Two teams sporting purple and hoping to get back on the NCAA Tournament bubble will square off Saturday as Kansas State travels to Fort Worth, Texas, for a Big 12 game against TCU.
Kansas State is coming off an impressive win over No. 16 Cincinnati on Wednesday, while TCU lost 90-81 at Arizona in the conference opener for both clubs on Monday.
Kansas State (7-5, 1-0 Big 12) led virtually wire to wire against Cincinnati. Coleman Hawkins had 20 points and 10 rebounds in possibly his best game of the season. The Wildcats also got 17 points from Dug McDaniel and 13 from David N’Guessan.
Coach Jerome Tang was looking at the big picture after the victory.
“Big 12 opener, second game, any game, winning is hard,” he said. “Anytime you can get one, that’s huge. Our guys, I believe, they’re going to be excited (for TCU). Hopefully the plan is to build on what we did tonight. I don’t see us losing focus or relaxing. We just won, (but we’re) 7-5. We don’t have time to relax.”
Now the Wildcats must get things turned around on the road. They’ve lost 11 straight true road games dating back to Jan. 13, 2024. They’ve lost their last two games in Fort Worth.
TCU had its chances against Arizona. The Horned Frogs never led but were within one point of Arizona three times in the second half. Noah Reynolds had 23 points and Ernest Udeh had 10 points, 14 rebounds, but the rest of the Frogs were no match for the Wildcats.
“It was a good game, back and forth, but, simply put, we couldn’t guard well enough,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “I was excited to see what we could do against them defensively, but we just couldn’t get it done.”
The Frogs will be happy to be home, as they’re 7-0 in Schollmaier Arena this season and 0-5 away from home.
With leading scorer Frankie Collins out for the season with a broken foot, TCU is paced by Vasean Allette (10.7 points per game), Reynolds (10.6 ppg) and Trazarien White (10.2 ppg). Reynolds has a team-high 43 assists.
–Field Level Media
