Kansas State vs Washington State: NCAA Tournament Open Game Thread

Despite an early exit from the Big 12 Tournament to eventual tournament champ Texas 72-65 on Friday, the your Kansas State women’s basketball team did hear their named called on Selection Sunday for the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats are the 9-seed in the Bridgeport, Connecticut regional, and will face off against 8-seed Washington State today in Raleigh, NC.

There are plenty of story lines for today’s game, as Washington State is led by for Wildcats assistant coach Kamie Ethridge, who was Deb Patterson’s long-time assistant, and the former Wildcats head lady is the Director of Player Personnel and Program Analytics for the Cougars. Oh, and Lauri Koehn, whose jersey hangs in Bramlage, is the Assistant Head Coach. That’s a lot of former purple on that staff.

That’s on top of Ayoka Lee’s record-breaking season, which we would all very much like to see continued for at least another game. Though regardless of who wins this game, it’s likely their last win of the season, as the winner of today’s game gets a (very likely) match-up with 1-seed NC State (who the Cats lost to in Raleigh earlier this season).

Hopefully the Cats can do what they did to the other Pac 12 foe they faced this season, when they picked up an impressive 68-56 over Oregon back in December.

This morning’s NCAA Tournament game from Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC tips at 10:30am CDT and can be seen on ESPN2 with Sam Ravech (play-by-play) and Kelly Gramlich (analyst) on the call. The game should also be available streaming via ESPN+ for those that have that subscription.

If you don’t get ESPN2, or can’t access the stream, you can listen to Brian Smoller (play-by-play) and Kristen Waller (analyst) call the game on potentially some of the K-State Sports Radio Network, and also available on XM channel 373 & 380 and online on the The Varsity Network app and at K-StateSports.com.

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Kansas State Wildcats (19-12, 9-9 Big 12)

G: #3 Jaelyn Glenn
G: #4 Serena Sundell
G: #5 Brylee Glenn
G: #24 Emilee Ebert
C: #50 Ayoka Lee

Washington State Cougars (19-10, 11-6 Pac 12)

G: #1 Tara Wallack
G: #4 Krystal Leger-Walker
G: #5 Charlisse Leger-Walker
G: #21 Johanna Teder
C: #55 Bella Murekatete

Go Cats!