Kansas State will look to get back on the winning track when it faces Bowling Green on Monday night in Manhattan, Kan.
The Wildcats (5-2) opened the season with five straight victories before losing 86-85 to Nebraska at a neutral-site game in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 21.
Kansas State then had its worst loss of the young season, 86-69 at then-No. 25 Indiana on Tuesday.
It was the first game in which the Wildcats scored fewer than 84 points this season. Star P.J. Haggerty was held to a season-low 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field. Haggerty still led the nation in scoring at an average of 26.3 points per game through Saturday’s contests.
“It stings a lot,” Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said of the loss to Indiana during his postgame radio interview. “I apologize to our fans, man, that they had to watch that. It starts with me. I didn’t do a very good job of preparing the guys for this, and I take the blame for that.”
Haggerty will want a bounce-back performance against Bowling Green. So will Abdi Bashir Jr., who was limited to three points against the Hoosiers.
Bashir, who is averaging 12.7 ppg, scored 26 in the loss to Nebraska.
“We learned a lot about ourselves today,” Tang said. “We’ll do better moving forward.”
Bowling Green (5-2), meanwhile, had its own two-game skid a few weeks ago but has won its past two games, over Bucknell and VMI. The Falcons are led by Javontae Campbell, who is averaging 17.4 ppg, and Mayar Wol at 13.3. Sam Towns has provided an inside presence, averaging 11.3 points and 7.3 rebounds.
Towns is coming off a 12-point, 18-rebound performance in his team’s most recent game, an 81-48 victory over VMI on Wednesday.
The Kansas State game will be Bowling Green’s only power conference matchup of the regular season. The Falcons held their own during a preseason game at Michigan State, losing 75-66.
Bowling Green coach Todd Simon praised his team after that performance last month. Simon, in his third season with the team, said his expectations are to compete with every program in the country.
“We’re in the stage of our program, going into year three, where we expect to win,” he said. “The ball goes up in the air, we expect to compete with everybody. That’s the mindset of our guys.”
