Scott Fritchen

One of the smoothest long-range shooters to step foot inside Bramlage Coliseum in three decades saunters down the wide tunnel to the basketball court shortly after 5:30 p.m. Saturday wearing a white No. 11 Kansas State jersey and his white socks. Indomitable Brendan Hausen

An impassioned Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman in his weekly news conference said that "in life you have to turn the page" as the 20 th -ranked Wildcats, rejuvenated from a bye week, prepare for a Saturday-night showdown against Arizona State after a disheartening loss at Houston dealt a minor blow to Big 12 Championship Game hopes.

Jumping three spots in the AP Top 25 rankings isn't necessarily a big deal, Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie contends. But the Wildcats, who moved three spots to No. 10 this week, assuredly have a target on their back.

The last time Kansas State played LSU, a sophomore named Cam Carter led the Wildcats with a game-high 21 points in a 75-60 win at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

On a drizzly, cool Thursday morning of April 25, 2024, Bobby Sloan steered his black F-150 into the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot in Wanamaker Square in Topeka, Kansas, and shut it off after stopping beside a white Ford Explorer. Out stepped a man in his 70s who Sloan had never seen in his life. Sloan, a 42-year-old marketing director for Outdoor Bank in Manhattan, had labored for weeks for this grand moment. After introductions, Sloan said, "I was hoping this was real." The man laughed.

Expect a fresh and eager Kansas State team when the 16 th -ranked Wildcats meet the Arizona State Sun Devils as Big 12 Conference foes for the first time Saturday with both teams tied for third place in the league standings with three games remaining.

Here we are in the postgame news conference at Bramlage Coliseum. No. 10 Kansas State has just laid an 86-68 whipping on a very good Creighton team that will likely win 20 games this season, and K-State head coach Jeff Mittie is lamenting how his team was late on some timely passing and how there were times in transition that they couldn't take advantage of Creighton because not enough players were downcourt and how the overall timing was just a little bit off — perfectionism at its finest. These are small concerns. These are the type of concerns that one of the nation's top teams loves to have this time of year.

Kansas State sixth-year senior right guard Taylor Poitier stood surrounded by reporters on Monday and grew misty-eyed at the realization that he was on the cusp of playing at Bill Snyder Family Stadium for the last time.

Last year, just three games into her Kansas State career, Zyanna Walker came off the bench and was charged with defending Caitlin Clark. Walker, a redshirt freshman from Wichita and the No. 15 overall player in the Class of 2022 by Prep Girls Hoops, helped hold Clark to 9-of-32 shooting from the floor in 37 minutes, while Walker scored 12 points to help the Wildcats to a 65-58 win at No. 4 Iowa in Iowa City.

Immediately after the final buzzer and as Kansas State players began a victory lap around the lip of Bramlage Coliseum to slap hands with their eager fans, the children packed tightly together along the rails in Section 25 saw him coming, and they began chanting his name. "Ugo! Ugo! Ugo!" Ugonna Onyenso, the 7-footer known as "Ugo," smiled wide and shook his head bashfully, touching each of the children's hands as he headed toward the locker room.