2025-26 Kansas State MBB: Game 19 vs Utah

This is flat-out awful. For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Kansas State Wildcats are off to an 0-5 start in Big 12 play, and have fallen to .500 overall at 9-9. The last time the Wildcats were this bad was during the tenure of Tom Asbury, easily the worst run for K-State basketball since WWII. That’s not company you want to be keeping if you are Jerome Tang.

So tonight is big for all the wrong reasons. The visiting Utah Utes enter tonight also at 9-9, but picked up that 9th win over TCU this past weekend earning their first conference win of the season to sit at 1-4 in Big 12 play. But the Utes are in their first season under first-year head coach Alex Jensen, who is rebuilding after a weak run under Craig Smith that saw him canned at the end of last season. It was expected for the Utes to struggle this season. It was not expected for the Cats to be this bad in 2025-26.

Maybe it’s because they regularly refuse to play defense. Or maybe it’s because they are one of the most foul-prone teams in the country (called for over 23 fouls per game to rank near the worst in all of D1 basketball). Or maybe they are a poorly-coached collection of dudes who have gotten their paychecks and are already checked out. Whatever it is, this Kansas State team is very very bad. And tonight, against the other really really bad team in the Big 12 is their last good hope for a conference win.

K-State needs to win tonight. They need to win because if they don’t, there’s a very real chance they finish at 0-18 in Big 12 play. And even Tom Asbury didn’t coach a team to a winless conference record.

We’ve got an 8:05pm CT tipoff from Bramlage Coliseum, and you can catch the action on CBS Sports Network, and streaming on CBSSports.com, with Tom McCarthy (play-by-play) and Chris Walker (analyst) on the call.

If you don’t have CBS Sports Network, the game can be heard across portions of the 28-station K-State Sports Network with Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play) and Stan Weber (analyst) calling the action. The game will also be available online at K-Statesports.com and via the Varsity Network app, as well as on satellite radio at Sirius/XM Ch. 387. Live stats are also available at k-statesports.com, and social media updates (@KStateMBB) will also be a part of the coverage.

Go Cats!