K-State releases Big 12 men’s basketball schedule

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Four Saturday home games, including three consecutive contests against Texas, Kansas and Iowa State to end the regular season, highlight the Big 12 Conference portion of the 2019-20 Kansas State men’s basketball schedule released today (September 18).

The Big 12 season tips off Saturday, January 4 when K-State travels to Norman, Oklahoma to play the Sooners and ends on Saturday, March 7 when the Wildcats host Iowa State on Senior Day. The Big 12 home opener will be Tuesday, January 7 against TCU at 8 p.m., CT.

“Our league continues to be, if not the best, but one of the best in the country from top to bottom, so there will be no easy games,” said eighth-year head coach Bruce Weber. “Our league was tops across the board in nearly every metric a year ago and expect all 10 teams to have a legitimate shot to make the NCAA Tournament once again. We are fortunate to have one of the best home courts in the country, and that will once again be important, for these nine high-caliber games at Bramlage Coliseum.”

Every team will play its 18-game conference schedule plus its Big 12/SEC Challenge matchup over a 10-week period without the benefit of a bye. The Wildcats will play six conference contests (three home and three on the road) from January 4-21 before its road game at Alabama in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday, January 25 then finish with 12 consecutive league games (six home and six on the road).

In all, K-State will play 16 of its 18 league games against teams that advanced to the postseason a year ago, including eight at Bramlage Coliseum. Eight of the 10 Big 12 schools advanced to either the NCAA Tournament (six) or NIT (two) highlighted by national runner-up Texas Tech and NIT champion Texas.

The nine-game home slate includes four Saturday games against West Virginia (January 18 at 5 p.m., CT), Texas (February 22 at 1 p.m., CT), Kansas (February 29 at 12:30 p.m., CT) and Iowa State (March 7), three Tuesday tilts against TCU (January 7), Texas Tech (January 14) and Oklahoma State (February 11 at 8 p.m., CT), a Monday game against Baylor (February 3) and a Wednesday contest against Oklahoma (January 29 at 6 p.m., CT).

The marquee home games with Texas and Kansas on consecutive Saturdays in late February will air nationally on CBS Sports, marking just second and third time that K-State has appeared on the network in the regular season, including the first time for a home game. It will mark just the second time that CBS has broadcast the Sunflower Showdown and the first time since 1998.

“It’s tremendous exposure for our program to play on CBS twice in the regular season especially at home,” said Weber. “It will be great to show off our gameday atmosphere to the rest of the country.”

The reigning Big 12 regular-season co-champions, K-State returns nine lettermen in 2019-20, which includes All-Big 12 honorable mention selection Xavier Sneed (10.6 ppg., 5.5 rpg.) and fellow senior Makol Mawien (7.0 ppg., 4.9 rpg.), from a squad that won 25 games and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season.

The Wildcats also return rising juniors Cartier Diarra (6.8 ppg., 3.3 rpg.), Mike McGuirl (3.6 ppg., 1.5 rpg.) and Levi Stockard III (1.8 ppg., 1.5 rpg.) as well as a highly-regarded signing class that includes a trio of Top 200 high school players in DaJuan Gordon, Antonio Gordon and Montavious Murphy and NJCAA All-American David Sloan.

Season tickets for the 2019-20 season went on sale June 24 with a variety of pricing options available, including the new Flex Season Ticket and the popular Wildcat 4-Pack and Young Alumni packages.

