No. 8 Kansas Will Face Struggling Wildcats at Home

No. 8 Kansas will face Kansas State on Monday night in Manhattan, Kan., with the teams’ seasons trending in opposite directions.

Kansas (18-4, 6-3 Big 12) is coming off a 78-65 victory over No. 4 Houston in front of a frenzied crowd on Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. The Jayhawks will face a Kansas State team (14-8, 4-5) that has lost four straight games after falling to Oklahoma State 75-72 on the road Saturday.

The Jayhawks scored the most points against the Cougars this season. Houston came in averaging 52.9 points allowed per game, and the Jayhawks hit 53 points with 14:17 left in the second half.”

I didn’t anticipate getting off to that good of a start,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “We thought the best way to attack them was to use all 50 feet wide and 47 feet long, and then, hopefully, be able to play behind their aggressiveness to start the game. We did that perfectly.”

The Jayhawks led by as many as 20 points in the second half and never saw the lead dip into single digits after that. They shot 68.9 percent from the field against a team that leads the nation in field-goal percentage defense at 36.9 percent.

Kansas State is struggling on offense, especially during the losing streak, averaging just 61 points per game during the past four games. On Saturday, they jumped out quickly, building an eight-point lead on multiple occasions in the first half. But a 12-0 run by Oklahoma State gave the Cowboys the lead, and they never looked back.

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang compared the Wildcats’ current struggles to a popular movie plot.”‘Die Hard’ wouldn’t be great if Bruce Willis got killed in the first scene,” Tang said. “This is our movie. We can choose to be victims, or we can choose to be stars. We are going to choose to be stars in this movie. We’re going to be the one to determine how it turns out, not somebody else or the narrative or the obstacles that are in our way.”

Cam Carter, Tylor Perry and Arthur Kaluma are the only consistent scorers on the Kansas State roster, and they’re too inconsistent. Perry led the Wildcats against the Cowboys with 19 points, but he was scoreless in the first half. Carter had 17 and Kaluma had 14 against the Cowboys. Carter was held to just five points on 2-for-12 shooting in the Wildcats’ 73-53 loss to Oklahoma earlier in the week.”

Things are not getting away from us,” Tang said after that loss. “We’re in the best league in America, and I’ve said from the very beginning of the year that if you get nine wins in this league, you’re going to the NCAA Tournament. Nothing has changed for us.”Self knows that it won’t be easy to win in Manhattan, despite Kansas State’s current struggles.”

The atmosphere we’ll play in on Monday will be very comparable to the atmosphere Houston played in today,” he said Saturday. “We’ll have to go over there and play well. Regardless of what’s transpired, I don’t think that will play a big factor in them being excited to play on Monday.”

  1. College Sports News

    WCC to Add Grand Canyon and Seattle in 2025

    WCC adding Seattle U and Grand Canyon University

    WCC adding Seattle U and Grand Canyon University

    Seattle and Grand Canyon will be leaving the Western Athletic Conference and moving to the West Coast Conference starting July 2025.

    The nine current members of the conference are private universities with a religious affiliation. Seattle is a Jesuit institution, while Grand Canyon, situated in Phoenix, is a Christian college.

    Grand Canyon’s basketball achievements were a significant factor in attracting WCC commissioner Stu Jackson. The team has participated in the last two NCAA Tournaments and three of the previous four under the leadership of coach Bryce Drew.

    As the 12th-seeded Antelopes defeated fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s before losing to Alabama in the tournament this season.

    Saint Mary’s is currently a member of the West Coast Conference.

    The WCC, while also integrating Oregon State and Washington State this autumn (excluding football), will expand from 11 to 13 members by the 2025-26 season.

    The future beyond 2026 looks uncertain, with Oregon State and Washington State appearing unlikely to continue with the WCC.

    The former Pac-12 schools are under a two-year contract, expiring on June 30, 2026. Sources from CBS Sports suggest that the odds of the two Pacific Northwest institutions staying are slim, with a move to the Mountain West or a new conference formation being more probable.

    Following the departures of Sam Houston and New Mexico State last year, Seattle and Grand Canyon’s exit from the WAC will reduce the conference’s membership to just eight by July 2025.

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  2. College Sports News

    Ex-Cal State Fullerton G Max Jones Commits to Kansas State

    Kansas State adds athletic wing in left-handed shooter Max Jones

    Kansas State adds athletic wing in left-handed shooter Max Jones

    Former guard of Cal State Fullerton Max Jones has made a decision to join Kansas State for his upcoming collegiate season, according to reports.

    Notable alternatives that Jones purportedly pondered were New Mexico, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Florida Atlantic, and Loyola Chicago.

    During the previous season with the Titans, Jones maintained an average of 15.3 points and 3.0 rebounds across 24 games, in which he started 21. He secured the second-highest scoring position within the team, alongside being the second in 3-pointers with 42 baskets and 41 steals.

    In the season prior, Jones held an average of 12.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in 32 games, amassing 34 three-pointers and 30 steals.

    Before making his way to Cal State Fullerton post the 2021-22 season, Jones spent two years at Division II Tampa, where he managed to achieve an average of 21.9 points across 21 games during his sophomore year with the Spartans.

    In the recent offseason, Kansas State acquired Dug McDaniel, a former player from Michigan recognized as one of the premier point guards available in this year’s transfer portal.

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  3. College Sports News

    Stanford Names Basketball Court in Honor of Tara VanDerveer

    View From The Top with Tara VanDerveer, Former Coach of Stanford Women’s Basketball

    View From The Top with Tara VanDerveer, Former Coach of Stanford Women’s Basketball

    Tara VanDerveer’s legacy at Stanford will now be visibly acknowledged, with the school revealing on Thursday that the basketball arena’s floor will bear the name of the esteemed Hall of Fame coach.

    At the age of 70, VanDerveer stepped down following her 38th season at the helm of the Cardinal.

    She steered Stanford to 14 Final Fours and secured three national championships (1990, 1992, 2021). VanDerveer embarked on her coaching journey at Idaho (1978-80) and later coached at Ohio State (1980-85).

    In January, she surpassed Mike Krzyzewski to clinch the title of the most successful college basketball coach in history, across both men’s and women’s teams. VanDerveer concluded with a remarkable 1,216-271 record, boasting a 1,064-220 tally with the Cardinal.

    Alongside the unveiling of the Tara VanDerveer Court at Maples Pavilion this November, Stanford also established an endowed position in women’s basketball for an assistant coach in VanDerveer’s honor.

    VanDerveer said in a statement, “This endowment will go a long way to strengthening the future of Stanford women’s basketball. I have many wonderful memories of leading the women’s basketball program at Maples Pavilion.”

    “It’s an honor, and a little surreal, to know that my name will be linked to both in these ways, and I look forward to celebrating with all our fans this fall.”

    Last month, Stanford appointed Kate Paye, one of VanDerveer’s longtime assistant coaches who played for the Cardinal from 1991-95 and began coaching under VanDerveer in 2007, as the new head coach.

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