GAME 10

KANSAS STATE (7-2) vs. SOUTHERN MISS (7-3)

Wednesday, December 19, 2018 >> 7:07 p.m. CT >> Bramlage Coliseum (12,528) >> Manhattan, Kan.

 

COACHES

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

Overall: 445-237/21^st season

At K-State: 132-82/7^th season

vs Southern Miss: 0-0

 

Southern Miss: Doc Sadler (Arkansas ’82)

Overall: 192-191/13^th season

At USM: 43-84/5^th season

1. Kansas State: 3-7

 

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP

Kansas State (7-2)

G: #2 Cartier Diarra

G: #3 Kamau Stokes

G: #5 Barry Brown, Jr.

G/F: #20 Xavier Sneed

F: #14 Makol Mawien

 

Southern Miss (7-3)

G: #0 Dominic Magee

G: #1 Cortez Edwards

G: #20 Kevin Holland

G: #55 Tyree Griffin

F: #32 Leonard Harper-Baker

 

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: K-State leads 4-3

In Manhattan: Southern Miss leads 2-0

Last Meeting: W, 70-64 (3/5/2012)

Weber vs. Sadler: 1-1

 

OPENING TIP

• Kansas State (7-2) continues its homestand on Wednesday night, as the Wildcats host Conference USA foe Southern Miss (7-3) at 7 p.m., CT. The contest is the second of four straight games at home venues to end non-conference play, which includes Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt (7-2) at the Sprint Center in Kansas City and a Dec. 29 matchup with George Mason (5-6) at Bramlage Coliseum.
• Led by former Nebraska coach Doc Sadler, Southern Miss enters Wednesday’s game with a 7-3 record, which includes road wins at SMU (74-64) and Troy (81-66) and a home victory over South Alabama (71-67). The Golden Eagles saw their 3-game winning streak end in Saturday’s 63-60 loss at Wichita State. Sadler has slowly rebuilt a Southern Miss program that was rocked by NCAA scandal, going from 3 wins in his first season in 2014-15 to 16 last season. The team is led by the duo of seniors Cortez Edwards (14.2 ppg.) and Oklahoma State transfer Tyree Griffin (13.6 ppg.).
• K-State holds a narrow 4-3 lead in the all-time series with Southern Miss, including a current 3-game winning streak (1993, 2008, 2012). However, the Golden Eagles have won both meetings in Manhattan, including 71-69 at Ahearn Field House on Dec. 17, 1987 and 74-60 at Bramlage Coliseum on Nov. 27, 1993. This will be the first meeting between the schools since the 2012 NCAA East Regional in Pittsburgh.
• K-State has won 27 consecutive games against non-conference opponents at Bramlage Coliseum since the 2015-16 season. Overall, the school has a 102-6 (.944) record at home venues (includes home games played at Bramlage Coliseum, INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita and the Sprint Center in Kansas City), including a 94-5 mark at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats have won 89 of their last 93 non-conference home games, which includes the current 27-game winning streak.
• K-State snapped a 2-game losing streak on Saturday, as the Wildcats used a 21-6 run in the last nine minutes to post a 71-59 victory over Sun Belt favorite Georgia State at Bramlage Coliseum. Down 53-50 with just under 10 minutes to play, the team erupted for 12 consecutive points, including 8 from senior Barry Brown, Jr., to start the 21-6 run that turned a 3-point deficit into a 14-point lead (71-57) with 1:22 remaining. Brown led four Wildcats in double figures with his 17th career 20-point game with a game-high 21 points, while senior Kamau Stokes (15), junior Xavier Sneed (14) and senior Dean Wade (12) also registered double digits.
• The K-State offense got back on track against Georgia State, as the Wildcats tied a season-high with 12 made 3-point field goals, connecting on 47.2 percent (25-of-53) from the field, including 46.2 percent (12-of-26) from 3-point range. Five players had at least 3 assists, as the team recorded an assist on 23 of its 25 made field goals. The performance came on the heels of averaging just 58.5 points on 36 percent shooting in the back-to-back loss at Marquette and Tulsa.
• Saturday’s win was tempered by injuries to Stokes and Wade, who both left the game in the second half due to injuries. Wade is expected to be out for an undetermined period of time, while Stokes is considered day-to-day.

