K-State Wildcats vs. UNLV Rebels: Basketball lineups, time, TV and prediction
The details
When/where: 7 p.m. Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas.
TV/radio: ESPN+ (streaming service, subscription required); KKGQ (92.3 FM) in Wichita, KCSP (610 AM) in Kansas City.
Projected lineups
P | No. | UNLV | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 34 | Cheikh Mbacke Diong | 6-11 | Sr. | 3.0 |
G | 3 | Caleb Grill | 6-3 | So. | 14.0 |
G | 31 | Marvin Coleman | 6-3 | Jr. | 8.0 |
G | 13 | Bryce Hamilton | 6-4 | Jr. | 21.5 |
G | 5 | David Jenkins | 6-2 | Jr. | 10.3 |
P | No. | Kansas State | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 1 | Kaosi Ezeagu | 6-10 | So. | 9.3 |
F | 11 | Antonio Gordon | 6-9 | So. | 5.3 |
G | 00 | Mike McGuirl | 6-2 | Sr. | 12.3 |
G | 3 | DaJuan Gordon | 6-4 | So. | 11.0 |
G | 24 | Nijel Pack | 6-0 | Fr. | 11.7 |
About UNLV (0-4): It’s been a disappointing season for the Rebels, who are off to an 0-4 start coming off a winless trip to the Maui Invitational, which was played in Asheville, North Carolina this year. UNLV began the season with a home loss to Montanta State and followed that up with neutral defeats against North Carolina, Alabama and Davidson. Caleb Grill is a familiar face for K-State fans. The Wildcats recruited Grill as a high school player coming out of Maize, but he chose Iowa State and then transferred to UNLV. Bryce Hamilton could cause problems for the Wildcats on the perimeter. He is averaging 21.5 points.
About Kansas State (1-2): The Wildcats are coming off their first victory of the season. Beating UMKC by four points was hardly a convincing win, but it provided much-needed confidence for a young roster. Nijel Pack is off to an encouraging start for K-State. The freshman point guard is averaging 11.7 points and shooting 58.8 percent from three-point range. Sophomore guard DaJuan Gordon also looked solid against UMKC. He will try to build off that performance against UNLV.
Prediction: This would be a toss-up game if it was being played on a neutral court and both teams were well rested.
But that is not the case.
K-State, which has played all three of its games at Bramlage Coliseum this season, will have home-court advantage once again while UNLV is about to play its fourth straight game of the week away from Las Vegas.
Under normal circumstances, it would be interesting to see if the Rebels can create some problems for the Wildcats with their small lineup. Or perhaps K-State can use its size as an advantage and overwhelm UNLV with rebounds and close-range shots from Kaosi Ezeagu and Davion Bradford.
Alas, it’s hard to imagine UNLV playing up to its full potential in the final leg of a four-game road trip.
This is a game K-State should win.
Kansas State 73, UNLV 64.