Last time out for the Wildcats was surprisingly close…until it wasn’t. PJ Haggarty closed the gap to four, 59-55, with 7:52 remaining in the game. Then the visitors from down the river went on a 27-7 run
to end the game to pick up their first win in Manhattan since the Bruce Weber era.
Now Kansas State (10-10, 1-6) heads out on the road searching for a change of fortune. It was at this point last season that the TangCats entered the game against West Virginia at 7-11 overall and 1-6 in Big 12 play. The Cats pulled off a improbable 73-60 win at home over a then top-25 WVU team, a win that spurred an 8-5 finish to the regular season. But that was at Bramlage, and that next set of games featured a bad Oklahoma State team in Bramlage, a shocking upset in Ames, and eventually Tang’s third win over KU in Bramlage.
That type of run just does not feel possible with this squad. Last season’s squad took a while to gel, but once they did they weren’t half-bad. This team looks lost, the parts look lost, and it seems very plausible that the Wildcats win over Utah in Bramlage may have been their last for the season — even with extremely winnable games against Cincinnati (10-10, 2-5) and Baylor (11-8, 1-6) still to come in Bramlage.
West Virginia does not enter tonight ranked, but they are a rocky but passable 13-7 and 4-3 in Big 12 play, and more importantly are 12-0 at home on the season under first-year head coach Ross Hodge — including a 86-75 win over KU in Morgantown a few weeks ago. In K-State’s favor, they are not a team that generally scores lots of points, but against teams that don’t really play a lot of defense they’ve been able to score at a solid clip. In their three losses, they’ve failed to break the 60-point mark, and squeaked out a 62-60 win over Cincy in Morgantown before ripping the Squawks.
*IF* K-State could play a shred of defense, this might be a winnable basketball game. But the 2025-26 TangCats patently refuse to play even rec-ball defense and have held just two opponents under 70 points this season — UNC Greesnboro, who dropped in 64 in the opener, and Mississippi Valley State, who managed just 49 in that rout. The Cats just got their first Big 12 win squeaking past an equally-bad Utah squad 81-78 in a game that should’ve never been that close.
Expect a flipped script from that game, or worse. Our best hope is that the Cats can score more in Morgantown than the squad that won in Bramlage on Saturday did on their trip east. At least it will lessen the sting.
We’ve got an 7:37pm CT tipoff from the newly-renamed Hope Coliseum in Morgantown, and you can catch the action on FS1, and streaming on FoxSports.com, with Jake Eisenberg (play-by-play) and Nick Bahe (analyst) on the call.
If you don’t have FS1, or can’t access the stream, the game can be heard across portions of the 28-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) calling the action. The game will also be available online at K-Statesports.com and via the Varsity Network app, as well as on satellite radio at Sirius/XM Ch. 389. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and social media updates (@KStateMBB) will also be a part of the coverage.
Go Cats!
