Kansas State will host Georgia as part of the fifth annual Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday, January 27, 2018 at Bramlage Coliseum, the two conferences announced Thursday.
The matchup will mark the third meeting in the past four seasons for the two schools, but the first in the Challenge event. The teams split a home-and-home series during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons with the Bulldogs earning a 50-46 win at Bramlage Coliseum on December 31, 2014 and the Wildcats getting a last-second shot from then freshman Dean Wade to post a 68-66 victory at Stegeman Coliseum on December 4, 2015.
The game will be one of 10 contested between the two leagues for the fifth consecutive season with ESPN providing coverage of all games on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. All the contests will occur on January 27 with start times and complete television information to be released later.
The Big 12, which collected its most non-conference wins (116) in five seasons in 2016-17 on a .784 winning percentage, has won three of the four Challenge series, posting a 25-15 (.625) record. The leagues split their 10 Challenge games last season. Overall, the Big 12 is 53-35 (.602) in its last four challenge series (vs. Pac-10 and SEC) dating back to 2007.
The Big 12 has been No. 1 in RPI in four of the last seven seasons, including second-best league in 2016-17.
“The Challenge series has been a huge success for both leagues and we are looking forward to another solid matchup in 2018 with Georgia,” said head coach Bruce Weber. “We are obviously familiar with them having played each other in 2014 and 2015 and we know what kind of Coach Mark Fox is, so it will be another big-time challenge for our guys. (Yante) Maten will be one of the top big men in the country next season after withdrawing from the draft and they return a number of talented younger guards in (Juwan) Parker, (Jordan) Harris and (William) Jackson.”
Overall, K-State is 161-149 all-time against teams from the SEC, which includes a 2-2 mark in the Big 12/SEC Challenge series with wins over Ole Miss at home in 2013 (61-58) and 2016 (69-64) and losses at Tennessee in 2014 (64-65) and 2017 (58-70). The Wildcats have met at least one SEC opponent in each of the last nine seasons.
The contest will also serve as another homecoming for ninth-year Georgia head coach Mark Fox, who is a native of Garden City, Kansas, and a former assistant coach at K-State from 1994-2000. During his six-year stint on the coaching staff of head coach Tom Asbury, Fox helped the Wildcats post an 85-88 overall record with three postseason appearances, including a trip to the 1996 NCAA Tournament. Fox’s wife, Cindy, also spent time in the K-State Athletics Department, serving five years as Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing and Senior Woman Administrator.
Fox, who also served as head coach at Nevada (2004-09), has posted a 268-161 (.625) record in his head coaching career, including a 145-118 (.551) at Georgia. He has led the school to four consecutive postseason appearances.
The Bulldogs are set to return 11 players, including 10 with starting experience, from a team that posted a 19-15 overall record and advanced to the NIT in 2016-17. The team, which knocked off Texas last season in the Challenge series, returns one of the country’s top big men in senior forward Yante Maten. A two-time All-SEC pick, Maten averaged 18.2 points on 51.9 percent shooting with 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game as a junior. Other notable returners include senior guard Juwan Parker (9.3 ppg., 5.3 rpg.), junior forward Derek Ogbeide (7.1 ppg., 7.6 rpg.), sophomore guard Jordan Harris (4.7 rpg.), junior forward Mike Edwards (4.4 ppg., 3.6 rpg.) and junior guard William Jackson II (4.1 ppg.).
The Wildcats will return nine lettermen, including three players – Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade – who started all 35 games for a Wildcat squad that won 21 games and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Brown and Stokes are the team’s top returning scorers with identical 11.7 points per game averages, while Stokes was the team leader in 3-point field goals (64), assists (4.1 apg.) and minutes (33.3 mpg.) in 2016-17. Brown set a single-season school record for steals with 82, while Wade averaged 9.3 points on nearly 50 percent shooting and is the team’s top returner in both rebounding (4.5 rpg.) and blocked shots (0.7 bpg.).
In addition to its returning lettermen, K-State will welcome five newcomers (juniors Makol Mawien and Amaad Wainright and freshmen Mike McGuirl, Nigel Shadd and Levi Stockard III) as well as redshirt freshmen Cartier Diarra andJames Love III, who both missed the 2016-17 season due to injury.
A full non-conference slate, as well as 2017-18 season ticket plan details, will be released in the coming weeks.