Kansas State vs Texas: Can the Wildcats get back to the top?

Feb 4, 2023 - 8:30 PM

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Well that certainly didn’t go as well as we had hoped it might.

Despite feeling like Kansas State might have it’s best shot of winning in Lawrence in several years, ultimately it was more of the same for the Wildcats at the school down the river. Oh well, we’ll just have to do it next year.

It was deflating, but it was just one loss. And the important thing is to not let one loss turn into two. Especially in the Big 12 Conference. K-State is still sitting in a tie for 2nd in the conference standings, and with 9 games left, has plenty of opportunity to regain a spot at the top of the standings.

Conveniently, they have a shot today at both getting back on top and putting themselves firmly in front of one of their rivals for the league crown. The Texas Longhorns are in town today, and somehow, despite losing their head coach midway through the season, are currently sitting in first place.

You may recall what happened in early January when these two teams first met. It was a track meet for the ages, an NBA breaking out on a college basketball court. K-State prevailed 116-103 setting school records for points in a game, most points allowed in a victory, and most points total in a game, among other school and conference records. Don’t expect that to happen again.

At that moment on January 3rd, we still weren’t sure what to make of this Wildcats team. But the TangCats have showed us who they are: a tough. talented team capable of winning in different ways...but also with a penchant for turning the ball over too much at times. All three losses have featured a lot of turnovers (mostly unforced) and lots of points for the other team off those turnovers. They’ve also won committing lots of turnovers, but need to be scoring at a high clip to overcome it.

The formula for beating Texas a month ago probably isn’t going to work again. But the Wildcats just need to play their game, limit the turnovers, play good defense, and there’s no reason that the Cats shouldn’t pick up win #7 in Big 12 play and regain their spot atop the Big 12.

But they can’t let the loss at AFH beat them twice.

Today’s matchup is scheduled for a 3:05pm CT tip from Bramlage and will be aired on ESPN2 with Mark Neely (play-by-play) and Chris Spatola (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 83 with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) calling the action over there.

Go Cats!

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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!