By Michael Goens
Coach Jack Hartman won 295 games and often took Kansas State to the precipice of college basketball’s grand stage. Hartman coached the Wildcats for 16 seasons and pushed six of his teams to the pinnacle’s edge. There were always obstacles too great to surmount: Marquette coach Al McGuire, Louisville great Darrell Griffith, North Carolina star Al Wood and Boston College stud Michael Adams among them.
Even Norm Stewart (Missouri coach) and John McCullough (Oklahoma guard) threw up roadblocks to Hartman teams’ ability to reach the ultimate level of college hoops: the Final Four. Hartman, the winningest coach in Kansas State basketball history with four regional final appearances, was recently selected for enshrinement to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
His selection means Hartman joins former Wildcat coaches Jack Gardner and Tex Winter along with two of Hartman’s players, Rolando Blackman and Lon Kruger, in the college hall. With Hartman’s selection, The Manhattan Mercury looks at what, in this writer’s opinion, are the 10 of the best games of the Hartman Era.
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Mercury file photos
Courtesy K-State Athletics
