Kansas State at UNLV: Basketball Open Game Thread

We’ll keep this short and simple today, as I assume most are still watching the Wildcat football team.

The WeberCats are in Las Vegas today, taking on a UNLV team that is rebuilding under new coach T.J. Otzelberger this year after a 2019 season that saw them finish fourth in the Mountain West conference. Otzelberger comes to UNLV after leading a successful stretch at South Dakota State that saw them finish in the NCAA Tournament twice in his last three seasons at the helm, and an NIT season in the other.

The Runnin’ Rebels will look to run a similar system that the Wildcats saw from North Dakota State, with an emphasis on perimeter shooting. The Cats will also see a familiar face today in grad-transfer guard Elijah Mitrou-Long, who spent the last several seasons as a member of the Texas Longhorns basketball team (and yes, his older brother Nazareth played at Iowa State). It should be another good early test for the Wildcats, who started Tuesday’s home opener very sluggish before turning in on after halftime for a comfortable victory.

History note, part 2: Tuesday's opener was the early game for the Wildcats ever, and so it goes that today’s game in Las Vegas is the earliest-ever road game for the Wildcats. Basketball needs to not start this early...

We’re running at the same time as the football game today, with a 3pm CST tip that can be seen on ESPN3 (not Plus, no matter what K-State says) with Trey Bender (play-by-play) and Richie Schueler (analyst) on the call. If you can’t access the stream, you can listen to Brian Smoller (play-by-play) and Ben Boyle (analyst) call the game on the following stations of the K-State Sports Radio Network (due to football overlap): 102.5 FM (Manhattan), 94.5 FM (Topeka), 980 AM (Kansas City), and 92.7 FM (Wichita). The radio stream is also available online via the TuneIn App and at K-StateSports.com.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Kansas State Wildcats

G: #00 Mike McGuirl
G: #2 Cartier Diarra
G/F: #20 Xavier Sneed
F: #23 Montavious Murphy
F: #14 Makol Mawien

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels

G: #3 Amauri Hardy
G: #10 Jonah Antonio
G: #55 Elijah Mitrou-Long
F: #7 Donnie Tillman
F: #34 Cheikh Mbacke Diong

Go Cats!