Kansas State Basketball: Open Game Thread

There are two Kansas State Wildcats basketball games happening today, both in the state of Kansas. The WeberCats start at 3pm at home against the West Virginia Mountaineers, while the MittieCats start at 4pm from Allen Fieldhouse against a Jayhawks team that the Wildcats have thoroughly dominated during Jeff Mittie’s tenure.

So when the men’s game invariably starts to swirl down the drain, you can flip over to the women’s game to watch what should be another Wildcat victory in the Sunflower Showdown.

Sure, it’s not like the men have zero chance. They are young and have talent, but that hasn’t translated into any wins in 2021, nor much before the start of the new year. Of course, as the team gets healthy and starts to become more complete again it should be a boost, but nothing is for certain with this bunch. Through stretches against Texas, it looked like the Wildcats belonged, and others where it looked like the Wildcats shouldn’t even be in the same division as the Longhorns. And things were no better in the midweek against a solid OU squad, who was clearly the better team but should not have been 26 points better.

Things are awful right now for Bruce Weber and his charges, there’s no way to sugar-coat it. West Virginia is, at least on paper, a better team than OU, so this should be another long afternoon for the struggling Wildcats.

The men have a 3:05pm CT tip that can be seen on ESPN2, with Anish Shroff (play-by-play) and Chris Spatola (analyst) on the call. You might be able to stream the game online via WatchESPN.

If you don’t get ESPN2, and you can’t access the stream, you can listen to Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) call the game on much of the K-State Sports Radio Network, and also available online via the TuneIn App and at K-StateSports.com, and satellite radio on XM 384.

Things didn’t go exactly as planned for the MittieCats in their return to action after a three-week break. They held double-digit leads for several lengths, but in the end didn’t have enough left to stave off a Mountaineer comeback and fell by 9 points on the road.

But the confines of Allen Fieldhouse are much more friendly to the visiting Wildcats. In basically a complete reversal of the men’s programs, the MittieCats have a near-stranglehold on both ends of the Sunflower Showdown, winning 16 out of the 22 times the two teams have met since Jeff Mittie arrived in the Little Apple.

The Wildcats are just 5-5 on the season, and are currently winless in the Big 12, but the Jayhawks aren’t in much better shape, also sitting at 5-5 overall but with one win (and three straight losses) in Big 12 play.

The Wildcats are the better team, especially when star forward Ayoka Lee is able to take over the game. But, unlike the last time out, the Wildcats will need to play a full 40 minutes to head back to Manhattan with a win.

The women have a 4:00pm CT tip that can be seen on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Josh Klingler (play-by-play) and Jill Dorsey-Hall (analyst) on the call, for what should be a very pro-KU broadcast.

If you haven’t subscribed to ESPN+ (and you can do so right here), you can listen to Brian Smoller (play-by-play) and Randy Peterson (analyst) call the game select stations of K-State Sports Radio Network, and also available online at K-StateSports.com.