Kansas State Wildcats vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers Pick & Prediction DECEMBER 17th 2023

Kansas State, which has won five straight games, has not been making things easy on itself.

In each of their last three home games, the Wildcats found themselves in overtime.

They’ll put that run of good fortune to the test when they host longtime rival Nebraska on Sunday in Manhattan, Kan.

Last week, the Wildcats (8-2) won their third straight overtime game in as many contests when they edged Villanova 72-71. They followed that up by winning in Baton Rouge in regulation on Saturday, defeating LSU 75-60 in one of their most complete games of the season.

Louisiana native Cam Carter returned to his home state to score 21 points and grab eight rebounds.

Carter (16.9) is one of three players on Kansas State to average 16 points per game. He is joined by Arthur Kaluma (16.6) and Tylor Perry (16.2).

After averaging 21.5 points and 10.0 rebounds last week, Kaluma was named a USBWA and Oscar Robertson Trophy National Player of the Week.

“Our guys love playing basketball and love being together,” Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said. “This is the time of the year where you can just focus on playing and getting better as a basketball team.”

Nebraska (8-2), fresh off a 77-70 win over Michigan State, should be a challenge.

The Cornhuskers rebounded from a two-game slide to shoot 56 percent from the field and 9 of 20 (45 percent) from 3-point range in that win, paced by leading scorer Juwan Gary’s 20 points.

“Start to finish, I was just really pleased how the guys went out there and played a complete 40-minute game,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “It couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

Nebraska also boasts balance, as four players average at least 14 points a game. Gary (14.7) is joined by Brice Williams (14.0), Keisei Tominaga (14.0) and Rienk Mast (12.4).

Kansas State leads the all-time series 129-93 and has won the past seven matchups, the most recent being a 71-56 win in Kansas City last December.

–Field Level Media