GAME #13

KANSAS STATE (10-2) at IOWA STATE (9-2)

Friday, December 29, 2017 >> 8:05 p.m. CT >> Hilton Coliseum (14,384) >> Ames, Iowa

COACHES

Kansas State: Bruce Weber (Wis.-Milwaukee ’78)

Overall: 423-225/20^th season

At K-State: 110-70/6^th season

1. Iowa State: 3-8 (0-5 on road)

Iowa State: Steve Prohm (Alabama ’97)

Career Record: 160-54/7^th Year

Record at ISU: 56-25/3^rd Year

1. Kansas State: 4-0 (2-0 at home)

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Kansas State (10-2)

G: #3 Kamau Stokes

G: #5 Barry Brown, Jr.

G: #20 Xavier Sneed

F: #32 Dean Wade

F: #14 Makol Mawien

Iowa State (9-2)

G: #1 Nick Weiler-Babb

G: #4 Donovan Jackson

G: #5 Lindell Wigginton

F: #33 Solomon Young

F: #55 Jeff Beverly

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: K-State leads 137-87

In Ames: Tied 50-50

In Manhattan: K-State leads 80-27

Big 12 era: Iowa State leads 24-20

Active Streak: Iowa State, 4

Weber vs. Prohm: Prohm leads 4-0

OPENING TIP

• Kansas State (10-2) opens Big 12 Conference play on Friday night, as the Wildcats travel to Ames, Iowa to take on a surging Iowa State team (9-2) at Hilton Coliseum.  The Cyclones have won nine consecutive games since opening the season with back-to-back losses for the first time since 1975-76. The longtime conference foes will meet for the 99th consecutive season, as the two schools have met every year since 1918, and for the 225th time in their respective histories. It will mark just the 14th time the schools have met in a conference opener, including the first time since 2006.
• Friday’s game will be the earliest conference opener in school history, surpassing the distinction for the fifth consecutive season, and the earliest meeting with Iowa State since the 1978 Big Eight Holiday Tournament. The teams met 15 times in the Holiday Tournament held in Kansas City between 1948 and 1978 with the Cyclones posting an 8-7 mark. The Wildcats will play a Big 12 game in December for the second straight season and the earliest since a Dec. 30, 2016 matchup with Texas.
• K-State is 51-53 all-time in conference openers, including a 16-33 mark on the road, dating back to 1917, which spans five leagues (Missouri Valley, Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight and now the Big 12). The school is 8-13 in league openers in the Big 12 era with three wins (all at home) in five such openers under head coach Bruce Weber. The team has lost four straight Big 12 openers on the road (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015) and has just two wins in 12 all-time Big 12 road openers (Texas A&M/2001 and Oklahoma/2008) with the last such win coming 10 years ago at Oklahoma.
• Although K-State has historically dominated the series, owning a 137-87 edge since the first meeting in 1909, Iowa State has proved to be the better team of late, winning seven of the last 10 matchups, including a current four-game overall winning streak and a six-game win streak at Hilton Coliseum. The Wildcats’ last win against the Cyclones came in a last-second 70-69 victory at home on Feb. 28, 2015, while the last win in Ames also came in last-second fashion, 86-85, on Feb. 5, 2011.
• K-State enters Big 12 play with double-digit non-conference wins (10) for the 11th time in the past 12 seasons, including the fifth time in six seasons under head coach Bruce Weber. Among the Wildcats’ 10 victories are three away from the friendly confines of Bramlage Coliseum, which includes a neutral site win over George Washington (67-59) and true road wins at Vanderbilt (84-79) and Washington State (68-65). The two true road wins tie Oklahoma for the most in the Big 12.
• The starting five of juniors Barry Brown, Jr. (14.4 ppg.), Kamau Stokes (14.2 ppg.) and Dean Wade (13.2 ppg.) and sophomores Xavier Sneed (11.6 ppg.) and Makol Mawien (7.0 ppg.) are responsible for nearly 80 percent of the team’ scoring (724 of 921 points) and are collectively averaging 60.3 points on 49.7 percent shooting, including 35.1 percent from 3-point range. Starters own 37 of the team’s 40 double-digit scoring games.
• K-State has been solid in taking care of the basketball this season, ranking among the national leaders in assist turnover ratio (1.59/8th), turnovers per game (10.4/10th), fewest turnovers (125/11th) and turnover margin (4.8/19th). Since turning over the ball a season-high 17 in the opener against American (11/10), the Wildcats have averaged just 9.8 turnovers in the last 11 games, including seven games of 10 turnovers or less.

NOTES ON IOWA STATE

• Iowa State enters Friday’s contest with a 9-2 record after running its winning streak to nine games with a 55-49 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore in its last outing on Dec. 20. The Cyclones opened the year with consecutive losses to Missouri (59-74) on the road and to Milwaukee (56-74) at home, but have rebounded to post a tie for the sixth-longest winning streak in school history. The nine-game winning streak has included wins against Appalachian State (104-98), Tulsa (80-78) and Boise State (75-64) to claim the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Myrtle Beach, along with victories over Iowa (84-78) and Northern Iowa (76-65).
• The Cyclones are averaging over 75 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting, including 36.4 percent from 3-point range, with 38.2 rebounds, 13.6 assists, 5.5 steals and 3.7 blocks per game, while allowing opponents to average 69.4 points on 41.9 percent shooting, including 34.2 percent from long range. They are averaging 8.3 3-point field goals per game, which ranks fifth nationally, have three players with 14 or more 3-point field goals. The team is shooting 73.3 percent from the line.
• Senior Donovan Jackson (16.2 ppg.) and freshman Lindell Wigginton (15.5 ppg.) pack quite the 1-2 punch for the Cyclones, as the duo each rank among the Big 12’s Top 10 in scoring and combine for 58 3-pointers. Fellow guard Nick Weiler-Babb averages 12.5 points on 48.9 percent shooting to go with team-best averages of 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game. Freshman Cameron Lard (10.0 ppg.) also averages double figures, while bigs Solomon Young (6.0 ppg.) and Jeff Beverly (5.6 ppg.) average better than 5.5 points per game.
• Iowa State is led by third-year head coach Steve Prohm, who has a 56-25 record in his tenure. Overall, he has a 160-54 mark in his seventh season as a head coach, which includes a stint at Murray State (2011-15). He has advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times, including twice at ISU.

SERIES HISTORY

• This will be 225th meeting between Kansas State and Iowa State on the hardwood with the Wildcats holding a 137-87 advantage in a series that dates all the way to 1909. The 137 wins are the most against one opponent in school history, while the 224 meetings are the third-most, trailing only Kansas (286) and Missouri (236).
• The Cyclones hold a 24-20 lead since the inception of the Big 12 in 1997, including wins in seven of the last 10 meetings. ISU’s current four-game winning streak is the longest since also winning four in a row from 2000-01, while the current six-game winning streak at Hilton Coliseum is the longest since winning seven straight at home from 2000-06.
• The Wildcats’ last overall win against the Cyclones came at home on Feb. 28, 2015, as Wesley Iwundu stole the inbounds pass and dunked in the waning seconds for a 70-69 victory, while the last win at Hilton Coliseum came on last-second layup by Jacob Pullen, 86-85, on Feb. 5, 2011.
• Head coach Bruce Weber is 3-8 all-time against Iowa State, including a 0-5 mark at Hilton Coliseum.

TOM GILBERT
Associate Director for Athletics Communications | K-State Athletics