By Toby Hammes
Big 12 seasons aren’t won in January — but they can be lost there.
Kansas State knows that as well as anyone. Last season, the Wildcats opened the New Year by dropping six straight Big 12 games, a January slide that left little margin for error before February even arrived. By the time the season stabilized, the damage was already done.
That recent memory is why January matters so much for the Wildcats again this season. In a league as deep as the Big 12, early conference games don’t decide the standings, but they often decide whether a team is building confidence or chasing it.
The contrast to last year isn’t hard to find. In 2022–23, Jerome Tang’s first season in Manhattan, K-State opened conference play with four straight wins, including ranked road victories at then-No. 6 Texas and then-No. 19 Baylor. By Jan. 23, the Wildcats had climbed all the way to No. 5 in the country.
