K-State Faces Cal in First Road Game Friday

By K-State Athletics Release November 10, 2022

GAME 2

KANSAS STATE at CALIFORNIA

Friday, November 11, 2022 >> 6:02 p.m. CT >> Haas Pavilion (11,858) >> Berkeley, Calif.

TELEVISION

Pac-12 Network / Pac-12 Live (link here)

  • Scott Walker (play-by-play)
  • Casey Jacobsen (analyst)
  • Gregson Frampton (producer)

RADIO

K-State Sports Network

Flagships: // KMAN 1350 & WIBW 580

Satellite Radio: SXM 988

Online: Varsity Network [free] / www.kstatesports.com/watch [free]

  • Brian Smoller (play-by-play)
  • Casey Scott (analyst)

LIVE STATS

www.calbears.com

cal.statbroadcast.com [media only]

 

TICKETS

www.calbears.com/tickets

(800) GO.BEARS

Single Game: $20, $27, $30

 

COACHES

K-State: Jerome Tang [Charter Oak State College ‘07]

Record at K-State: 1-0/First Year

Career Record: 1-0/First Year

  1. California: 0-0 [0-0 at K-State]

California: Mark Fox [Eastern Kentucky ‘95]

Record at Cal: 35-59/4th Year

Career Record: 321-235/18th Year

  1. K-State: 1-2 [0-0 at Cal]

SERIES HISTORY

Overall: K-State leads 6-1

Current Streak: K-State, 1

In Berkeley: K-State leads 2-1

At Haas Pavilion: Cal leads 1-0

Last Meeting: W, 82-75 [12/9/2007 in Manhattan]

Tang vs. Fox: 0-0 [0-0 on the road]

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP (Based off last game)

Kansas State (1-0)

G: #1 Markquis Nowell

G: #5 Cam Carter

F: #11 Keyontae Johnson

F: #35 Nae’Qwan Tomlin

C: #3 David N’Guessan

California (0-1)

G: #33 DeJuan Clayton

G: #55 Devin Askew

F: #13 Kuany Kuany

F: #24 Sam Alajiki

C: #21 Lars Thiemann

 

K-STATE TRAVELS TO WEST COAST FOR FIRST ROAD GAME AT CAL

  • Kansas State (1-0) makes one of its earliest road trips ever on Friday, as the Wildcats journey west to take on Pac-12 foe California (0-1) at 6 p.m., CT at Haas Pavilion. This will be the eighth all-time meeting (1951, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1995, 2006, 2007) between K-State and Cal, including the fourth in Berkeley.
  • Friday’s contest at Cal will be the second earliest road trip in school history after the Wildcats played at UNLV in the second game of the 2019-20 season on Nov. 9, 2019 – a 60-56 overtime victory. This will be the ninth true non-conference road game out west since 2006-07, which includes the last visit to Cal Berkeley campus on Nov. 29, 2006.
  • Head coach Jerome Tang, who became the 10th straight Wildcat coach to win his home debut in Monday’s 93-59 win over UTRGV, will look to become the fourth consecutive first-year head coach to win his first road game.

