#17 Kansas State Wildcats (12-3) AT Oklahoma State Cowboys (12-2)
Gallagher-Iba Arena — Stillwater, Okla.
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 — 12 PM CST
ESPN2
Big 12 play is here at last! A brief preview follows after the jump.
You can read my preview of Oklahoma State here or visit with Cowboy fans at Cowboys Ride For Free.
Predictions:
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BracketCat: Kansas State 70, Oklahoma State 68
Pomeroy: Oklahoma State 69, Kansas State 68 - RealTimeRPI: Oklahoma State 79, Kansas State 70
- Sagarin: Oklahoma State 86, Kansas State 85
From the K-State Sports Information Department:
No. 17 Kansas State (12-3) tips off its 15th season of Big 12 Conference play at noon today, when the Wildcats travel to Stillwater, Okla., to face Oklahoma State (12-2) at historic Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 with Marc Kestecher (play-by-play) and Fran Fraschilla (analyst) on the call, and it also will be available on ESPN Full Court and ESPN3.com.
The Wildcats are 49-48 (.505) all-time in conference openers, dating all the way back to the start of Missouri Valley Conference play in 1913-14, including a 16-30 (.348) mark when opening on the road.
The team is 5-9 (.357) in league openers in the Big 12 era, including 2-7 (.222) on the road.
The squad has lost its last two conference openers, with its last win coming at Oklahoma, 84-82, on Jan. 12, 2008.
It will be the 10th meeting between K-State and Oklahoma State in a conference opener dating back to 1959, but just the second since the start of the Big 12.
The last time these two teams met in an opener was Jan. 2, 1999, when the 25th-ranked Cowboys earned a 75-69 win in overtime at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Overall, the Wildcats hold a 6-3 edge over the Cowboys when meeting in an conference opener, including a 4-3 mark on the road.
Interestingly enough, K-State’s last win at Gallagher-Iba Arena came in a league opener Jan. 9, 1993, when the team earned a 75-62 overtime win over OSU.
The squads also met in league openers in 1961, 1968, 1970, 1980, 1984, 1992 and 1995.
K-State leads the all-time series with Oklahoma State, 70-46, which dates back to 1927.
The Cowboys are 27-23 at home in the series, with wins in 14 of their last 15 games at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The Wildcats have lost 10 consecutive on the road in the series, with their last victory coming 75-62 in overtime on Jan. 9, 1993.
Last season, the two teams split a pair of meetings, with OSU snapping Kansas State’s 14-game homecourt winning streak with a 73-69 win at Bramlage Coliseum on Jan. 23, before the Wildcats earned a 83-64 victory in the quarterfinals of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship at Sprint Center in Kansas City on March 11.
It will be the last year that the two schools will play just once in the regular season, as the Big 12 will expand to a new round-robin, 18-game schedule in 2011-12.