Give thanks for basketball and Farmageddon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully, you all went to bed full of delicious food served with a side of family togetherness (or family drama, if that’s your flavor) and have now woken from your tryptophan-induced stupor to the insanity of Black Friday. But in case you’d rather indulge in sports than shopping, Kansas State has you covered.

First things first. Football. FARMAGEDDON.

Kansas State takes on #25 Iowa State in Ames tomorrow. No, that’s not a typo. Iowa State really is ranked, and at 6-4, is already bowl eligible. Also, the Cyclones are 14-point favorites. Clearly, we now live in Bizarro World, which is only appropriate considering how Farmageddon has played out the last few years (Kevin Richardson, Cyclone Fanatic).

Meanwhile, the Wildcats are unranked and still looking for that sixth win. That’s a big story, of course, but the bigger one in Manhattan, Kansas is whether this is Bill Snyder’s final game as head coach. Speculation is rife, but there are no real or easy answers (Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle).

Speaking of speculation, here’s Drew Schneider with the first piece in a series about Brent Venables and his possible future at Kansas State.

The mothership may feel otherwise, but Farmageddon is the closest rivalry series for Kansas State. Iowa State leads the all-time series 49-48-4, so a win today would help the Wildcats even a series against a Big 8 opponent for the first time since Charlie Bachman’s Kansas State team beat Oklahoma four times in a row to even that series in 1927.

There’s also the small matter of Iowa State just really hating Kansas State.

The fortunes of the Kansas State men’s basketball have been running opposite to the football team for a long time, and this season, that’s probably a good thing. The 12th-ranked Wildcats went to Paradise and came back with an 82-67 win over Missouri and real hardware. That was good preparation for the non-conference gauntlet they face with both Marquette and Tulsa coming up.

In the meantime, Kansas State is focused on its next opponent, Lehigh. The Wildcats and the Hawks will tip off at Bramlage Coliseum at 3:30 PM CT.

The women’s basketball team is also in action this holiday weekend at the 2018 Cancun Challenge in Mexico. They played their first game yesterday against #14 Syracuse, and despite holding a small lead in the fourth quarter, ended up losing the contest 70-61. It was the Wildcats’ first loss of the season.

The team is currently playing #15 DePaul in Cancun. That game tipped off at 10 AM, and at the end of the first quarter, DePaul is leading 21-12.

Finally, the VolleyCats wrapped up the 2018 campaign with a 3-1 (25-27, 25-23, 25-21, 25-21) road win over TCU yesterday. This was Kansas State’s first win in Fort Worth since 2014, and only the third home loss this season for the Horned Frogs.

The VolleyCats dropped the first set but came back strong to take the win. This was due in large part to a fantastic effort from Kylee Zumach who had 21 kills. Teammate Gloria Mutiri had her third double-double of the season with 15 kills and 11 digs.

Kansas State will now have to wait to see if post-season play is in their future. The NCAA Selection Show is on Sunday night at 7:30 PM on ESPNU.