Five takeaways from Kansas State’s convincing basketball win over UNC Greensboro
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- K-State overcame an early 19-9 deficit, rallied in second half to win.
- Tighter rotation with Bashir, Johnson, Haggerty and Kostic created spacing.
- Defense tightened after halftime, forced tough shots and limited UNC Greensboro.
The Kansas State men’s basketball team began the 2025-26 season with a convincing 93-64 win against UNC Greensboro on Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.
It was far from a perfect effort from the Wildcats, but they overcame some early adversity and won big on opening night thanks to 27 points from PJ Haggerty, 22 points from Nate Johnson and 16 points from Abdi Bashir.
Up next: K-State will host Bellarmine at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Until then, here are takeaways from Tuesday’s action:
Scary start, exciting finish for the Wildcats
The first 10 minutes of the season were not pretty for K-State.
UNC Greensboro dominated the opening moments at Bramlage Coliseum and raced to a 19-9 lead midway through the first half. Things were going so poorly for the home team that Jerome Tang called timeout and did his best to make adjustments.
Anyone tuning into the ESPN+ stream hoping for a stress-free debut for K-State was disappointed. K-State faced adversity on opening night.
But the Wildcats handled it well. K-State fought back from that deficit and only trailed by one point, 34-33, at halftime. Then they kicked it into high gear in the second half and pulled away for a comfortable victory.
The key was finding a lineup that Tang could trust in a game that counts. K-State had the most success once it settled on a tighter rotation that featured an extra shooter instead of starting wing Mobi Ikegwuruka.
When Abdi Bashir, Nate Johnson, PJ Haggerty and Andrej Kostic were on the floor together, good things happened.
They combined to make 13 3-pointers and score 74 points. Their talents created extra spacing for K-State to work with, and the Wildcats took advantage.
The Wildcats outscored the Spartans 84-45 over the final 30 minutes.
K-State improved on defense after two preseason clunkers
There was a noticeable difference in intensity for this game compared to what K-State experienced during preseason exhibitions against Missouri and Newman.
The Wildcats scored like they were the Golden State Warriors when the games didn’t count. They reached 90 points against the Tigers and then eclipsed 110 against the Jets.
But those big outings were spoiled at times because of major problems on defense.
Well, things got better in that area for the season-opener. K-State played a more physical style of defense against UNC Greensboro and held the Spartans to 0.853 points per possession on 38% shooting.
The Wildcats made them fight and claw for every bucket.
As noted above, it wasn’t pretty early on. But the Wildcats wore their opponents down as the game went on and proved that they can do more than simply try and win a shootout.
Andrej Kostic gave the Wildcats a lift off the bench
Tang curiously chose to use Andrej Kostic in a limited role during K-State’s preseason games.
But the 6-foot-6 newcomer from Serbia may have carved out a bigger role for himself after the way he played against UNC Greensboro. Kostic came off the bench to make a pair of 3-pointers on his way to nine points.
He also played solid defense and helped K-State in other ways. He was a difference-maker in just 16 minutes of action
Nate Johnson was the player of the game
He didn’t receive the same kind of preseason hype as his backcourt teammates, but Nate Johnson was far and away the best guard on the floor during Game 1.
The Akron transfer did a lot of everything for K-State as he finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
He flirted with a triple-double in his first game with the Wildcats. Not too shabby.
The most impressive thing about his game was that he didn’t seem to be focused on scoring. He pushed the ball, played defense, went after rebounds and sent dimes to his teammates.
Abdi Bashir showed off his shooting touch
The Monmouth transfer showed the home crowd why Tang called him “the best shooter in the country” at Big 12 Media Day.
Bashir lit up the scoreboard by draining 4 of 5 shots from 3-point range in the second half of this game.
Once he saw one perimeter shot go down, the next few came easily for him.
Bashir finished the day with 16 points in 21 minutes of action. He needs to learn to do more than just shoot in order to make a bigger impact for the Wildcats. But he can help this team when he makes shots the way he did on opening night.