Open Game Thread: K-State vs. Arizona State

K-State’s men’s basketball team will get its first taste of Power-5 competition tonight, as it tips off against the Arizona State Sun Devils, out of the Pac-12 conference.

K-State is off to a 4-0 start, hanging its hat on defense, where the Wildcats rank first nationally in field goal percentage defense (30.8 percent), third in scoring defense (50.8 ppg.), and sixth in steals (11.5 spg.)

Arizona State, meanwhile, averages 95 points per game on 53.8 percent shooting, including over 40 percent from three-point range. The Sun Devils sport two 20-point scorers, in Tra Holder (22.3 ppg.) and Shannon Evans II (20.3 ppg.)

Something, clearly, must give.

Neither team has faced stellar competition thus far, but they do have one opponent in common. K-State beat UC-Irvine 71-49 last Friday. Arizona State beat the Anteaters 99-78 on Sunday. Similar margins, different paths. We’ll see if it means anything.

See Jon’s “How to Watch” post for odds, tune-in information and other minutiae about the game. Tonight’s winner gets the winner of the Xavier/George Washington match-up, so for multiple reasons, this is a big game.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS

Kansas State (4-0)

G: #3 Kamau Stokes

G: #5 Barry Brown, Jr.

G: #20 Xavier Sneed

F: #32 Dean Wade

F: #14 Makol Mawien

Arizona State (4-0)

G: #0 Tra Holder

G: #11 Shannon Evans II

G: #44 Kodi Justice

F: #10 Vitaliy Shibel

F: #23 Romello White

Go ‘Cats!