ATLANTA — Drew Speraw, a Kansas State assistant coach, found himself in an unenviable position near the end of the Wildcats’ tight win over the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, last Sunday: He had to physically grab his boss.
Bruce Weber, Kansas State’s head coach, is a defense-first guy. In the second half, while his team was on defense against U.M.B.C., the action was on the other end of the court from the Kansas State bench. As Weber yelled instructions and imprecations to his players over the noise of the crowd, he inched closer and closer to midcourt like a salmon traveling upstream in spurts and, like plenty of other coaches, even wandered onto the court itself sometimes.