Kansas State and Arizona State head into their game Tuesday night in Tempe, Ariz., coming off very different outcomes against two of the top teams in the Big 12 on Saturday.
Kansas State (10-11, 4-6 Big 12) increased its winning streak to three games, upsetting then-No. 3 Iowa State 80-61 on Saturday in Ames, Iowa.
Arizona State (12-9, 3-7 Big 12) lost to archrival Arizona 81-72 in Tempe. The waning seconds of the game were marred by the ejections of Arizona State’s BJ Freeman and Arizona’s Caleb Love after Freeman head-butted Love following a verbal exchange.
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley directed his bench players and staff to head to the locker room after the incident occurred with 30 seconds remaining. Hurley elected not to shake hands with Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd when the game ended.
Freeman led Arizona State with 19 points, and he recorded the Sun Devils’ only two steals in the game.
Adam Miller (16 points) and Basheer Jihad (14) shook hands of Arizona assistant coach Jack Murphy near midcourt before Hurley waved them off the floor.
“Good teams find a way to win, bad teams find a way to lose,” Miller said. “Winning solves everything.”
Kansas State appears to have solved its issues after a six-game losing streak from Jan. 4-22.
The Wildcats have beaten West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Iowa State by an average margin of 20 points in their three-game winning streak.
“To win on the road was a challenge. We (hadn’t) won a road game in a while,” said Kansas State coach Jerome Tang, whose team lost its first six road games of the season before beating Iowa State.
“I took it personally as a coach, and I was thankful I had a team that took it personally also and gave us this opportunity.”
Kansas State became the first sub-.500 team to win by 15 or more points on the road against an opponent ranked in the Top 5 of the AP poll.
All five Wildcats starters scored in double figures against the Cyclones. Dug McDaniel, a Michigan transfer who had 20 points, recorded his first 20-point game for Kansas State and the eighth overall in his career.
