The Kansas State men’s basketball team sits a game ahead of the Kansas Jayhawks and the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Big 12 conference.
On Monday night the opportunity awaits for the Wildcats to put more space between them and the rest of the Big 12 and to end the Jayhawks’ run of fourteen straight Big 12 titles.
Before that, however, K-State needs to take care of the (10-16, 3-10 Big 12) Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday in Bramlage Coliseum.
Junior forward Xavier Sneed said on Thursday that it hasn’t been hard to focus on Oklahoma State despite knowing Kansas is up next on.
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“We are just taking it one game at a time, we are only worried about Saturday right now,” Sneed said. “The key for us right now is to win on Saturday. We aren’t looking too far ahead.”
As Sneed is coming off a 19-point performance against West Virginia, he said he is doing whatever he can to help this team win games.
“Just getting wins is what is important for us as a team,” Sneed said.
Oklahoma State defeated Texas Christian 68-61 on Monday and put up a good fight against Kansas during the first 30 minutes of the game on Feb. 9.
After head coach Bruce Weber found out Oklahoma State beat TCU after the West Virginia game on Monday, Weber joked about how he went to his assistants in the locker room and told them happily, “hopefully this is something that will get our guys’ attention.”
“Hopefully [Oklahoma State] has got our guys attention,” Weber said. “You got to give [head coach] Mike [Boynton] credit. They’ve had suspensions, they’ve had a bunch of things happen to them. They don’t quit. They’re feisty. After we beat them soundly, they turn around and are leading Kansas in the second half a couple games later. They were also leading Texas in the second half on the road.”
Weber said not looking ahead to Kansas and focusing on Oklahoma State is all about the maturity of the team. He said this all comes down to the senior trio of guard Kamau Stokes, forward Dean Wade and guard Barry Brown.
“This is their leadership, they got to be the ones to show the leadership, this is their opportunity,” Weber said. “All I keep telling them is the only regrets in life you have are things you don’t do. Don’t have a major regret because you didn’t do what you were supposed to do.”
