If there were doubts among Miami Heat executives and coaches whether K-State player Michael Beasley would be a good fit for the organization, Wildcat head coach Frank Martin was not buying it.
    Martin told a crowd of South-Central Catbackers at the Wellington Golf Club Pavilion Friday that the Heat was instead using the media as a well orchestrated deception so the Chicago Bulls wouldn't take the incoming Heat post player.
    Martin joined K-State broadcaster Wyatt Thompson, K-State basketball player Darren Kent and incoming linebacker Olu Hall for the annual Catbacker fundraiser in Wellington. The event also included a golf tournament and meal thereafter.
    "Did you personally hear one person from the Miami Heat say they didn't want Beasley?" Martin asked rhetorically. "I sure didn't. In fact, (Miami Heat Coach) Pat Riley called us four times before the draft. Never once did I get the indication they were not interested or had doubt about him."
    Martin called the anti-Beasley hype a media fabrication.
    It will a defining year for Martin, who lost his two best players to the NBA and won't have David Hoskins back because he did not obtain an NCAA medical hardship to play a fourth season at K-State, and elected to move on professionally.
    Still Martin anticipates K-State will be right back or even better than they were in 2007-08.
    "They better," Martin said.
    Experience may be the key. Martin said he will have seven freshmen on campus next season.
    "You know the reason why Kansas and Memphis made the national championship game?" Martin said. "It was experience. In order to win, you have to have the experience and those two teams had more experience than anyone."
    Nevertheless Martin expressed no regrets that Beasley and Bill Walker went to the NBA after just one season. He said the two were responsible for bringing the K-State program to new heights.
    "The thing that makes me tingle is that during draft on ESPN, every time they showed a highlight reel of Beasley, they were showing him wearing a Kansas State jersey," Martin said. "You can't buy that kind of publicity." 
    Martin said he was disappointed Walker was chosen so late in the second round, but said it will probably be a blessing in disguise because he is now playing for the World Champion Boston Celtics and perhaps the best executive in the NBA in Danny Ainge.
    Martin mentioned a myriad of topics ranging from the atmosphere at Bramlage Stadium, to the rivalry with the Jayhawks, to K-State's need to build a new practice basketball facility at the Manhattan campus.
    Currently, Martin said, K-State is the only Big 12 program without a practice gymnasium. He said the campus is also lacking adequate women's basketball and ticket offices and a display to show the various trophies K-State teams have won over the years.
    "We have to upgrade our practice facilities if we want to recruit the caliber players who fans at K-State come to expect," Martin said. "At the moment, we can show a player around campus, but if they go down the road on I-70 to KU and see the practice facilities they are now building then it won't mean a thing."
    Thompson started the festivities by briefly talking about the K-State football program.
    "Don't let the spring game fool you," Thompson said. "(Coach) Ron Prince was being very cautious and selective with his plays. He was being boring on purpose."
    Thompson said he was more interested in the 13 practices leading up to the spring game. He said it was the best they have had since Prince was hired.
    He said his biggest worry is the Big 12 league schedule which will include four road games in five weeks, and the only home game will be a contest with Oklahoma.
    Thompson said K-State will have more depth with the influx of new talent coming into the program, and is very optimistic with the current state of the football team.