Game Details

Where: United Supermarkets Arena, Lubbock, Texas

When: 3:00 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 13

Watch it on: ESPN2

What to know: Kansas State

Head coach: Jerome Tang

Record: 13-2

Preseason conference selection: 6th

There remain three unbeaten teams in the Big 12 following the opening rounds of conference play. Two are set to do battle when Texas Tech welcomes the Wildcats of Kansas State Saturday at the United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock. The Red Raiders will look to extend their overall win streak to nine while capping off a brief two-game homestand.

The Wildcats, meanwhile, have enjoyed an identical record to Tech (13-2), in their second season under Jerome Tang. What has already been widely documented is the time shared between Tang and Red Raider head coach Grant McCasland during their stints in Waco. McCasland, both in his radio show with Double T 97.3 and a press conference Friday, shared his admiration for Tang and how the two helped each other while coaching at Baylor.

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Kansas State is coming off one of the best seasons in recent program memory, which was spearheaded by Keyontae Johnson and Markquis Nowell. With both having exhausted their eligibility, Nowell was replaced by another undersized guard, Tylor Perry, who McCasland is well aware of from their seasons at North Texas. The pair helped lead UNT to an NIT victory last season in which Perry was the leading scorer.

Perry has been a key contributor for the Wildcats this season, as has guard Cam Carter, who has been making his impact prevalent as a vital returner from last season’s Elite Eight squad. After starting all 36 games for K-State in 2022-23, Carter has elevated his play to become the Wildcats’ leading scorer (16.7/game) and one of the Big 12’s premier pickpockets (2.1 steals/game). A 6-foot-3 guard who started his career at Mississippi State, Carter is silky-smooth on the ball and has the ability to weave around big men in the post for acrobatic layups. Carter can just about do it all on the offensive end, a sentiment echoed by McCasland.

“(Carter) leads ‘em in just about every category,” McCasland said. “He’s aggressive, he’s tough, he gets after it. He thinks “score.” And when he’s making shots and getting downhill, he just adds a dimension to them that makes them extremely tough. I think the problem and the biggest component is how do you keep him from getting transition baskets? Because he can really put pressure on you, he’s such an elite athlete and he can score a lot of different ways, but the floor really opens up for him in the open floor. That’s where we’ve got to do a good job of sprinting back and making it difficult on him in transition.”

The Red Raiders and their fans should expect to see another blast-from-the-past opponent in the form of forward Arthur Kaluma. A 6-foot-7 junior, Kaluma spent two seasons at Creighton, squaring off with Tech a season ago in the opening contest of the Maui Jim Invitational. Kaluma scored 18 in the win, and while the Red Raiders’ staff and roster are almost entirely different, the previous experience for some is aiding in preparation for Kaluma’s vast skill set.

“A tremendous player, Kaluma can really score,” McCasland continued. “He can do it at all three levels, he’s a good passer when he sees where the defense is coming from. For us, I think the key is how do we make it as difficult on him as possible. When you asked about film from last year, and using what we know, a lot of these guys are familiar with him. Played with him, been around him, there’s not really a lot of people that our guys don’t know these days. But we definitely have used a lot of actions that they’re putting him in this year that put them in an advantage that we’ll try to do a good job against.”

Saturday’s game between scarlet and purple will be a spectacle. A halftime dunk contest by the Tech football team, a hotly-anticipated Junior Day for prospective Red Raider recruits and the reunion of old friends make for excellent storylines heading into the 3:00 p.m. tip. While it will be easy to get wrapped up in the hoopla of the familiarity between the two sides, McCasland remains laser-focused on preparing for the now, rather than fixating on the past.

“First and foremost, our teams are so unique, and they are year-to-year,” the head coach said. “They’re not playing the same way they did last year. And obviously, we’re playing different than they’ve seen us play. DIfferent pieces and strengths and weaknesses. I think every time you go into a game, you do look at what the advantages are and they’re going to be unique year-to-year. Second, there’s a will to win that you play against it you know a team has it, and they have it. They really do. They have this X-factor to them, where when the game’s on the line and they go play in a game they need to win, you can see the urgency that they play with. That’s a credit to their staff and the players. I really respect the way they compete. I think they compete for each other.”