OPENING TIP

  • K-State opened the Jerome Tang era with an emphatic 93-59 victory over UTRGV, as the Wildcats jumped out to a 15-3 lead just 6 minutes into the game behind their hot 3-point shooting and frenzied defensive effort. The team led by as many as 30 points in the first half, as they capped off their 52-point opening half with a ninth 3-pointer at the buzzer. The lead grew to as many as 36 in the second half, as all 11 available players saw action with no one playing more than 26 minutes. It was the team’s eighth win in their last 9 season openers.
  • The 93 points were the most in a season opener since totaling 98 vs. Southern Utah to usher in the 2014-15 season on Nov. 14, 2014. The point total was the fourth-most in an opener at Bramlage Coliseum in the last 25 seasons. It was also the first time the Wildcats have eclipsed 90 points in a game since scoring 95 vs. Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 16, 2018 at the Paradise Jam. It was the largest win by margin in an opener since an 83-45 win over American on Nov. 10, 2017.
  • K-State’s versatility was on display in the opener, as nine players had at least 5 points while six scored in double figures for the first time in a game in nearly 6 years led by 14 points each from senior Markquis Nowell and junior Nae’Qwan Tomlin. Seven players had at least 3 made field goals, while six had at least one make from 3-point range, including 3 each from Nowell and senior Keyontae Johnson. In addition, the Wildcats had an assist on 25 of their 30 field goals. It was the most assists since dishing out 29 vs. Alabama State on Dec. 11, 2019.
  • With the win, Tang picked up his first career win as a college head coach, as he became the fifth straight Wildcat coach to win his debut at home. Tang was a highly-successful head coach at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas from 1993-2003, leading the school to four state championships, while he was a perfect 4-0 filling in for Scott Drew in his 19 seasons at Baylor. K-State head coaches are now 17-8 in their debuts, including 17-4 when opening at home.
  • Johnson made his miraculous return to college basketball on Monday night after a near 2-year absence from a medical emergency while playing against Florida State on Dec. 12, 2020. He finished with 13 points on 4-of-8 field goals, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range, and added 4 assists and 2 rebounds in a team-high 26 minutes vs. UTRGV. It marked his 39th game scoring in double figures, while he matched his career-high with 3 triples.
  • One of just two returners in 2022-23, Nowell seemed to pick right back up from where he left off last season, as he led the Wildcats in scoring (14), assists (7) and steals (4). It marked the fourth time in his K-State career that he led in all three categories. The Big 12 leader in steals (2.2 spg.) and second in assists (5.0 apg.) in 2021-22, he ranked second on the team in double-doubles (3) and 3-point field goals (43) and third in scoring (12.4 ppg.), double-digit scoring games (19) and 20-point games (3). He has more than 1,300 career points, while he is nearing milestones of 500 assists (needs 26) and 200 steals (needs 4).
  • Tomlin, a junior college All-American a season ago at Chipola (Fla.) College, had a near double-double in his first Division I game vs. UTRGV, finishing with a game-high 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting with a game-tying 8 rebounds in less than 20 minutes of action. He had 4 double-doubles at Chipola in 2021-22.

NOTES ON CAL

  • California enters Friday’s contest with a 0-1 record after dropping its opener to UC Davis, 75-65, on Nov. 7. The Golden Bears shot just 38.1 percent (24-of-63) from the field, including 28.6 percent (6-of-21) from 3-point range, while the Aggies connected on 48.2 percent (27-of-56).
  • Three players scored in double figures against UC Davis, including 19 by junior transfer guard Devin Askew and 17 by 7-foot-1 center Lars Thiemann. Senior Kuany Kuany added 10 points. The Wildcats are familiar with Askew during his stint at Texas in 2021-22 where he was coached by current associate head coach Ulric Maligi with the Longhorns.
  • Cal won its lone exhibition game by a score of 62-55 over Chico State on Nov. 2 with the team scoring more than half of their points in the paint (34) while holding Chico to just 29 percent (18-of-62) shooting. Four players scored in double figures, including a double-double by Thiemann.
  • Cal was picked 11th in both the preseason coaches and media poll for the Pac-12 with UCLA being selected as the favorite. The Golden Bears posted a 12-20 record, including a 5-15 mark in Pac-12 play, in 2021-22.
  • A year ago, Cal averaged 63.1 points on 42 percent shooting, including 30.8 percent from 3-point range, with 35.1 rebounds, 10.7 assists, 4.9 steals and 2.6 blocks per game, while allowing 66.1 points on 42.1 percent shooting, including 30.9 percent from 3-point range.
  • The Bears return several lettermen in 2022-23, including junior guard Jalen Celestine (7.5 ppg., 3.1 rpg.), senior guard Joel Brown (4.8 ppg., 3.5 rpg.) and Kuany (4.8 ppg., 2.4 rpg.). They will also welcome 4 newcomers, including a pair of high-level transfers in Askew (Texas) and DeJuan Clayton (Hartford).
  • Head coach Mark Fox is in his fourth season at Cal, sporting a 35-59 record after being handed a difficult rebuild. He has posted a 321-235 record in his 18th season as a head coach, which includes stints at Nevada (2004-09) and Georgia (2009-18). He guided the Wolf Pack to 4 WAC regular-season titles and 3 NCAA Tournament bids before taking the Bulldogs to 5 postseason appearances.

SERIES HISTORY

  • K-State and Cal will meet for the eighth time on Friday with the Wildcats holding a 6-1 advantage in a series that dates back to 1951. This will be the fourth meeting in Berkeley and the first since a 78-48 win by the Golden Bears on Nov. 29, 2006, which also pitted a first-year Wildcat coach in Bob Huggins.
  • Friday’s game is the first in a home-and-home series between the schools with Cal visiting Bramlage Coliseum during the 2024-25 season. The game was also the first struck by head coach Jerome Tang and his staff as most of the non-conference schedule was already set by time of his hiring.
  • The two schools will meet for the first time since a home-and-home series in 2006 and 2007, as the Bears won 78-48 at home on Nov. 29, 2006, before the Wildcats earned an 82-75 win at home on Dec. 9, 2007.
  • K-State and Cal first met 4 times between 1951 and 1958 during the tenures of legendary head coaches Fred “Tex” Winter and Pete Newell.
  • K-State is 140-79 all-time against current members of the Pac-12, including a 46-53 mark in true road games. The last meeting with a Pac-12 opponent came on Dec. 20, 2017 in a 68-65 win at Washington State.

