nearby Sunday, bracing for unpleasantries that were never uttered. Instead of singling out KU, currently the No. 3 team in the country, Beasley said he was looking forward to playing every team on the schedule.
"I'm not going to look past anybody," he said, specifically mentioning the Florida A&M Rattlers, Tuesday's opponent in the brand-new Sprint Center, the site of this year's Big 12 Tournament.
Sounding mature one moment, Beasley shifted gears the next on a variety of topics, such as:
The various online NBA mock drafts where he is listed No. 1:
"I don't think too much of it. It's a prediction. It's like Miss Cleo. You know Miss Cleo? She's locked up for making predictions."
What he talks about with Kevin Durant, his buddy and current Seattle SuperSonics rookie:
"Dumb stuff, SpongeBob (SquarePants), I don't know. Just being kids."
How he handles all of the attention:
"It's funny to me, a small-time guy from Washington, D.C. ... I don't need much in this world besides a bowl of macaroni and cheese."
It's not all quite a joke to Beasley, of whom K-State junior forward Andre Gilbert says, "He's a funny guy."
But it's also not quite as serious as everyone else makes it out to be. To Beasley, it's still "ball," even if the competition has gotten bigger, stronger and quicker, and is now capable of swatting his shot into the 25th row, as Cal's DeVon Hardin recently did. Twice.
He laughed Sunday at the recollection.
His confidence won't be shaken, even when his mouth is muzzled.
Beasley was asked another question, an attempt to extract another juicy bulletin-board morsel for the Jayhawks, but he wouldn't bite. Instead, he directed the focus inward.
"We're a team that doesn't get a lot of respect this year," he said. "I think we're the best team. Period."
Maybe that's "The Michael Beasley Show."
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