K-State Wildcats vs. Baylor Bears: Basketball lineups, time, TV and prediction

The details

When/where: 3 p.m. Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan.

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

Projected lineups

About Baylor (4-0): The Bears were picked to win the Big 12 this season, and they backed up those high expectations with a 4-0 start that has them ranked No. 2 in the country. But it might be difficult for them to play up to their ranking on Saturday. Baylor paused all basketball activities more than a week ago because of COVID-19 issues and hasn’t played a game since Dec. 9. It was unclear until Thursday if Scott Drew’s team would even be able to play K-State as originally scheduled. In other words, the Bears might be a little rusty this weekend. But there is no doubting their talent. Jared Butler, Adam Flagler, MaCio Teague and Davion Mitchell all average more than 12 points per game. Baylor welcomes back several players from a team that was also one of the best in the country last season.

About Kansas State (3-4): The Wildcats have looked like a different team since opening the season by losing four of their first five. K-State has won back-to-back games since switching to a four-guard lineup that features three freshmen. Davion Bradford has averaged 16 points in those games, with Selton Miguel and Nijel Pack also contributing as freshmen. Mike McGuirl has helped them by becoming more of a distributor, while DaJuan Gordon is coming off his best performance of the season. But their victories have come against mediocre opponents Milwaukee and Iowa State. Can they keep their momentum going against a stronger opponent?

Prediction: The opening line for this game, which favored Baylor by a whopping 21 points, feels way too high.

K-State has been playing well of late and Baylor is coming off a COVID pause that prevented its team from practicing most of the week. Given those factors, some might give the Wildcats an outside shot at pulling off an upset against the Bears.

College basketball statisticians Ken Pomeroy (Baylor by 16) and Bart Torvik (Baylor by 11) project this to be a much closer game than the oddsmakers.

Baylor remains the obvious pick to win, because it returns an experienced nucleus of players that helped the Bears go 26-4 last season. They have more higher-end talent and depth than the Wildcats. They have also won all four of their games this season by an average of 27 points. Rusty or not, the Bears seem to have too much firepower for a Wildcats team that has been below average on defense.

Still, if K-State continues to play the way it has recently with its four-guard lineup, expect Bruce Weber’s team to give Baylor a closer-than-expected game.

Baylor 79, Kansas State 71.

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.