Kansas State Wildcats could boost NCAA Tournament chances by playing BYU next week
Time is running out for the Kansas State men’s basketball team to boost its chances of reaching the NCAA Tournament.
But the Wildcats are working behind the scenes to give themselves an extra opportunity to impress the selection committee.
Bruce Weber said Tuesday night that K-State is in the process of trying to add a replacement game to its schedule at some point next week.
“We are looking into it to be honest,” Weber said. “I don’t know where we fit it in. Do you let it affect your preparation for the games coming up? We’re going to have to have some good fortune go our way to be able to get one more game. We will see what happens.”
The Wildcats have an opening on their schedule because they lost a nonconference game against Morgan State (and later North Florida) earlier this season due to COVID issues.
Most assumed that game would not be made up. But there is renewed interest in playing a full 31 games in the regular season now that K-State (14-13, 6-9 Big 12) has fallen to the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Weber’s team needs every win it can get to buoy its postseason resume. Perhaps an extra nonconference game will help the cause.
As luck would have it, there is another team in a similar situation that also happens to be looking for an extra game — BYU.
The Cougars (19-9, 7-6 West Coast Conference) are in the market for a game next week to make up for a conference matchup it lost against Portland earlier this season.
“We’ve reached out to about 20 different teams,” BYU coach Mark Pope told reporters earlier this week. “Decisions on that will probably be made after everybody gets through the weekend. We have some teams that could play (next) Tuesday. A lot that could play Wednesday. Most of them, we’d need to be on the road to make it a Quad 1. It would be a resume-builder for the winner. That’s the idea.”
K-State is scheduled to close out the season with three conference games against Iowa State on Saturday, a road trip to Texas Tech on Monday and then another home game against Oklahoma on March 5.
It’s possible the Wildcats could host the Cougars at Bramlage Coliseum in a game of future Big 12 teams on Wednesday next week. The NET rankings would recognize it as a Quad 1 game for BYU and a Quad 2 game for K-State.
ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi listed BYU as one of the first four teams out of his projected field on Tuesday. He had K-State a few spots behind. It would be a high-stakes game for both teams.
But it would make things harder on K-State as it tries to close out its season against the Sooners by playing three games in a week. It would also force BYU to play an extra game before it heads to the WCC Tournament, which begins on March 3 in Las Vegas. The Cougars would likely play the following day in the quarterfinals.
“All that is in limbo right now. We’re just trying to evaluate,” Pope said. “We’re really aggressively, actively pursuing potential opportunities. So much would have to come together to make it happen. That’s something we’re talking about.”
It’s also possible K-State could try to bring in a lower-profile opponent for a home game. A win of any kind would make its overall record look better. It’s rare for a team to receive an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament without being at least four games over .500. Beating anyone would help those optics.
Of course, a loss could be disastrous. K-State added Division II opponent Fort Hays State to its schedule last year to replace a game it lost against Butler and suffered a humiliating 81-67 defeat. A repeat of that performance would torpedo any chance that K-State has at receiving an at-large berth.
Adding a replacement game to the schedule this late in the year comes with both high risk and high reward.
For now, K-State is considering its options.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 11:01 AM.