K-State tries to forget struggles at Oklahoma State Wildcats can even Big 12 record at 3-3 with win today in Stillwater, Okla.

MANHATTAN —

Kansas State (13-4, 2-3 Big 12): The Wildcats are trying to build off the momentum they gained from beating Texas 84-80 on Wednesday. Rodney McGruder has paced K-State in recent games. He is averaging 15.7 points on the season and more than 23 points in Big 12 play. He scored 33 points against the Longhorns. Angel Rodriguez is expected to make his second straight start in place of Martavious Irving. Frank Martin moved Irving to the bench in an attempt to loosen up the junior, who has been pressing in recent games. K-State has lost its last two road games.

Oklahoma State (9-9, 2-3): When Martin is asked about Oklahoma State, he talks about Keiton Page. The senior guard has played in 119 games for the Cowboys, and is having a strong final season. The 5-foot-9 guard is scoring 14.8 points per game. He has needed to play well. He is the only upperclassman in Oklahoma State’s starting lineup. Le’Bryan Nash and Thomas Gipson are familiar with each other. Both grew up in North Texas and played against each other in high school. The Cowboys have won their first two home games in Big 12 play.

Thomas Gipson has never played a game at Gallagher-Iba Arena, and has no idea what to expect from Oklahoma State or its fans when he takes the court there at 12:30 p.m. today.

The freshman forward wants to keep it that way. When asked which of his Kansas State teammates he has turned to for a preview of the trip, he bluntly said: “Nobody.”

Wildcats coach Frank Martin has no problem with that approach. The way he sees it, the less his players know about playing in Stillwater, Okla., and K-State’s recent bad run there, the better.

“All that does is add pressure,” Martin said. “You don’t want guys going in there thinking about 1993 and 1998 and 2004, because all that is irrelevant to this year’s team.”

Still, there is no denying that Gallagher-Iba Arena has been a place of horrors for K-State over the years. It hasn’t won there since 1993, before the facility underwent a renovation to expand its capacity to 13,611, and has lost 11 straight road games to the Cowboys.

In that same time, the Wildcats have won in all nine of the Big 12’s other venues, including two victories at Kansas, three at Texas and six at Iowa State.

Successful former coach Eddie Sutton was in charge of Oklahoma State’s program for the majority of those games, with six of the defeats coming by double digits. When he had the Cowboys playing at top form and going to Final Fours, they protected their home court as well as any team in the country.

Martin has only been a part of two of those losses, but they stuck with him. He sounds like a war veteran experiencing a flashback when he talks about them.

“It’s crazy,” Martin said. “I’m just telling you, that building is hard. It’s hard. Last year, we’re managing the game and we just came apart at the seams.… two years before that, we went in there in a game and it’s the only time ever in my career that I’ve told my team, ‘We have to win this game.’

“We can’t finish them off. It’s hard. Their crowd is off the charts, and they feed off of that. Obviously they’ve got good players and Travis (Ford) does a great job with his team.”

The atmosphere might not be quite what it has been over the years today, given the Cowboys (9-9 overall, 2-3 Big 12) are playing mediocre basketball midway through the season. But K-State (13-4, 2-3) will have to overcome both the Cowboys and history if they want to end its losing streak. It’s a difficult task that will be made even harder with the absences of forwards Jordan Henriquez, Nino Williams and James Watson.

Henriquez, a 7-footer who was averaging 7.1 points and 5.1 rebounds, was suspended indefinitely from the team on Thursday for conduct detrimental to the team, Williams is sidelined with a severely sprained MCL and Watson is suffering from a lingering arm injury.

That leaves K-State down three scholarship players, including one major frontcourt contributor. Jamar Samuels and walk-on Victor Ojeleye are the only inside players on the roster with experience playing the Cowboys on the road. They will need all the help they can get from Gispon and freshman reserve Adrian Diaz.

Martin thinks both have been improving in the past few days and are up for the challenge. Gipson is already preparing himself for the added responsibility. He suffered through a slump at the beginning of Big 12 play before bouncing back with 11 points and six rebounds against Texas.

“Big 12 teams have size and they’re bigger and I came into the Big 12 games thinking it’s going to be easy,” Gipson said. “I just wasn’t mentally prepared for it.”

He doesn’t want to take another step back with his team depending on him.

Ending an 11-game losing streak at Gallagher-Iba Arena would be a nice step forward.

“It would mean a lot for us,” Gipson said. “For me to come in there and contribute and try to win down there, it would be good for us. We just need to build off this win over Texas and continue to move forward.”