12/11/1951        —/—     W, 64-50             Berkeley

12/28/1954        —/—     W, 88-75             Kansas City

12/20/1957        —/—     W, 58-44             Lawrence, Kan.

12/12/1958        —/—     W, 68-65             Berkeley

12/29/1995        —/—     W, 65-58             Oakland, Calif.

11/29/2006        —/—     L, 48-78               Berkeley

12/9/2007          —/—     W, 82-75             Manhattan

LAST MEETING:

K-State 82, California 75 (in Manhattan, Kan., Dec. 9, 2007)

  • Redshirt freshman Bill Walker had 30 points and 10 rebounds, and Michael Beasley hit some big shots after a quiet first half, helping Kansas State hold off California, 82-75, in the last meeting between the schools on Dec. 9, 2007, at Bramlage Coliseum.
  • Beasley took just 6 shots in the first half but scored 12 of his 19 points in the second, including a 3-point play with a minute left that put K-State up 76-71. He also had 11 rebounds, his ninth straight double-double.  Walker kept the Wildcats in it early and sealed it late, hitting 4 foul shots in the final minute and finishing 14-of-16 from the free-throw line.
  • Cal was led by Ryan Anderson’s 24 points and 11 rebounds.

WE MEET AGAIN COACH FOX

  • The Bears are led by a familiar face to Wildcat fans in fourth-year head coach Mark Fox, who is a native of Garden City, Kansas, and a former assistant coach at K-State from 1994-2000. During his 6-year stint on the coaching staff of head coach Tom Asbury, Fox helped the Wildcats post 85 wins with three postseason appearances, including a trip to the 1996 NCAA Tournament.
  • Fox’s wife, Cindy, spent time in the K-State Athletics Department, serving five years as Assistant AD for Marketing and Senior Woman Administrator (SWA).
  • This is the second home-and-home series Fox has struck with K-State as his Georgia team split a pair of games with the Wildcats in both 2014 and 2015.

LAST TIME OUT:

K-STATE 93, UTRGV 59

  • K-State ushered in the Jerome Tang era with an emphatic 93-59 victory over UTRGV on Monday before an energetic crowd of 7,635 fans at Bramlage Coliseum, as six Wildcats scored in double figures en route to helping the team post their most points in an opener since 2014.
  • Fifth-year senior Markquis Nowell and junior Nae’Qwan Tomlin each had 14 points to lead the Wildcats (1-0), while fifth-year senior Keyontae Johnson scored 13 points in his triumphant return to college basketball after a near 2-year absence from medical emergency on Dec. 12, 2020. He connected on 4-of-8 field goals, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range, and added 4 assists and 2 rebounds in a team-high 26 minutes of action.
  • Another fifth year Abayomi “Baybe” Iyiola posted 12 points and 5 rebounds off the bench, while senior Desi Sills and junior Ismael (Ish) Massoud each added 10 points. It marked the first time since a victory over Colorado State on Dec. 17, 2016, that six Wildcats scored in double figures.
  • The 93 points were the most by a K-State team in an opener since scoring 98 against Southern Utah on Nov. 14, 2014, while they are fourth-most in a season opener in the last 25 seasons.
  • K-State was electric on both ends of the court to start the game, jumping out to a 15-3 lead behind 3-pointers from Nowell, Massoud and Johnson. The lead ballooned to as many as 30, as the Wildcats capped off their 52-point opening half with a 3-pointer from senior Tykei Greene. The team hit on 51.5 percent (17-of-33) in the first half, including 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from beyond the arc.
  • The lead grew to as many as 36 in the second half after Johnson knocked down a pair of free throws with just over 5 minutes to play.
  • For the game, K-State hit on 45.5 percent (30-of-66), including 44.4 percent (12-of-27) from 3-point range, and made 72 percent (21-of-29) of its free throws. The Wildcats had assists on 25 of their 30 made baskets. On defense, the team held UTRGV (0-1) to 39.2 percent (20-of-51) shooting, including 29.2 percent (7-of-24) in the first half. The Wildcats scored 31 points off 26 turnovers.
  • With the win, K-State moved to 93-26 all-time in season openers dating back to 1903, including a 29-3 mark at Bramlage Coliseum.

