Kansas State Wildcats vs. Oklahoma Sooners: Lineups, time, TV and a prediction

The details

When/where: 7 p.m. Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum, Manhattan, Kansas

TV/radio: ESPN+ (streaming only service, subscription required); KKGQ (92.3 FM) in Wichita, KCSP (610 AM) in Kansas City.

Projected lineups

About Oklahoma (13-6, 3-3 Big 12): The Sooners are coming off a narrow victory over Mississippi State in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Oklahoma has played well of late. In its past three games, it has defeated Mississippi State and TCU while also nearly forcing overtime in a loss at No. 1 Baylor. The Sooners are one of the nation’s most skilled teams on offense, as they feature outside shooters at every possession. When they get hot, Brady Manek, Kristian Doolittle and Austin Reaves can all score 20-plus points. Reaves led Oklahoma with 21 points when Oklahoma defeated K-State 66-61 earlier this month at Lloyd Noble Center.

About Kansas State (8-11, 1-5): The Wildcats are coming off a 77-74 loss against Alabama in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Before that, they lost 81-60 at Kansas. This season has been a disappointment for Bruce Weber’s team, but it do show what it is capable of two weeks ago by throttling West Virginia 84-68 at home. It is unclear who will start for the Wildcats against the Sooners. Weber wouldn’t commit to a starting five on Tuesday, but it seems likely he will stick with the group that gave K-State a chance against Oklahoma. That means there’s a good chance junior guard Cartier Diarra comes off the bench for a second straight game while DaJuan Gordon and David Sloan start in the backcourt.

Prediction: This seems like a good matchup for the Wildcats.

K-State is good enough on defense to slow down Oklahoma on offense. And Oklahoma is bad enough on defense to allow K-State to score at a higher rate than usual.

The Wildcats led much of the way against the Sooners earlier this season, but Lon Kruger made some brilliant coaching moves (like switching to a zone defense) that caught K-State off guard and allowed Oklahoma to take control late. That seems unlikely to happen again in the rematch. The Sooners are 2-4 in true road games this season and they have lost seven straight games at Bramlage Coliseum. Kruger has never defeated a Weber-coached team in Manhattan.

There is also a bit of motivation to consider. This is K-State’s best shot at victory in a difficult stretch of games. After Oklahoma comes a road trip to West Virginia and then a home game against Baylor. The Wildcats will be big underdogs in both of those games, but they will a puncher’s chance against Oklahoma.

Here’s guessing K-State takes advantage and wins its second conference game of the season.

K-State 71, Oklahoma 68.

Kellis Robinett

The Wichita Eagle

Kellis Robinett covers Kansas State athletics for The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star. A winner of more than a dozen national writing awards, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.