Nick Pino excited about tonight’s men’s basketball game at Kansas State matching his Wildcats against state-rival Kansas University

Disappointed that KSU hasn’t cracked the top 25 in the national polls, thinks a win tonight versus 7th ranked
Jayhawks will get his alma mater into the polls

By Arnie Leshin 

He’s not going to miss this one, 7 o’clock tonight Kansas at Kansas State on ESPN.

But he did miss the first one, forgot about it, and didn’t see the home court Jayhawks nip his Wildcats, 73-72, before the usual capacity crowd.

To Nick Pino, this is the big one, the one the two schools look forward to, plus the rest of the Sunflower State.

And ditto the former St. Michael’s 6-foot-11 center who set a state scoring record of 80 points in his senior year of 1962-63. One year later, George Maes of then-Santa Cruz High School, topped this by one point and it’s held up every since.

And so has this wild rivalry of the Kansas Division I schools. Despite the Jayhawks domination of 55-5 the last 75 years and 63-7 the last 70. the clash in men’s basketball has never gone away.

KSU doesn’t care for the bragging rights owned by Kansas, but so tonight it will try to grab an important victory before a capacity crowd of 12,528 in Manhattan. That’s Manhattan, Kan., and known to some as the “Little Apple.”

In fact, Pino, now 74, couldn’t recall the name of the arena, but said “Little Apple” would be fine.

“They are a bigger school, bigger enrollment,” Pino said, “and they turn out attorneys, doctors, politicians, and always brag about it. They love to put us down.”

But this time, the Wildcats have more of a purpose. They are 16-5, have won their last four over Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor and Georgia, and are in a four-way tie at 5-3 behind the Jayhawks, who have won the last 13 Big 12 championships.

They might lose a conference game or two during the regular season, but when it comes to the post-season, they reign as the class of the conference.

But pity poor KSU, for even with this impressive campaign, it can not be found among the nation’s top 25, and that includes the Associated Press and College Coaches poll.

“I expected them to be in there,” Pino said, “and because they aren’t, it should get them more fired-up for this game. The home fans will be loud and would love to end the frustration of all these years. I am really looking forward to tonight.”

Pino had many other college offers his final season at St. Michael’s, but Tex Winter, the head Wildcat coach at the time, wanted him so bad, he came to Santa Fe and arranged to take Pino and his family to lunch. Now 95 and still residing in Manhattan with his 93-year-old wife, Winter is a well-know name when it comes to coaching basketball.

“He coached the Lakers, the Bulls,” Pino said, “and it didn’t take long for me to want to play for him, and that was my college choice. I last saw him about 15-20 years ago when one of his pro teams was playing an exhibition game in Albuquerque.”

Still recovering from back surgery, Pino said he’s very calm when watching these college games. He also likes to tell of how Winter recruited him as a 6-11 player, but once he got to Kansas State, he became 7-feet on the roster.

“Tex had done this before with his players, Pino said. “He said it made it a taller order for opponents gazing at the roster, so I became 7-feet.”

While KU has come away with championship caliber teams each year, KSU has never had this consistency, but it likes this squad coached by Bruce Weber, and should be sky-high for this one.

Number one, the Wildcats would love to crack that top 25, number two, they would love to deadlock the Jayhawks in the conference standings, and number three, they felt they should have won that close one at Kansas U.

So this will be a time to rumble. The Jayhawks will bring their usual crowd support, but this time the clash will be on the road, and the “Little Apple” will be stirring. It is one of the biggest games between the two in years, and while KU usually takes it in stride, KSU is looking to win this one and have its fans storm the court.

The Jayhawks are ranked, they always are. They are 17-4 overall and ranked seventh in the AP poll and seventh in the College Coaches poll. They have won four of their last five, with the lone setback to Big 12 rival Oklahoma.

This is a conference with 10 schools and all are over .500, with last place Iowa State at 11-9. Joining Kansas in the top 25 are Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and West Virginia, but Kansas State feels it belongs there and will try to convince the voters tonight.”

“This should be a good one,” said Pino. “I missed the previous game they played because I didn’t even know about it, but tonight will be the time to cheer on the Wildcats, looking forward to it.”

NOTE: Pino, who has had his insurance company in Santa Fe through the years, still holds the state record for free throws in a game, 26, that he set versus Espanola Valley in 1963.

He ranks second behind Maes in field goals in a game, 35, and that came in the record contest against then-El Rito High. Maes tossed in 39 against Coronado in 1964.

Pino also holds down second place for points in one season, 1,033, with former Albuquerque La Cueva guard Bryce Alford turning in 1,050 his senior year.