OTHER NEWS/NOTES FROM THE OPENER

  • The 93 points were the most in the opener since scoring 98 vs. Southern Utah to open the 2014-15 season on Nov. 14, 2014. The point total was the fourth-most in an opener in the last 25 seasons.
  • K-State had 25 assists on 30 made field goals. The 25 assists were 3 shy of cracking the top-10 and the most in any game since 2019.
  • K-State knocked 12 of 27 attempts from 3-point range, which were just 1 shy of cracking the top-10. Six different players had at least one trey, including 3 each by Keyontae Johnson and Markquis Nowell.
  • K-State scored 31 points off 26 UTRGV turnovers, while registering just 14 of its own. The Vaqueros were held to just 39.2 percent shooting.
  • K-State also posted advantages in bench points (41-19) and second-chance points (16-9). The Wildcats also out-rebounded the Vaqueros, 40-34, including 14 offensive rebounds, converting them into 16 second-chance points.

SUCCESS IN NON-CONFERENCE PLAY

  • K-State has posted a 160-52 (.754) record in non-conference play since the 2006-07 season. During that span, the Wildcats have played 27 true road non-conference games, registering a 14-13 record. Among those games is a 78-48 setback to Cal at Haas Pavilion on Nov. 29, 2006.
  • In addition, K-State has played four other “hostile” non-conference neutral-site games, including vs. UNLV (win) at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in 2009, Florida (loss) in the Orange Bowl Classic in 2010, Gonzaga (loss) in Seattle in 2012 and Colorado State (win) in Denver in 2016.
  • The Wildcats posted double-digit non-conference wins in 12 of 13 seasons from 2006-07 to 2018-19, but they have since managed just a 19-16 record in non-conference action in the last 3 seasons.
  • K-State has a 122-14 (.896) record at home venues (includes home games played at Bramlage Coliseum, INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita and the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City) in non-conference play dating back to the 2006-07 season, including a 113-12 (.903) mark at Bramlage Coliseum.
  • K-State finished the 2021-22 non-conference season with an 8-5 record, including a 6-1 mark at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats won their first 4 non-conference games (Florida A&M, Omaha, North Dakota and UAlbany) before the setback against Marquette. They finished with wins over Green Bay and McNeese, while the final game vs. North Florida was cancelled.

TANG DEBUTS AS HEAD COACH

  • First-year head coach Jerome Tang made his debut on Monday night’s 93-59 win against UTRGV, becoming the 24th man and the first full-time black head coach in school history. Tang is the sixth minority men’s head coach in K-State Athletics history, including the third in men’s basketball following interim coach Darryl Winston (1984-85) and Frank Martin (2007-12).
  • K-State head coaches are now 17-8 in their debuts, including 17-4 when opening at home. The last 5 Wildcat coaches (Jim Wooldridge, Bob Huggins, Frank Martin, Bruce Weber  and Tang) have won their debut at home, while the last first-year head coach to lose his debut at home was Fritz Knorr in 1944.
  • This is not Tang’s first time being a head coach, as he served as athletics director and head coach at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas from 1993-2003, leading the school to 5 TAPPS Division A State Championships.
  • In addition, Tang twice served as interim head coach in his 19 seasons as an assistant and associate head coach at Baylor, leading the Bears to 4-0 record. He helped Baylor to wins over Texas (86-79 in OT) and at Texas Tech (82-48) during the 2012-13 season, while he guided the squad to wins over Louisiana (112-82) and Washington (86-52) to open the 2020-21 season.

JOHNSON MAKES RETURN TO COURT

  • Junior Keyontae Johnson made his triumphant return to basketball court on Monday night after a 2-year absence after suffering a medical emergency on the court against Florida State on Dec. 12, 2020. He finished the night with 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-5 from long range, to go with 4 assists and 2 rebounds in a team-high 26 minutes.
  • Johnson looked at his best during a key stretch in the first half, scoring his first points as a Wildcat on a 3-pointer at the 14-minute mark then following with a second triple less than a minute later. He finished the first half with a team-high 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range, to go with 3 assists and 2 rebounds in 16 minutes of action.
  • It marked the 39th game of scoring in double figures for the 2020 Preseason SEC Player of the Year, including his first as a Wildcat. His 3 treys matched a career high that has now been done in four career games.