 

NOTES ON SOUTHERN MISS

• Southern Miss (7-3) enters Wednesday’s game with wins in 3 of its last 4 contests, including home victories over South Alabama (71-67), Rust (106-46) and Millsaps (81-47), before Saturday’s road loss at Wichita State (63-60). The Golden Eagles have road wins over SMU (74-64) and Troy (81-66).
• Southern Miss was picked seventh (out of the 14-team league) in the Conference USA Coaches preseason poll with Western Kentucky tabbed as the favorite with nine first-place votes.
• The Golden Eagles return seven lettermen, including three starters (Cortez Edwards, Tyree Griffin and Dominic Magee) from a squad that posted a 16-18 record and finished tied for ninth in C-USA with a 7-11 mark.
• USM is averaging 77.2 points on 46.9 percent shooting, including 36.3 percent from 3-point range, to go with 39.3 rebounds, 18.2 assists, 8.5 steals and 4.3 blocks per game, while allowing 62.4 points on 38.6 percent shooting, including 31.7 percent from 3-point range. The team is connecting on 60.9 percent from the free throw line.
• Edwards paces three players averaging in double figures at 14.2 points per game on 45.5 percent shooting to go with 6.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.2 steals per game, while Griffin, a Oklahoma State transfer, is averaging 13.6 points on 43.1 percent shooting, including 35.8 percent from 3-point range, to go with a team-best 6.8 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Magee also averages double figures at 10.3 points per game on 50.7 percent shooting, including 45.9 percent from 3-point range, to go with 3.7 rebounds. Two others (LaDavius Draine and Leonard Harper-Baker) are averaging better than 8 points per game for the Golden Eagles, while Harper-Baker grabs 7.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per outing.
• USM is led by veteran head coach Doc Sadler, who has posted a 43-84 record in his fifth season at the helm of the Golden Eagles. He has rebuilt a program rocked by NCAA scandal under former coach Donnie Tindall to move from 3 wins in his first season in 2014-15 to 8 in year two to 9 in year three to 16 last season. Overall, Sadler is 192-191 in his 13th season as head coach, which includes stints at UTEP (2004-06) and Nebraska (2006-12).

 

SERIES HISTORY

• K-State and Southern Miss will meet for the eighth time in their histories on Wednesday with the Wildcats holding a narrow 4-3 edge. The series dates back nearly 30 years to a meeting at Ahearn Field House on Dec. 17, 1987, in which, the Golden Eagles posted a 71-69 victory.
• K-State has won the last 3 meetings between the schools (1993, 2008 and 2012). The Wildcats earned a 74-55 win over the Golden Eagles at the Sprint Center in Kansas City on Dec. 11, 2008 before earning a 70-64 victory in the 2012 NCAA East Regional at CONSOL Energy Arena in Pittsburgh.
• Southern Miss is 2-0 all-time in meetings in Manhattan, posting a 71-69 in the first matchup on Dec. 17, 1987 at Ahearn Field House and a 74-60 win on Nov. 27, 1993 at Bramlage Coliseum. The 1993 victory is one of just four losses in a home season opener in the arena’s 30-year history.
• K-State is 25-8 all-time against schools from Conference USA, including a 16-2 mark at home. The other matchups have come against Charlotte (0-1), Louisiana Tech (1-0), Marshall (3-1), North Texas (6-1), Old Dominion (1-1), Southern Miss (4-3), UTEP (3-1), UTSA (4-0) and Western Kentucky (3-0).
• The last meeting with a Conference USA opponent came on Nov. 21, 2013 at the Puerto Rico Tipoff, in which, Charlotte earned a 68-61 victory.

 

 

K-STATE WINS PARADISE JAM; FIRST TITLE SINCE 2011

• Included in K-State’s 6-0 start to season was a 3-game sweep to win the 19^th annual U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., Nov. 16-19, as the Wildcats knocked off Eastern Kentucky (95-68), Penn (64-48) and Missouri (82-67).
• The tournament championship marked the 14^th in school history and the first since winning the 2011 Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawai’i. It was also the sixth career tournament title for head coach Bruce Weber and his first with the Wildcats.
• Senior Dean Wade was named the tournament’s most valuable player after averaging 17.3 points on 61.8 percent (21-of-34) shooting with 6.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in three games, including a team-high 21 points in the title game against the Tigers, while fellow senior Barry Brown, Jr., was one of five players selected as Paradise Jam Tournament All-Stars.

