K-State Wildcats vs. Marquette Golden Eagles: Basketball lineups, TV, score prediction
The details
When/where: 8 p.m. Wednesday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan.
TV/radio: ESPN2/U; KKGQ (92.3 FM) in Wichita, KCSP (610 AM) in Kansas City.
Projected lineups
P | No. | Marquette | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 10 | Justin Lewis | 6-7 | Fr. | 15.9 |
F | 35 | Kur Kuath | 6-10 | Sr. | 6.5 |
G | 1 | Kameron Jones | 6-4 | Fr. | 7.6 |
G | 22 | Tyler Kolek | 6-3 | Fr. | 7.7 |
G | 32 | Darryl Morsell | 6-5 | Sr. | 14.8 |
P | No. | Kansas State | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 1 | Kaosi Ezeagu | 6-10 | Jr. | 8.6 |
F | 25 | Ismael Massoud | 6-9 | So. | 5.6 |
G | 3 | Mike McGuirl | 6-3 | Sr. | 6.9 |
G | 13 | Mark Smith | 6-4 | Sr. | 8.4 |
G | 1 | Markquis Nowell | 5-8 | Jr. | 12.3 |
About Marquette (7-2): A familiar face is coaching the Golden Eagles this season. Shaka Smart, who spent the six years at Texas, took over at Marquette during the offseason. This will be his seventh trip to Bramlage in seven seasons. Kur Kuath also has some history with K-State. He spent the past three seasons at Oklahoma and his cousin is former Wildcat forward Makol Mawien. The Golden Eagles own impressive victories over Illinois, Mississippi and West Virginia. But they have lost two of their last four, falling to St. Bonaventure and Wisconsin. Marquette plays fast and uses a full-court press on defense. Justin Lewis and Darryl Morsell are its two most dynamic scorers.
About Kansas State (5-2): The Wildcats are coming off a 65-59 victory over Wichita State, which was one of their most significant wins since they shared a Big 12 championship with Texas Tech in 2019. Nijel Pack missed that game with a concussion and is questionable to play against Marquette. Markquis Nowell will fill in for him in the starting lineup if he isn’t ready to return to the court. Kaosi Ezeagu has been a pleasant surprise for K-State this season and scored 14 points last time out against the Shockers. The Wildcats will be looking for more production out of Ismael Massoud and Davion Bradford, who have both been quiet in recent games.
Prediction: K-State has won all five of its games against unranked teams this season, and this is another opportunity for Weber’s team to take care of business as a home favorite.
A win would be important for the Wildcats. They have played in front of sparse crowds so far at Bramlage Coliseum, but there is some positive buzz surrounding the program following Sunday’s rivalry win over Wichita State. They could win over some fans by following that up with a good showing against Marquette.
The Wildcats have been playing excellent defense in their recent games, holding North Dakota (42), Albany (43) and Wichita State (59) all below 60 points.
They haven’t been quite as sharp on offense, particularly without Pack, and the Golden Eagles will challenge them with their full-court press. But K-State seems to have enough ball-handlers and scoring options to find the bottom of the net against an opponent that just allowed 89 points to Wisconsin.
K-State 72, Marquette 68.