Kansas State Must Endure Emotional Environment Saturday At St. John's

The Kansas State basketball program already had its hands full with facing the St. John's Red Storm Saturday in New York.

They also have to an emotional St. John's team. This is the Red Storm's first game since the death of legendary coach Lou Carnesecca. Before the game, a cereomony is schedule to celebrate the life of the Hall of Fame coach.

St. John's has a pre-game ceremony celebrating Lou Carnesecca scheduled before Saturday's 11:30 a.m. tip-off v Kansas State and suggests people be in their seats by 11:15 a.m. #sjubb
— Roger Rubin (@RogRubin) December 6, 2024

Carnesecca died last Saturday at the age of 99. He led the Red Storm to 526 wins, including a berth in the 1985 Final Four. He coached the likes of future NBA players Chris Mullin, Bill Wennington and Walter Berry.

Here's the game preview:

Game time: 11:30 am, EST

Where: Carnesecca Arena, Queens, New York

TV: FOX Sports (watch live)

Betting line: K-State +9.5

VITALS: The Wildcats are coming off their best offensive performance in school history. Senior David N’Guessan had 17 points on 87.5 percent shooting from the field. Achor Achor and David Castillo had their highest-scoring games of the season, with 21 and 17 points, respectively. Dug McDaniel continues to shine off the bench, adding 18 points, 10 assists, and five steals to his stat sheet Sunday afternoon. Kansas State is averaging 81.6 points on 49 percent shooting from the field and 38.2 percent from 3-point range. The Red Storm allow just 66.6 points on 39.4 percent shooting. However, they are hitting just 33.7 percent from the arc.

PROJECTED STARTERS

WILDCATS

G Brendan Hausen

ADVERTISING

F Max Jones

F David N'Guessan

F/C Coleman Hawkins

ADVERTISING

RED STORM

G Kadary Richmond

G Simeon Wilcher

F RJ Luis Jr.

F Aaron Scott

F Zuby Ejiofor

QUOTABLE: St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino on where Kansas State matches up versus previous opponents: “Right now we've got a big game with Kansas State, who will be the most talented team that we've faced this year top to bottom so far this season,” Pitino said on a Monday afternoon segment of WFAN with Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata. “They’re the deepest and most talented team, and they’re very athletic. What they do is our weakness, that's the thing that scares me the most. They are a great 3-point shooting team. They shoot almost 39 percent, 38.2 percent from the three. Great shooting team, and there’s one area that we haven failed at so far in the early season is we haven’t defended the 3-point shot well.”

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Kansas State Wildcats On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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