MANHATTAN — When Jacob Pullen left Manhattan in 2011 as Kansas State basketball’s all-time leading scorer, he had no idea that the record would still stand more than a dozen years later.
But times change, and now he’s not sure it will ever be touched.
“Not with the transfer portal,” said Pullen, who was back on campus over the weekend for induction into the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame.
Indeed, the transfer portal, not to mention the money available for Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), have turned much of college athletics into a free agent market, where players are quick to sell their services to the highest bidder.
Pullen, on the other hand, stayed four years at K-State, amassing 2,132 points from 2007-11. He averaged 15.8 points for his career and finished 17 points ahead of Mike Evans (1974-78), another four-year star.
Pullen did see an early potential threat to the record in Marcus Foster, who put up big numbers for two years, but then transferred to Creighton in 2015. Same with Nijel Pack, one of the first to cash in on NIL with a big payday from Miami at the end of his 2021-22 sophomore season.
More: What channel is Kansas State football vs UT-Martin on today? Time, TV schedule for opener
More: Kansas State football veterans still get excited every year for the season opener
“As a freshman, I only averaged like 10 points, nine points (9.7), but I played with good players, so I didn’t get right into it,” Pullen said. “Marcus got right into it, and then when Nijel first got here, man, that dude could score.
“But this transfer portal, I might have this record for 100 years. The loyalty thing is not the same.”
Interestingly enough, Pullen’s K-State career could have ended after just one season, though the portal and NIL had nothing to do with it. Instead, it was his tumultuous relationship with coach Frank Martin.
And there was no shortage of coaches more than willing to take him off Martin’s hands.
“I remember as a freshman, me and Frank had big fights, and I was really thinking about leaving,” Pullen recalled. “Mike Brey at Notre Dame was calling. I had a lot of schools call me. (Xavier’s) Sean Miller.
“I was really contemplating leaving, because I didn’t know if me and Frank were going to be able to mesh.”
More: Kansas State football vs UT-Martin: Scouting report, prediction for Wildcats’ 2024 opener
Fortunately, they worked things out and the rest is history. Pullen helped lead the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight as a junior in 2010 and received All-America recognition each of his last two seasons.
“I remember that summer we talked,” Pullen said, “and he looked me in my face and said, ‘If you put in the work, you’ll play basketball. If you think I’m going to give it to you, you’ll sit on the bench.’
“And from that point on, I put in the work. I did everything that he asked me to do, and I believed in his system, I believed in what he was telling me. And we moved forward that way, and it was a great relationship after that.”
Pullen has put together a successful professional career, mostly overseas, since leaving K-State. He currently plays in Italy.
While Pullen doesn’t expect his scoring record to fall anytime soon, he does see a potential challenger on the current K-State roster. He likes freshman guard David Castillo, who played in high school for former Wildcat Clent Stewart in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, before moving on to Sunrise Academy near Wichita last year.
More: Kansas State football QB Avery Johnson cool and calm ahead of season opener
“He’s really good. I watched him play,” Pullen said. “He gives me loyalty vibes, and playing for Clent Stewart I would believe he’s one of the (most loyal) kids in this day and time. So, if somebody can do it, he’s got four years to do it.
“I believe he might, unless he goes to the NBA early. He doesn’t give me unhappy transfer vibes.”
Not that Pullen begrudges players taking advantage of the current climate.
“I can’t say if somebody was to walk around and offer me half a million dollars to go play basketball at 18, I’d say no,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d stay at Kansas State, though I love it, and I’m grateful for it.”
But he also would have loved to pick up some extra cash with today’s merchandising opportunities. The popular “Fear the Beard” slogan from his senior year would have been a natural.
“Fear the Beard would have cleared a million dollars easily in tee shirt sales,” he said with a big smile. “So, I appreciate it. I want them to get all of the money they can, just two different eras and two different versions of basketball.”
Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Who can break Jacob Pullen’s Kansas State basketball scoring record?
