Oklahoma vs. Kansas State: Sooners Were Swept by Cats Last Season

It’s hard to take you mind off a game as memorable as the Monday showdown between No. 1 KU and No. 2 OU – or was is the other way around – but the Sooners have no option but to move on and set their sights on the next game up: Oklahoma vs. Kansas State.

The Sooners are at home at Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday, when they will host head coach Lon Kruger’s alma mater, Kansas State. The Wildcats are off to a 10-4 start to the 2015-16 season, but have lost their first two conference games.

Ordinarily, having to go on the road following two consecutive losses and face the No. 2 team in the land would seem like a scenario in which little good could come out of it, but in this case, Kansas State could find itself in a position to make the best of a less-than-desirable situation.

The home-team Sooners must be mindful of a potential letdown after Monday night’s exhaustive, triple-overtime contest with Kansas. The five OU starters played a bunch of minutes in that hotly contested battle royal between the nation’s top-two ranked teams. How that will affect their performance at home against K-State should be known fairly quickly into Saturday’s game with the Wildcats.

Jan 2, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners center Akolda Manyang (30) grabs a rebound in action against the Iowa State Cyclones during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

If you don’t bring your “A” game every time out, teams in the Big 12 are too good and you could get beat as easily as not. That is something the Sooners will have to guard against not just on Saturday but throughout this season in the league rated as the best basketball conference in the country. A year ago, for example, Kansas State swept both games from the Sooners, winning by three at home and on the road.

No doubt Kruger will remind his guys of that fact and also of the danger of not taking Kansas State for granted. They may not be of the same championship caliber of the other Kansas team in the conference, but they do have the ability to beat teams that don’t play their best or don’t take them seriously. Case in point: This same K-State team led then-No. 7 North Carolina by seven points with four minutes to go in the game earlier this season. The Tar Heels went on to win the game, but the point remains, you cannot take any opponent for granted.

Expect to see more playing time from the Sooner bench. Kruger acknowledged on his regular weekly program on Sooner TV this week that the OU starters were logging a lot of minutes – four OU starters played more than 45 minutes in three overtimes against Kansas and a fifth, Isaiah Cousins, likely would have also except he encountered early foul trouble and sat for a long time in the first half. In any case, look for the Sooner reserves to see more action against Kansas State on Saturday.

One thing Oklahoma can count on from the visiting Wildcats on Saturday is a very physical game. Three of K-State’s four losses this season have come against teams ranked in the top-25. The Cats have dropped their first two Big 12 games by a combined seven points, losing at home by four to West Virginia last weekend and by three points at Texas on Wednesday night.

Three Kansas State starters are averaging in double figures in scoring, led by Wesley Iwundu with a 13.1 average. Justin Edwards, averaging 12.6, has hit double figures in scoring in 11 of the Wildcats’ 14 games this season.

Tough on-the-ball defense is an important part of Kansas State’s game. The Wildcats lead the Big 12 in scoring defense and rank 23rd nationally in that category, allowing opponents an average of 63.2 points a game. Oklahoma ranks fourth in the county in scoring offense (averaging 88.5 points a game) behind the nation’s No. 2 scoring leader, Buddy Hield, who is coming off a 46-point scoring effort against Kansas on Monday night.

Oklahoma will be a stern test for the Kansas State defense. The Sooners rank in the top 15 in the country in both scoring offense and scoring margin (+17.8) and complement that with great defense of their own. OU’s opponents have averaged 70.7 points per game.

Three Key Factors to Watch for in This Game

Oklahoma’s offense vs. the Kansas State defense:

The Sooners have scored at least 80 points in seven straight contests and in 11 of 13 games. K-State is holding its opponents to under 70 points a game. Whichever team comes out ahead in this battle should come out on top in the game.