With both teams winning on the other team’s home court during the regular season, Kansas State and Arizona State are glad their final meeting is on a neutral court.
The 15th-seeded Sun Devils (13-18) face the 10th-seeded Wildcats (15-16) meet in the third game of the Big 12 tournament Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo., in a battle of teams that have fallen short of expectations.
The Sun Devils got off to a decent start, but the wheels fell off late in the season. Despite the presence of four seniors in the starting lineup, including leading scorer and assist man Alston Mason (13.4 ppg, 4.0 apg), ASU lost its last four games and 10 of its last 11.
“It’s haunting to hear the other team celebrating down the hall,” Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley said Saturday after an 85-57 home loss to Texas Tech. “It’s been brutal. Everybody deserves more. Our fans deserve better. We should be winning games at home.”
The lone aberration during the 11-game stretch was a 66-54 victory Feb. 23 at Kansas State. The Sun Devils held the Wildcats to 1-of-17 shooting during the game’s defining second-half stretch.
Kansas State has been the definition of streaky this season. The Wildcats won their first conference game, then lost six in a row. They followed that with a six-game winning streak, including a 71-70 win Feb. 4 at Arizona State. That, of course, was followed by a four-game losing streak that included the home loss to the Sun Devils.
After two more wins, the Wildcats fell at home Saturday to then-No. 10 Iowa State, a loss that left head coach Jerome Tang hurting for his players, especially his seniors. David N’Guessan, who leads the Wildcats with 13.3 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, is one of three seniors in the lineup.
“(The loss) just sucks,” Tang said. “Credit to Iowa State; they did a great job. They turned us over 17 times, and that resulted in 22 points. We were (also) 2-for-21 from three.”
Ever the optimist, Tang looks forward to the next chance for his team to get on the court.
“We’ll look at the film (and) figure something out,” he said. “(We’re) excited about the opportunity to play in the Big 12 tournament.”
–Field Level Media
