By Tom Gilbert, K-State Athletics Communications
Nine games at Bramlage Coliseum, the CBE Hall of Fame Classic at the Sprint Center and a return to INTRUST Bank Arena for the Wichita Wildcat Classic highlight the 2015-16 Kansas State men’s basketball non-conference schedule released on Thursday.
The non-conference slate could include as many as six teams that participated in the postseason a year ago, including three from the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Competition could come from as many as nine different conferences, including the Atlantic 10, ACC, Big Ten, Big Sky, Mountain West and SEC.
The 113th season of K-State men’s basketball begins Sunday, November 6 when the Wildcats host Division II foe Fort Hays State in an exhibition game. The season officially gets underway less than a week later on Friday, November 13 when the squad hosts Maryland-Eastern Shore in the first of two opening round games of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.
“We felt with so many new players that we needed to get some home games under our belt early to develop some confidence in our team,” said head coach Bruce Weber. “Obviously, we have a nice challenge with the games in Kansas City at the CBE Hall of Fame Classic against a longtime rival in Missouri, a Big Ten team in Northwestern and a national championship contender in North Carolina. We then have a couple of road games to give us some experience in Georgia, who beat us at home last year, and Texas A&M, who has had two of the best recruiting classes in the country the past two seasons.
We finish it off with the game in Wichita against Colorado State, who has been one of the top teams in the Mountain West since Larry (Eustachy) took over, before the home games with Saint Louis and Ole Miss. The Saint Louis game starts a home-and-home series, which will give us the opportunity take D.J. (Johnson) next season. All in all, we feel like we have built a non-conference slate that works well with the make-up of our team.”
K-State previously announced several components of its non-conference schedule, including the CBE Hall of Fame Classic on Monday-Tuesday, November 23-24, the Wichita Wildcat Classic contest with Colorado State at INTRUST Bank Arena on Saturday, December 19 and the home game with Ole Miss in the Big 12-SEC Challenge presented by Sonic on Saturday, January 30.
In all, the Wildcats will play at least 18 home games in 2015-16, including the nine-game Big 12 slate with visits from NCAA Tournament teams Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and West Virginia. The complete Big 12 schedule, along with game times and television information, will be released at a later date.
“This type of schedule should be attractive to our fan base with a combined 21 games at Bramlage Coliseum, the Sprint Center and INTRUST Bank Arena,” said Weber. “I know that our fan base will again be out in full force to help our young team through a challenging series of games.”
The exhibition with Fort Hays State will be the first of four straight home games for the Wildcats, which also includes the opener with Maryland-Eastern Shore and tilts with Columbia on Monday, November 16 and South Dakota on Friday, November 20. There is a possibility of an additional exhibition game, which would be announced at a later date.
K-State will open the season on Friday, November 13 against a Maryland-Eastern Shore team, which won 18 games and advanced to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament a season ago. Columbia will be first Ivy League team to visit Bramlage Coliseum on November 16 and the first Ancient Eight opponent for the Wildcats since playing Pennsylvania in the 1975 NCAA Tournament. K-State is 9-0 all-time against South Dakota, which posted a winning record for the first time since 2010-11 under first-year head coach Craig Smith this past season.
The squad will make the short trek to Kansas City to compete in the championship round of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic on Monday-Tuesday, November 23-24 at the Sprint Center. The field includes five-time NCAA champion North Carolina, former Big 12 foe and current SEC member Missouri and the Big Ten’s Northwestern. The semifinals will be held on Monday with the finals taking place on Tuesday beginning with the consolation game, followed by the championship.
K-State has a long history with Missouri, playing 235 times between 1907 and 2012, including on 23 occasions in Kansas City. The Wildcats have also played North Carolina five times with the last meeting coming in 1989, while they have met Northwestern three times with the last match-up coming in 2002.
This will mark the Wildcats’ second trip to the CBE Hall of Fame Classic and first since going 1-1 in the 2010 event. K-State knocked off No. 18 Gonzaga, 81-64, in the semifinals before falling to No. 1 Duke, 82-68, in the championship.
Following the tournament, K-State finishes out the month of November with a first-ever match-up against South Carolina State on Sunday, November 29. The school is 25-0 all-time against teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
The Wildcats play their first true road game of the non-conference schedule on Friday, December 4 with a return trip to Georgia, which advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2014-15 with a 21-12 overall record. The Bulldogs won the first game of the home-and-home series last season on New Year’s Eve with a 50-46 victory at Bramlage Coliseum.
After a home game with Coppin State on Wednesday, December 9, the squad makes another trek to SEC country with a return game to Texas A&M on Saturday, December 12. The Wildcats have won three straight over the Aggies, including a 71-64 victory at the Sprint Center this past season. Texas A&M, which has one of the top incoming recruiting classes in the country, posted a 21-12 overall record and advanced to the second round of the NIT in 2014-15.
K-State will resume the Wichita Wildcat Classic basketball series on Saturday, December 19 against Mountain West foe Colorado State. The game will mark the third in Wichita in the last five years, following tilts with West Virginia in 2011 and Gonzaga in 2013. It will be the 13th meeting between the schools and the first at a neutral site. The Rams posted a 27-7 overall record during the 2014-15 season and was one of four No. 1 seeds in the NIT.
Following the trip to Wichita, the school finishes off the month of December with home games against North Dakota on Tuesday, December 22 and Saint Louis on Tuesday, December 29. This will be just the second meeting with North Dakota and the first since an 85-52 win on November 9, 2012 – the first of the Bruce Weber era at K-State. The Wildcats and Billikens will meet for the first time since 2004 in a highly-competitive series that dates back to 1929.