News and Notes from the 2020 Big 12 Schedule

• Breaking down the 18 conference games, there are nine games on a Saturday (five on the road, four at home), five on Tuesday (three at home, two on the road), three on Wednesday (two on the road and one on the road) and one on Monday (at home)… By month, there will be seven games in January, nine in February and two in March.
• In addition, four of the nine home league contests will also fall on a Saturday, including the last three of the regular season… These Saturday matchups include NIT champion Texas and NCAA Tournament participants Kansas and Iowa State.
• K-State will play six conference games (three at home and three on the road) before playing at Alabama in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday, January 25… The team will finish with 12 straight conference games (six at home and six on the road) from Saturday, January 29 to Saturday, March 7.
• K-State will mostly alternate home and road games in Big 12 with the notable exceptions of back-to-back home games against Texas Tech (January 14) and West Virginia (January 18) and consecutive road games against TCU (February 15) and Texas Tech (February 19).
• K-State will play 16 of its 18 Big 12 games against teams that advanced to the postseason (NCAA Tournament, NIT) a season ago, including eight in Bramlage Coliseum… Overall, the Wildcats play 12 games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2018-19.
• The Big 12 opener on January 4 is the latest start since the 2013-14 season at which K-State opened on the same date (January 4, 2014) at home against Oklahoma State… The Wildcats had opened Big 12 play January 3 or earlier in each of the last five seasons.
• K-State will open the conference schedule against Oklahoma for just the third time in the Big 12 era and the first time in Norman since 2008… The Wildcats are 5-8 against the Sooners in conference openers, but just 1-4 on the road with the lone victory coming 84-82 on January 12, 2008.
• K-State will open Big 12 play at home against TCU for the second time in series history with the first occurrence coming at home to open the 2014-15 campaign, a 58-53 Wildcat win on January 7, 2015.
• K-State will play Oklahoma and West Virginia twice in the first eight conference games, while the Wildcats will play Baylor, Iowa State and Oklahoma State twice in the last 10 league contests.
• The first edition of the Sunflower Showdown will be Tuesday, January 21 at Allen Fieldhouse, while the return trip to Manhattan will be Saturday, February 29… It will be the latest meeting in the series at Bramlage Coliseum since 2006 (March 4).
• K-State will play twice on CBS Sports with the Saturday matinees against Texas (February 22) and Kansas (February 29)… It will mark the first regular-season appearances on the network since it broadcast the Sunflower Showdown on January 17, 1998.

·         Sixteen of the 18 conference games will be broadcast on one ESPN’s family of networks, including six on the new Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

• The Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship will be played Wednesday-Saturday, March 11-14, at the Sprint Center in Kansas City… It will mark the 11^th consecutive season that the Championship has been played in Kansas City, all having been at the Sprint Center.

2019-20 Big 12 Schedule

Day                             Date                  Opponent (Time/TV)                                 

Saturday                   Jan. 4                at Oklahoma (TBD/Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

Tuesday                    Jan. 7                TCU (8 p.m./ESPN/2/U)

Saturday                   Jan. 11              at Texas (TBD/LHN)

Tuesday                    Jan. 14              Texas Tech (7 p.m./Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

Saturday                   Jan. 18              West Virginia (1 p.m./ESPNU)

Tuesday                    Jan. 21              at Kansas (6 p.m./ESPN/2/U)

Wednesday            Jan. 29              Oklahoma (7 p.m./Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

Saturday                   Feb. 1               at West Virginia (1 p.m./ESPN/2/U)

Monday                    Feb. 3               Baylor (8 p.m./ESPN2)

Saturday                   Feb. 8               at Iowa State (5 p.m./ESPN2)

Tuesday                    Feb. 11             Oklahoma State (8 p.m./ESPN2/U)

Saturday                   Feb. 15             at TCU (4 p.m./Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

Wednesday            Feb. 19             at Texas Tech (8 p.m./ESPN2/U)

Saturday                   Feb. 22             Texas (1 p.m./CBS)

Tuesday                    Feb. 25             at Baylor (7 p.m./Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

Saturday                   Feb. 29             Kansas (12:30 p.m./CBS)

Wednesday            Mar. 4              at Oklahoma State (8 p.m./ESPN2/U)

Saturday                   Mar. 7              Iowa State (3 p.m./Big 12 Now on ESPN+)

Courtesy: K-State Athletics