Kansas State at 18/18 Texas Tech: Open Game Thread

After a fun start to conference play, the Kansas State Wildcats came back down to Earth with a physical home loss to West Virginia. And things don’t look to be getting any easier.

Dean Wade asserted himself for the second game in a row, and appears to have turned a corner in the very early part of the conference slate. Xavier Sneed shot lights-out against WVU, and has been a steady force during his sophomore campaign. However, guards Kamau Stokes and Barry Brown had very off games against WVU, especially Stokes who was a frigid 0-10 from the field and scored all six of his points from the charity stripe. Brown had 14 points in the 77-69 loss, but shot just 5-13 from the field (38%) on the afternoon.

It would be understandable, and helpful to K-State, if Texas Tech hasn’t come down yet from the high of their last victory. It’s not every day that an opposing team walks in the Allen Fieldhouse and walks away with a 85-73 win over the Jayhawks, but the Texas Tech Red Raiders had never done it in 17 previous tries. That’s big win no matter who you are, but it was the worst conference home loss for KU since 1989. And Tech looks good overall too, heading in to this afternoon’s contest with a 13-1 overall record and a 2-0 mark to start Big 12 play.

The Wildcats will need a performance like the one that led the to their victory over Iowa State, as well as a little help from Texas Tech, to pull this one out. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, we have seen this team play high level ball before, but it could easily be a long afternoon fro Wildcat fans.

Today’s game, scheduled for a 3:05 p.m. CST tip-off, will be on FOX Sports Southwest/FOX Sports Kansas City/FOXSportsGo with John Harris (play-by-play), Chris Level (analyst), and Adam Doyle (sidelines) on the call. (DirecTV 671-5/Dish 448 or 412-36/AT&T U-Verse 750 or 1750/Cox Kansas 34 or 2034)

The game can be heard over-the-air on the K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) on the call (you can also listen online for free at TuneIn.com or at KStateSports.com). Satellite radio is available on Sirius 132, XM 199, and “Internet” 953 — and this should be the K-State broadcast.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Kansas State (11-3, 1-1 Big 12)
G: #3 Kamau Stokes
G: #5 Barry Brown Jr.
G: #20 Xavier Sneed
F: #32 Dean Wade
F: #14 Makol Mawien

Texas Tech (13-1, 2-0 Big 12)
G: #12 Keenan Evans
G: #5 Justin Gray
G: #10 Niem Stevenson
F: #11 Zach Smith
C: #32 Norense Odiase