It's time for a complete Preview & Prediction for today's Big 12 basketball game between Kansas State and Texas.

Saturday, February 22, 2020 // 1:06 p.m. CT // Bramlage Coliseum (12,528) // Manhattan, Kan.

PROMOTION

Throwback Game

The Wildcats will wear special two-tone lavender throwback uniforms, which were worn from 1973 to 1982, with the first 1,500 students receiving a lavender t-shirt.

TELEVISION

CBS Sports / CBS Sports App

Andrew Catalon (play-by-play) Steve Lappas (analyst) Jonathan Segal (producer)

RADIO

K-State Sports Network

Flagships: // KMAN 1350 & WIBW 580

Online: TuneIn.com [free] / www.kstatesports.com/watch [free]

Satellite Radio: XM 381 / Internet 971

Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play)Stan Weber (analyst)

TICKETS

www.kstatesports.com/tickets

(800) 221.CATS [2287]

Gameday: $25 (bench & GA)/$50 (chairback)

Wildcat 4-Pack: $75 ($18.50 each)

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Kansas State (9-17)

G: #2 Cartier Diarra 6-foot-4 Junior

G: #4 David Sloan 6-foot-0 Junior

G/F: #20 Xavier Sneed 6-foot-5 Senior

F: #23 Montavious Murphy 6-foot-9 Freshman

F: #14 Makol Mawien 6-foot-9 Senior

Texas (15-11)

G: #1 Andrew Jones 6-foot-4 Sophomore

G: #3 Courtney Ramey 6-foot-3 Sophomore

G: #4 Donovan Williams 6-foot-6 Freshman

F: #5 Royce Hamm, Jr. 6-foot-8 Junior

F: #33 Kamaka Hepa 6-foot-9 Sophomore

OPENING TIP

K-State (9-17, 2-11 Big 12) will host its first Saturday home game in more than a month, as the Wildcats return to play Texas (15-11, 5-8 Big 12) at Bramlage Coliseum. The Longhorns have won 2 of the last 3 meetings and will be attempting to sweep the season series for the first time since 2016 after a 64-50 victory on Jan. 11. The game will tip at 1:06 p.m., CT on CBS with Andrew Catalon (play-by-play) and Steve Lappas (analyst). This will be the first CBS game at Bramlage Coliseum and the first in the regular season since a 69-62 loss at Kansas on Jan. 17, 1998.

-Provided by K-State Athletics Communications

It has been over a month since K-State and Texas last met, a comfortable Longhorn win in Austin. The game was tied late in the first before a 24-4 Texas run bridging the first half and second half put the Longhorns up by 18 with 10 minutes left in the game. The Cats never threatened after that.

Texas has won four out of 11 games since over Oklahoma State, Iowa State and TCU (2). The Horns just broke a four-game losing streak with a home win over TCU, and I'm sure they look at a game in Manhattan as another chance to get a win in what has been another disappointing season for Shaka Smart at Texas.

No team in the league has had more injuries that Texas.

Jericho Simms, UT's leading rebounder and most efficient offensive player, is out for at least the rest of the regular season with back issues. Their best shooter, Jase Febres, is expected to miss the game after hyper extending his knee last week, and Gerald Liddell, a reserve post who hasn't played since mid January, will likely miss with a back injury. Leading scorer Matt Coleman missed Wednesday's win over TCU with a heel bruise, but will likely be available Saturday. Coleman scores nearly 11 points per game in Big 12 play. He is the UT leader in usage and a solid shooter and distributor.

That still leaves Texas with six top 100 recruits in their rotation of eight players.

Andrew Jones is coming off his best game in Big 12 play with 21 points and efficiency of 1.31, though he struggled quite a bit before that. Courtney Ramey scored 21 and 15 in the last two games but has an efficiency of 1.00 or worse in the last six, plus he's only 3-of-18 from three in the last five games. Donavon Williams started vs. TCU after being role player much of the year. He did score 13 vs. Iowa State, but has struggled much of the season and missed his last eight shots from deep. Royce Hamm has filled the four spot for Simms, but he isn't much of a scorer though he does rebound well. Hepa will likely be the final starter but has struggled after missing four games in January with an injury and only played five minutes vs TCU.

That leaves a couple of wildcard role players who both had huge games in the win over TCU. Kai Jones is coming off his best game of his career in scoring 10 points and grabbing six boards with an efficiency of 1.30. Even more impressive than that is Will Baker, who scored 20 win an efficiency of 1.40 vs. TCU after scoring five points the entire season going into that game. Brock Cunningham is a role playing swing man who may see action with all of the Longhorn injuries.

1. Ramp up the defense

The focus is often on the offense for this year's team, but the defense has slipped, too.

The defense ranks only seventh in the league, the same as the offense. The Cats have allowed 1.03 points per possession in seven of the last 11 games. Opponents have an eFG% of 51% or better in the last five games. The Cats are still turning people over 21%, or more, most games, but teams are finding it easy to score on non-turnover possessions. Texas is a bad offense that often struggles to score; the Cat defense needs to step up and force a 45% or worse eFG% and efficiency under 0.90.

2. Hit some threes

K-State has actually been pretty decent on twos much of the time in Big 12 play, hitting 48.7% to rank third in the league. However, the Cats are eighth in 3PT% at only 30.1%. UT is a weird defense, as opponents only take just over a fourth of their shots from three, well below anyone else in the league. Even a 35% afternoon from 3 with 6-to-8 makes would be a huge shooting game from K-State.

3. Get to the FT line

The one advantage in the advanced stats is getting to the FT line. Not only is this a chance for points (even with K-State's below average FT percentage of 63.1%), but it also can get a Texas team with injury issues in foul trouble. At this point K-State must take any advantage it can get.

Certainly a difficult game to project considering both team's recent struggles, Texas' injury issues and the drama K-State had Wednesday night at Texas Tech. As bad as this season has been for K-State, the Wildcats have essentially remained competitive in every game. If that trend continues today, simply playing hard and having a solid home court advantage may well be enough to beat Texas as currently constructed.

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