The line continues to move in Kansas State’s favor. It’s a great spot for the Wildcats with Kansas coming off a great offensive performance and huge victory over the Cougars with Baylor on deck. There should be some regression from shooting 68.9%, however, the Wildcats offense has been sub-par. There’s no doubt the Jerome Tang’s team, and their fans, will be up for this game but their offense has been shooting less than 46% effectively over their last three games. Even if Kansas does regress, they’re still the better team on both sides ball and could pull away in the second half.

Kansas State coach Jerome Tang was cautious with starting big man David N’Guessan over the weekend, limiting his minutes as he deals with a knee issue. N’Guessan, who averages 7.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, has been deemed available and I expect the coaching staff wanted him as fresh as possible for this matchup against Kansas and Hunter Dickinson. Losers of four straight and well outside the NCAA Tournament picture, Kansas State has a chance to play its Super Bowl and catch Kansas in a sandwich spot between ranked matchups against Houston and Baylor. Light the upset alert siren in the Octagon of Doom.

This is one tough turn-around for Kansas. Two days after a win over Houston that flirted with perfection, the Jayhawks enter the den of their in-state rival. Though K-State is mired in a four-game straight-up slide, three defeats happened on the road and three were against ranked teams. They are 10-2 outright at home. Kansas has stumbled in its last two roadies. The conditions for a slump-buster could not be more favorable for K-State.