MANHATTAN, Kan. – 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.
-kstatesports.com-