Game Information
When: Saturday, January 10th, 2026
Where: @ Desert Financial Arena – Tempe, Arizona
What Time?: 2 P.M. CST
2025-26 Season
Record: 9-6
Big 12 Record: 0-2
Previous 3 Games
1/7: L – 104 – 76 vs BYU @ Away
12/29: L- 89 – 95 vs
Colorado @ Home
12/22: L – 75 – 78 vs Oregon State @ Home
Arizona State Personnel
Starters
Bench
Key Analytics
(Per KenPom.com – National Rank in ())
KenPom Ranking – 92
Offense
Adjusted Efficiency: 115.5 (71)
Adjusted Tempo: 70.6 (69)
Average Possession Length: 16.3 (76)
Effective Field Goal%: 52.3 (136)
Offensive Rebound%: 29.8 (222)
Three Point%: 34.1 (163)
Two Point %: 53 (131)
Defense
Adjusted Efficiency: 106.1 (122)
Adjusted Tempo: 70.6 (69)
Average Possession Length: 17 (147)
Effective Field Goal%: 52.7 (252)
Offensive Rebound%: 24.7 (13)
Three Point%: 34.1 (201)
Two Point %: 53.9 (256)
Arizona State Advantages
Adjusted Efficiency
Arizona State Offense: 115.5 (71)
K-State Defense: 104.9 (102)
Notes
Arizona State has been reasonably efficient on offense this season, not great, but it doesn’t stick out as a sore spot on a team covered in bruises. Kansas State’s defense tells the story of the season for the Wildcats. This team needs to be good defensively, and they’re not. Generally speaking, Jerome Tang coached teams improve on defense as the season moves along. Tomorrow would be an ideal time for it to at least improve from bad to average.
Adjusted Efficiency
Arizona State Defense: 90.9 (4)
K-State Offense: 116.9 (64)
Notes
In terms of offensive efficiency, the Wildcats aren’t bad. That’s not surprising because PJ Haggerty is a reasonably efficient player, and he has the ball in his hands most of the time. PJ is going to have to be on top of his game for K-State even to have a shot at keeping this one close. Arizona’s the type of team that can turn a 7-point lead into a 14-point lead in the blink of an eye. They keep scoring, and eventually, they find a way to stop you from scoring. All they need to do is string a couple of stops together, and the game can get out of hand.
Turnover %
Arizona State Defense: 19.9 (52)
K-State Offense: 16.9 (156)
This isn’t a good Arizona State team, but they’re relatively good at turning teams over with their defense. Anthony Johnson’s 2.8 steal % is 384th in the county, and best on the Sun Devils. For Kansas State, it’s not that PJ Haggerty is loose with the ball; it’s that he always has the ball, and every defense is geared up to stop him. This needs to be a patient, under control PJ game because Arizona State needs help scoring. If Kansas State doesn’t help them, it’s possible the Sun Devils simply won’t be able to score enough to win the game.
Kansas State Advantages
Adjusted Efficiency
Kansas State Offense: 116.5 (67)
Arizona State Defense: 122 (122)
Notes
PJ Haggerty is a good player. The ball is generally in his hands, and, as a result, the Wildcats’ offense is relatively efficient. Meanwhile, Arizona State plays defense with the urgency and togetherness of a group of guys that met each other over the summer. They’ve given up 90+ points in three of their last four games and don’t look like they are trending in the right direction. Haggerty should be able to control this game on offense. If he can refrain from turning it over, K-State’s offensive efficiency might win this game.
Brief Thoughts
This is a battle between two of the most disappointing programs and coaches in the Big 12. Bobby Hurley’s team went 23-13 in 2023. They won a combined 27 games in the 2024 and 2025 seasons and are off to a shaky start in 2026. Hurley’s seat was hot coming into this season, and he’s done nothing to cool it off. He assembled a team more resembling the French Foreign Legion than a Big 12 program. They’ve got players from Senegal, Argentina, Montenegro, and Belgium trying to adjust to college basketball while trying to win games in the Big 12, and it’s not going super great.
Jerome Tang deploys its own group of foreign mercenaries, but they play a more complementary role to Haggerty, Castillo, Bashir, and Johnson. When they haven’t been up against elite competition, and Arizona State is far from elite, they’ve been able to put the ball in the basket at a decent rate.
They are essentially the same flawed teams, built in the same short-sighted way, but Kansas State has PJ Haggerty.
Predictions
KenPom
Arizona State: 84
Kansas State: 85
Drew
Arizona State: 77
Kansas State: 82
Like I said, these are similarly flawed teams, but one has an All-American and the other doesn’t. I’ll take Kansas State to win this one and keep hope alive going into this four-game stretch of winnable games. If they have any inkling of making the tournament, perhaps even any tournament, they need to go 3-1 at least, if not 4-0, over the next four games, starting tomorrow afternoon in the desert.
This is a must-win game.
