K-State gets back to work against Abilene Christian

Despite a major accomplishment that happened on the football field, and the ensuing celebration, it would have been easy to forget that a basketball game as also played last Saturday. Though it helps that the opponent was fellow in-state program Wichita State, and at 7-1, Kansas State is off to it’s best start since 2017-18...the season that ended in the Elite Eight.

These Wildcats probably wont make it that far, but the way the non-conference portion of the schedule it set-up, it’s likely that these Cats can get to Big 12 play with just the one loss, which would be far more reminiscent of the 2016-17 squad that entered Big 12 play at 11-1 before struggling in conference play, but still squeaking in to the NCAA Tournament. And after after the last three seasons, that would be a solid improvement.

We’ve got Abilene Christian in town tonight, and the Wildcats enter tonight’s game at 5-4 with their best win coming over Northern Arizona the weekend after Thanksgiving. ACU isn’t a terrible team, but they lost by 19 to Texas A&M, and lost three-straight to mid-major competition at the Vegas 4 Tournament during the Thanksgiving break. So this should look more like K-State’s 77-57 win over Rhode Island than the 93-59 romp over UTRGV. Or at least, that’s what we hope.

K-State has not looked particularly impressive on offense the last few games, and after putting up 96 in the overtime win over Nevada, have scored 61, 64, and 55 points in consecutive games, going just 2-1 over that stretch. Hopefully we get to see some more offense tonight, as Jerome Tang and his staff will have the opportunity to work through some more things and keep on trying to get the guys on the same page.

Tonight’s matchup is scheduled for a 7:01pm CT tip at Bramlage Colisuem and will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Ben Boyle (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) on the call. You’ll also be able to hear the game online at K-StateSports.com (and via the Varsity Network app), plus parts of the K-State Sports Radio Network and on SiriusXM 380 with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Matt Walters (analyst) calling the action over there.

Go Cats!

Hey, are you on Discord? We are now, too! Feel free to join us! (Make sure you click the reaction button on the rules notice though, or you won’t see anything.) We’ll have a game thread there as well!