K-State Wildcats vs. Oklahoma Sooners: Basketball lineups, time, TV and prediction

The details

When/where: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Center.

TV/radio: Fox Sports KC; KKGQ (92.3 FM) in Wichita, KCSP (610 AM) in Kansas City.

Projected lineups

About Oklahoma (7-4, 3-3 Big 12): The Sooners are coming off a week off. They were supposed to play Oklahoma State over the weekend, but that game was postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Cowboys’ roster. The Sooners have also been dealing with Covid issues, as Brady Manek and Jalen Hill have both missed games while in quarantine. But both players are expected to be available against K-State, albeit on a limited basis. Austin Reaves, now a senior, has continued to thrive for Oklahoma since transferring in from Wichita State and is averaging 15.8 points this season.

About Kansas State (5-9, 1-5 Big 12): The Wildcats have lost four straight games since Big 12 play resumed earlier this month. Their past two defeats have both been blowouts as they played with depleted rosters because of injuries and Covid issues. K-State only had four full-go players over the weekend during an 82-67 loss at Texas. They should have more healthy players at their disposal against the Sooners, but they still won’t be at full strength. Nijel Pack, Kaosi Ezeagu and Montavious Murphy remain out. Antonio Gordon, DaJuan Gordon, Seryee Lewis, Luke Kasubke and Carlton Linguard are all expected to be limited.

Prediction: Oklahoma will be a comfortable favorite in this game, but you can’t totally discount K-State’s chances. Why? Bruce Weber tends to have success against Lon Kruger.

K-State has an 11-5 record against Oklahoma since Weber took over as coach, and the Wildcats have won some of those games when few expected them to cover the spread, let alone pull off an upset.

If the Wildcats stick with a zone defense to keep their starters out of foul trouble and the Sooners respond by missing three-pointers, this game could come down to the final few minutes.

But Oklahoma could also win by a large margin if it knocks down jump shots or takes an early lead. The Sooners crushed TCU 82-46 in their last game and has one of the nation’s top offenses.

Even though there is some uncertainty to this matchup, it’s hard to see K-State challenging Oklahoma without a healthy roster.

Oklahoma 79, Kansas State 66.

This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

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.