MANHATTAN, Kan. – On the strength of its run to the Elite Eight, the Kansas State men’s basketball team finished with a No. 19 ranking in the final USA Today Coaches poll released on Tuesday afternoon.
The Wildcats (25-12), which defeated Creighton, UMBC and Kentucky before falling to Loyola Chicago in the NCAA South Regional Final, was among four Big 12 schools to finish in the Coaches Top 25, joining No. 3 Kansas, No. 6 Texas Tech and No. 13 West Virginia. National champion Villanova was No. 1, followed by No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Kansas, No. 4 Duke and No. 5 Virginia.
It marks the first time that K-State has appeared in the final USA Today Coaches poll since finishing with a ranking of No. 20 at the conclusion of the 2012-13 season. It is the highest such ranking for the Wildcats in the USA Today poll since finishing at No. 7 in 2009-10.
K-State concluded its record-setting 2017-18 season with a 25-12 overall record, including a fourth-place finish in the Big 12 with a 10-8 mark, and the school’s 12th Elite Eight appearance. It was just the sixth 25-win season and the first since a 27-win campaign in 2012-13. Overall, the Wildcats have now advanced to the NCAA Tournament eight times in the last 12 seasons, including four times in coach Bruce Weber’s six seasons.
The Wildcats, which could return all five starters in 2018-19, has received preseason Top 25 rankings in a number of publications, including No. 10 by NBCSports.com, No. 12 in CBSSports.com and USA Today, No. 13 in The Athletic and Yahoo Sports and No. 19 in ESPN.com.
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Kansas State University, the nation’s first operational land-grant institution and a Carnegie Foundation Tier One university, is recognized as one of the nation’s best colleges with world-class research and academic excellence located in America’s No. 1 College Town (Manhattan, KS).
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TOM GILBERT
Associate Director for Athletics Communications | K-State Athletics