From K-State Athletics
Kansas State women’s basketball will open the Big 12 portion of the 2018-19 season on Wednesday, January 2 at Iowa State, as the league office has announced the complete Big 12 Conference schedule.
The conference schedule features a double round robin format for the seventh-consecutive year consisting of 18 games with squads playing each other twice. The team(s) that finish with the highest winning percentage in league games will be crowned the Big 12 regular season champion. The Big 12 is the only of the five peer conferences in which teams have to face each other twice during the regular season.
The Wildcats and Cyclones will meet in the league season opener for the third time in the last five years, as the teams opened the 2014-15 Big 12 season in Ames and the 2015-16 season in Manhattan.
Kansas State will play five of its nine games in the month of January in Bramlage Coliseum. K-State will host Oklahoma on Saturday, January 5, then welcome in Sunflower State rival, Kansas, on Saturday, January 12. K-State will continue a two-game home stand against Texas on Wednesday, January 16. The Wildcats will then host Oklahoma State on Wednesday, January 23, and end the month of January against TCU on Wednesday, January 30.
After the trip to Ames to begin the slate, K-State’s road schedule in the month of January unfolds with a trip to Waco, Texas, to face Baylor on Wednesday, January 9, followed by a trip to Lubbock,Texas, on Saturday, January 19, to tangle with Texas Tech. K-State will close out the month of January with a trip to Morgantown, West Virginia, on Saturday, January 26, to face West Virginia.
In the month of February, the Wildcats will play three of their seven games at home. K-State’s home schedule in the second month starts against Iowa State on Saturday, February 2. Following its first two-game road trip of the league season, K-State returns home to host Baylor on Wednesday, February 13. The Wildcats end the home portion of the February schedule on Wednesday, February 27, against West Virginia.
Kansas State’s February road slate starts with the Sunflower Showdown against Kansas in Lawrence on Wednesday, February 6. K-State continues its first two-game road trip to Norman, Oklahoma, on Sunday, February 10, against the Sooners. The Wildcats will embark on a second two-game road trip, starting at Texas on Sunday, February 17, and ending at TCU on Sunday, February 24.
In the month of March, K-State hosts Texas Tech on Saturday, March 2, and will end the regular season on Monday, March 4, at Oklahoma State.
Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena will host the 2019 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship for the seventh time. The postseason event was also contested in Oklahoma City in 2007, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Two first round matchups will be played on Friday, March 8, followed by quarterfinals on Saturday, March 9. Semifinals are scheduled for Sunday, March 10 with the final contested on Monday, March 11. The winner earns the Big 12’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
K-State will return eight letter winners from the 2017-18 season for the 2018-19 season, led by All-Big 12 selections Kayla Goth, Peyton Williams and Rachel Ranke. The Wildcats will also welcome in its highest ranked recruiting class during Mittie’s tenure with four freshmen: Christianna Carr, Ayoka Lee, Laura Macke and Savannah Simmons joining the roster for the upcoming season.
Kansas State concluded the 2017-18 season with an 18-16 overall record and a Round of 16 appearance in the 2018 WNIT. This was the fourth straight season the Wildcats reached the postseason under the direction of Mittie.
