The Texas A&M men’s basketball team (7-2) prepare for a matchup against a familiar Big 12 foe as the Aggies head to Kansas City for a contest with the Kansas State Wildcats in the Wildcat Classic at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
The Wildcats (6-4) return sophomore Marcus Foster and senior Thomas Gibson from last years NCAA tournament team. Foster leads the team in scoring with 15.3 points per game and shoots 47 percent from behind the three point line. Gibson averages 11.3 points per game and shoots nearly 69 percent from the field.
“They are led by two really good players in Marcus Foster and Thomas Gipson,” head coach Billy Kennedy said. “Gipson is a senior and we played against him a couple years ago. He’s similar to [Baylor’s] Rico Gathers, maybe not as explosive, but a big-bodied kid who can cause us some problems. Foster is one of the top guards in the Big 12, so we’re going to have to do a good job of guarding him.”
Kansas State came into last years NCAA Tournament as a ninth seed, but fell to the eighth-seeded Kentucky Wildcats 56-49 in the second round.
Kennedy said that Kansas State is a good defensive team that is still figuring out who they are and that Saturday’s matchup will boil down to who can produce offensively.
“They’re still figuring their team out, like a lot of us are,” Kennedy said. “I watched them beat Purdue, who at that time I thought was a really good team. They played really well against Arizona and maybe just ran out of gas there against Pittsburgh. They’re not playing their best basketball at this point, just like we aren’t.”
Saturday will mark the 25^th time the Wildcats and the Aggies have faced on the hardwood. Kansas State currently leads the all-time series 17-7.