Why K-State isn’t worried about championship pressure as Big 12 finale looms
Like a professional golfer trying to protect a lead on Sunday, the Kansas State basketball team will have to deal with championship pressure in its final regular-season game against Oklahoma.
If Texas Tech beats Iowa State at 1 p.m. on Saturday, the Wildcats will need to defeat the Sooners later that afternoon to earn a share of their first Big 12 regular-season championship since 2013. If Iowa State beats Texas Tech, the Wildcats will have a shot at their first outright conference title since 1977.
Either way, it will be a pressure-packed day for everyone at Bramlage Coliseum. But that’s nothing knew for this group of Wildcats, even though they’ve never been this close to a league trophy.
“I think we have played with championship pressure every day,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said. “We played with it last year in the Elite Eight. It’s nothing. We played with it in the NCAA Tournament. When they were sophomores, they played with it to get into the NCAA Tournament. I think they have been through it.”
While that’s all true, things could feel a little different on Saturday.
Not only will the Wildcats take the court knowing exactly what they must do to secure a first-place finish, it will also be senior day for Barry Brown, Kamau Stokes and Dean Wade.
Those are two big potential distractions.
“I don’t think it adds any pressure,” Brown said. “Every Big 12 game leading up to this game was for the championship. This game should be just like all the rest. We have been playing to stay on top this entire time. It’s just a matter of finishing it out, staying poised, staying confident and sticking to our principles. If we do that, we will win.”
The goal is for K-State players to treat this game like any other matchup on the schedule.
“It’s a huge game, but so is every other Big 12 game,” Wade said. “So we just have to treat it like any other game, come out and stay focused.”
K-State players haven’t been in this exact situation before, but Weber has.
When the Wildcats shared a Big 12 title with rival Kansas in 2013, they entered a road game against Oklahoma State with title implications. A win guaranteed them a trophy. A loss turned them into Baylor fans, who were set to play KU later that day.
K-State lost at Oklahoma State that day, but Baylor came through for the Wildcats a few hours later. They ended up celebrating the championship at a public gathering a few days later.
This time around, Weber would rather party immediately following a win.
“To me it is all preparation,” Weber said. “My little messages to them have been about being prepared mentally, understanding your opponent and knowing that every game is different. Those are the things we have talked about all year.”
K-State will be favored against Oklahoma on Saturday. The Wildcats beat the Sooners 74-61 in January. But Oklahoma has won four of its past five games and trounced Kansas earlier this week, so it is capable of pulling an upset.
It will be a pressure-packed game for everyone involved, but K-State seems ready for that.
“We know what we are facing,” Stokes said. “We know what the ultimate goal is. We have got to treat this game like any other game. We can’t look past it. This is our championship game.”
This story was originally published March 7, 2019 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Why K-State isn’t worried about championship pressure as Big 12 finale looms."