Oklahoma basketball: What fans need to know about OU hosting Kansas State

Three days after now No. 5 Kansas came to town, another ranked team from the Sunflower State pays a visit to the Lloyd Noble Center as the Oklahoma basketball men play host to No. 12 Kansas State.

The timing is less than ideal for a downtrodden and disheartened group of Sooners mired in a seven-game losing streak against Big 12 opponents. Oklahoma (12-13), 2-10) lost by 23 points at home to Kansas on Saturday, and you know Kansas State (19-6, 7-5) is going to come to Norman angry and determined to respond after suffering a 71-63 defeat at Texas Tech on Saturday, the Wildcats fourth straight road loss.

OU leads the overall series with K-State 112-103, which each team holding a sizeable advantage on its home court. The Sooners are 66-28 at home in the LNC against the Wildcats, including seven wins in the last 10.

Sandwiched between the current seven-game losing streak in the conference by the OU men is a 25-point win over Alabama, at the time No. 2 in the country but ranked No. 1 in this week’s AP Top-25 poll. Go figure.

The Sooners are long overdue to come up with a victory, but it isn’t going to be easy against a Kansas State team that is playing extremely well under new head coach Jerome Tang and has greatly exceeded its preseason last-place projection in the Big 12 Preseason Poll.

This will be a huge game for the OU men, who woke up Tuesday morning to find out they had fallen into the basement all by themselves after Texas Tech upset No. 6 Texas on Monday night to improve to 3-10 in the conference. Oklahoma and Texas Tech will meet in one week in Norman.

"“We’re searching and grinding to find consistency,” said Sooner head coach Porter Moser at his regular weekly press conference this week. “We’ve got to do better when things aren’t going our way. We’ve seen it snowball on us the last three games.”"

Three of Oklahoma’s next four games are on the road at Texas on Saturday, at Iowa State a week from Saturday and a rematch at Kansas State on March 1. All three teams are ranked in the AP top 20 this week.

What fans need to know about about Oklahoma vs. No. 12 Kansas State

• Tuesday night’s game at the LNC will be broadcast on ESPNU beginning at 8 p.m. CT with James Westling and Lance Blanks on the call.
• Kansas State, not surprisingly, is a -1.0 favorite in the game, according to Las Vegas handicappers.
• Kansas State averages 76.4 points a game, fourth best in the Big 12, and holds opponents to 68.2 points per contest. OU averages a big 12-worst 67.5 points a game.
• Kansas State’s biggest issue all season has been ball security. The Wildcats had a season-high 23 turnovers that led to 28 points in the loss to Texas Tech on Saturday. The Cats have averaged 17.8 turnovers leading to 23.8 points in their five losses this season.
• Kansas State’s three leading scorers — Keyontae Johnson (17.6), Markquis Nowell (16.9) and Na’Qwan Tomlin (10.2) — are all transfers. Nowell transferred from Arkansas-Little Rock and is in his second season at K-State. Johnson (from Florida) and Tomlin (from Chippola College in Florida) are both new this season.
• Oklahoma ranks second in the Big 12 in field goal percentage (46.8). K-State is shooting 45.2 percent from the field, third worst in the conference.
• Kansas State is 15-0 this season when it shoots a higher percentage than its opponent.
• This will be Porter Moser’s third game coaching against Kansas State. He is 1-1 against the Wildcats while at Oklahoma. He was the head man at Loyola Chicago when the Ramblers defeated K-State 78-62 in the Elite Eight of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.