Kansas State working to host November basketball tournament at Bramlage Coliseum
The Kansas State basketball team usually tries to participate in November tournaments that are located far away from Manhattan, ideally in warm and exotic locations.
This year, the Wildcats would rather stay home.
Bruce Weber told the Eagle on Monday that K-State is close to finalizing its own early season basketball tournament that will bring three other teams to Manhattan for a series of games at Bramlage Coliseum in late November.
“Hope to finalize something this week,” Weber said via text message.
Colorado is the most notable visiting team that is expected to participate in the tournament. The Buffaloes are coming off a 21-win season under coach Tad Boyle. If K-State and Colorado play in the Little Apple event, it would mark their first game since the Buffaloes left the Big 12 in 2011.
A pair of mid-major teams are expected to join K-State and Colorado in the tournament. A source said those teams will be Drake and South Dakota State, assuming every team agrees to contractual terms for the event.
The Drake Bulldogs won 20 games last season and finished eighth in the Missouri Valley standings. The South Dakota State Jackrabbits won 22 games and tied North Dakota State for the regular season Summit League championship.
For now, dates and ticket information for the potential are not known. But K-State athletic director Gene Taylor said last week that he is expected 25% capacity at all basketball games this season, which would mean around 3,000 fans could fit into the arena, which normally holds 12,528.
Weber said coming up with games for the 2020-21 season has been a “last minute scramble” because of the coronavirus pandemic, before adding that “scheduling is definitely not easy.”
K-State began looking into the possibility of hosting its own tournament after the Cayman Islands Classic, the event it was originally scheduled to participate in, was canceled. When the Wildcats signed up for that tournament, they expected to play three games on a tropical island starting Nov. 23 against a field that included Miami, Oregon State, Northern Iowa, Mississippi, Nevada, La Salle and Western Kentucky.
At first, the tournament was simply moved from the Cayman Islands to northwest Florida. But it was called off entirely when the start date of college basketball season was pushed back until Nov. 25.
Teams can begin practicing on Oct. 14.
It will be interesting to see what non-conference games end up on K-State’s schedule whenever it gets finalized, as teams are only allowed to play 25 games this season, plus an early season tournament. Teams usually play 31 games in the regular season.
The Big 12 has decided to move a portion of its games into December in order to spread out its double round-robin slate.
Not much else is known about K-State’s schedule. Hosting a November tournament will move it one step closer to completion.