 

MORE ABOUT K-STATE

• The Wildcats return 10 lettermen, including six players (Barry Brown, Jr., Cartier Diarra, Makol Mawien, Xavier Sneed, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade) that combined to start all 37 games a season ago, for a team that posted a 25-12 overall record (10-8 in Big 12 play) and advanced to the Elite Eight for the 12th time in school history and the first time since 2010.
• It marked just the sixth 25-win campaign in school history, including the second under head coach Bruce Weber, while the school advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in six seasons and 30th time overall.
• K-State returns 185 combined starts from 2017-18, which is the most of any Division I team in the country, and ahead of other schools which return all of its starts, including George Mason (165), Iowa (165), Lipscomb (165) and North Florida (165).
• K-State returns 93.2 percent (2,452 of 2,630 points) of its offense from 2017-18, which ranks 11th among Division I teams (trailing George Mason, Harvard, Wofford, Washington, Brown, Iowa, Wisconsin, UC Irvine, Syracuse and St. Francis). The Wildcats also returns more than 90 percent of their field goals made (869/92.7%), 3-point field goals made (232/91.3%), free throws made (482/96%), assists (476/93.3%) and steals (266/90.5%) as well as 80 or better percent of their minutes (6,558/85%), rebounds (905/80%) and blocks (98/89%).
• K-State returns seven of its top-8 scorers from last season, including three with double-digit averages [Wade (16.2 ppg.), Brown (15.9 ppg.) and Sneed (11.1 ppg.). Other returners include Kamau Stokes (9.0 ppg.), Cartier Diarra (7.1 ppg.), Makol Mawien (6.8 ppg.) and Mike McGuirl (3.3 ppg.). The Wildcats return their individual leader in scoring (Wade), rebounding (Wade), assists (Brown), steals (Brown) and blocks (Mawien).

 

‘CATS EARN PRESEASON RANKINGS

• K-State opened the 2018-19 season in the Top 15 in both major polls, as the Wildcats earned a No. 11 ranking in the preseason USA Today Coaches poll to go with a No. 12 ranking in the preseason Associated Press poll.
• It marks the first time that K-State has started with preseason rankings in both polls since the 2010-11 campaign when the school opened at No. 3 in the AP and USA Today Coaches polls.
• K-State appeared in the Preseason AP poll for the 17th time in school history, while it was the highest preseason ranking since starting the 2010-11 campaign at No. 3. It was also the 12th time debuting in the AP Top 15 (1951-52, 1952-53, 1953-54, 1956-57, 1957-58, 1958-59, 1961-62, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1975-76 and 2010-11).
• The Wildcats have received several preseason rankings, including No. 11 by NBCSports.com, Yahoo! Sports, Street & Smith’s, Lindy’s and Athlon, No. 12 by ESPN.com, CBSSports.com, USA Today, Stadium, No. 13 by The Athletic, Blue Ribbon Yearbook and No. 14 by SI.com.
• K-State was one of four Big 12 teams to place in both Top 25 polls, as Kansas was the unanimous No. 1 team. West Virginia was No. 13 in both polls, while TCU was ranked No. 20 (Coaches) and No. 21 (AP), respectively.

 

‘CATS PICKED SECOND IN BIG 12 PLAY; WADE NAMED PRESEASON POY

• K-State was picked to finish second by the league coaches in the annual Big 12 Preseason poll released on Oct. 19, as the Wildcats received 72 points and two first-place votes. Kansas was selected first, while West Virginia, TCU and Texas rounded out the Top 5.
• The second-place selection was the second-highest by a K-State team in the history of the poll, following the 2010-11 team which was picked to finish first with 119 points. In fact, the Wildcats have been picked to finish fifth or better on just six other occasions in the poll, including fourth in 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2014-15 and fifth in 2006-07, 2012-13 and 2013-14.
• Senior Dean Wade became just the second Wildcat to ever be selected the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year by the league coaches, while Wade and Barry Brown, Jr., were both named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team. The duo was joined on the team by Kansas’ Dedric Lawson, Iowa State’s Lindell Wigginton and West Virginia’s Sagaba Konate.
• Wade’s selection marked the second time that a K-State player has been named the preseason Player of the Year and the first since Jacob Pullen in 2010-11. It also was just the second time that two Wildcats appeared on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, following Pullen and Curtis Kelly in 2010-11. Wade and Brown are just the sixth and seventh players in school history to earn recognition to the Preseason All-Big 12 (since 1996-97), following Manny Dies in 1998-99, Kelly and Pullen in 2010-11, Rodney McGruder in 2012-13 and Marcus Foster in 2014-15.

 

NEXT UP: VANDERBILT (7-2)

• K-State will make the short drive to Kansas City, as the Wildcats will host SEC foe Vanderbilt (7-2) at 6 p.m., CT on Saturday at the Sprint Center. The game will air nationally on ESPN2.

TOM GILBERT
Director for Men’s Basketball Communications | K-State Athletics