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Basketball
The men’s basketball team will host #7 Texas Tech tonight at Bramlage Coliseum. Tip off is at 7 PM and the game will be on ESPNU/WatchESPN/ESPN3.
Kansas State is coming off a 67-64 win over Texas that ended a two-game losing streak. The Wildcats show 53.7% from the field in that victory and Dean Wade (16) led the team in scoring for the fifth time in six consecutive games. Teammate Cartier Diarra had 13 points off 6-of-9 shooting, while Xavier Sneed and Barry Brown had 11 points each.
Texas Tech is currently on a five-game winning streak. In the last meeting of the two teams, the Wildcats lost badly 74-58. It is entirely possible there will be a similar outcome in this game. It’s not worth noting, however, that the Wildcats are 5-0 against Texas Tech at home under Bruce Weber, and the Wildcats have done particularly well against ranked teams. Indeed, under Weber, Kansas State has won 21 games against ranked opponents, just one win short of Jack Hartman’s all-time school record.
Meanwhile, the women’s basketball team is in Austin where they’ll take on #6 Texas tonight. That tipoff is also scheduled for 7 PM, but don’t worry. You won’t have to make a difficult choice between games because this one is on the LHN, which you probably don’t get anyway.
Like the men, the women are also coming off a mid-week win. The Wildcats beat Texas Tech 83-69, only the second home Big 12 win this season. The team set a season-high for points scored, and Kayla Goth’s 27 points off 11-of-19 shooting was a career best effort for her. Freshman Rachel Ranke had 20 points against the Red Raiders, her first 20-point game in Big 12 play.
Tennis
Kansas State won its home opener 4-1 against North Texas yesterday. The highlight of the series was a three-set win for freshman Margot Decker over ITA No. 48 Maria Kononova. This is Decker’s third win in five matches against ITA ranked players.
The No. 1 (Decker and Carolina Costamagna) and No. 2 (Ines Mesquita and Maria Linares) opened the action with wins, earning Kansas State the crucial doubles point. Mesquita and Linares are 4-0 as a tandem at the No. 2 spot.
Up next, the Wildcats will face Washington State on Sunday. Play begins at 11 AM.
Track and Field
At the Texas Tech Shootout in Lubbock, Nina Schultz won the pentathlon event with a total score of 4,502 points. That is the best mark (by about 100 points) in the NCAA indoor season so far, and the seventh best score of all-time in the event. It’s also the second best pentathlon result in school history behind only Akela Jones’ 2016 total of 4,643 points.
In other events, Konstantina Romaiou took third in the women’s triple jump, while Helene Ingvaldsen and Mitch Dixon continued their dominance in weight throw, taking first in the women’s and men’s events respectively.
Meanwhile, the distance runners were at the Gorilla Classic in Pittsburg, Kansas. Kayla Doll took fourth place in the 5000m with a new personal best time, while Colton Donohue was in 10th place in the men’s event, also with a personal best time.
Events at both meets continue through the weekend.
Miscellany
The Winter Olympics have commenced in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Highlights of the opening ceremonies included a moving display of unity with North Korea and South Korea marching into the stadium as a single team under a flag depicting a map of united Korea.
Is there a connection to Kansas State? Well, of course there is. While Kansas State cannot claim any athletes participating in the Games, a Kansas State student is at the game as a production assistant. A senior in journalism, Braxton Jones is in Pyeongchang as an intern for NBC.
Bryan Pinkall, a music professor at Kansas State, helped coordinate the opening ceremonies at Sochi in 2014 and in Rio in 2016. This time around though, he’s just watching from home.
The first gold medal went to Sweden in the women’s 15 km skiathlon. Germany took two gold medals today and currently leads the medal standings, but Norway has the most medals so far (4). No medals for the United States just yet though.