The Kansas State Wildcats got an easy but sometimes sloppy win Monday night in the final game of their home stand to start the season, handling the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, 80-58. K-State took a lead on the first possession of the game and never looked back.

We learned absolutely nothing useful about K-State from tonight’s game. The talent disparity between the Wildcats and the Lumberjacks was so enormous that it’s impossible to glean anything of significance.

The Lumberjacks couldn’t handle the Wildcats’ defensive pressure, at all. Northern Arizona had 31 turnovers, which K-State turned into 38 points off turnovers. Possibly the biggest beneficiaries of that was Barry Brown, who spent the first half playing wide receiver, running seam routes for easy transition points. In fact, the Wildcats’ 19 steals were good to tie the school record.

But when Northern Arizona didn’t turn the ball over, their 58 points on 39 percent shooting were both the best by a K-State opponent this season.

Inevitably in a mismatch of this magnitude, K-State had room for improvement in a couple of areas. The Wildcats made only 12 of 19 free throws and got only 10 bench points.

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K-State will play Arizona State in a neutral-site game at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Vegas.