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| BIG 12 MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP First Round - Wed, Mar 9, 2016 Sprint Center (18,972) Kansas City MO |
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6:00 PM CT
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 (9) Oklahoma State(12-19, 3-15 Big 12) |
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 Kansas State(16-15, 5-13 Big 12) |
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While winning tonight would keep alive NCAA hopes, thanks to that pesky autobid thing, it would probably be foolishly naive to cling to that dream too tightly. But the important thing is that a win would almost certainly ensure an NIT bid, which means more practice time and reps for a young team that could desperately use them for next season. No, the NIT isn't anything to get excited about. But there's excitement, and then there's pragmatism.
Keep Travis Ford
Keep Travis Ford
The game: Kansas State faces the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the first round of the 2016 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship. The Wildcats lost in overtime when they visited Stillwater last month, but destroyed the Cowboys in Manhattan in January. As Kansas City is home-away-from-home, we can probably lean closer to the latter result tonight. K-State leads the all-time series with OSU 77-52, but the Cowboys hold a 4-3 edge in tournament play. However, K-State has not lost to the Pokes in the Big 12 tournament, winning all three prior meetings. Bruce Weber is 6-4 against Oklahoma State, 2-0 on neutral ground; he's 5-4, 1-0 against Travis Ford.
Odds: K-State's favored by five; the over-under is 127. That's a 66-61 prediction from the Vegas brains.
Tickets: It's sold out, but we've heard reports tickets can be had on the secondary market for less than the cost of a McDonald's combo meal...
Television: ESPNU at 6:00 CT with Boog Sciambi and Miles Simon.
Radio: K-State Sports Network, with Wyatt Thompson and Stan Weber. Also available on Sirius 93/XM 199, although it's unclear whether this will be the K-State feed or the OSU feed.
Online: Video streaming via WatchESPN. Audio streaming and live stats at Gamecenter.
Game Two: 30 minutes after the conclusion, (7) Texas Tech takes on (10) Texas Christian, also on ESPNU and WatchESPN.