This Week Today: Nov. 2nd – Nov. 8th

K-State women’s basketball officially hits the court for their season opener tonight against the Wichita State Shockers in Bramlage Coliseum. This will be the first time fans will see the Cats this season and there are a litany of questions for this group to answer against a program that’s lost to K-State 42 times in their history.

The Cats enter the 2026-27 season with three returning starters and five incoming transfers. As two returning players are out for the season, coach Jeff Mittie now only has a couple of games to figure out his starting lineup before K-State runs into some tough competition.

This week will be a really important week for women’s basketball to iron out kinks, test lineups and see who will fit the most with Gina Garcia, Taryn Sides and Nastja Claessens. Those three returners will have to be the bed rock of the squad as players from other countries get a taste of how fast American-style basketball can be. Even if the going doesn’t get tough yet, this Cats team will have to show they are tough enough to get going early this season with a lot of power four talent waiting on their schedule.

Men’s Basketball:

Tuesday, Nov. 3rd vs South Dakota State – 7 p.m. – ESPN+

Friday, Nov. 6th vs CSUN – 8 p.m. – ESPN+

K-State men’s basketball kicks off their season against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits tomorrow at seven p.m. New head coach Casey Alexander will coach his first group of Cats in Bramlage as a new era begins in Manhattan, and after two exhibitions there was much to be excited about.

Coach Alexander’s unit played two exhibitions against old Big Eight foes in Nebraska and Missouri, with both ending in the same fashion; the opposing team would go on a run to lead by 10+, K-State would put it within one possession within the last minute and lose by four. Even in two losses, Alexander and company showed a lot of heart, grit and flashes of brilliance on offense.

The defense wasn’t perfect and the lack of talent led to a lot of fouls against faster competition, but the game never felt out of reach for Casey’s Cats. To be able to come back and keep it close against two tournament teams says a lot about how much fight this team has, and it has translated into a bit of a buzz circulating around Manhattan.

As SDSU and CSUN prepare to enter the Octagon of Doom, K-State is expected to win as they should be. But it will be interesting to see if they will end up in a dog fight or pull off a convincing win. It is no secret that this rendition of K-State isn’t a finished product, but the product they’ve shown in two games looks fun, passionate and easy to root for.

Soccer:

Thursday, Nov. 5th vs Utah – 8 p.m. – Salt Lake City, UT – ESPN+

Colleen Corbin’s Cats take the field for the last time this season as they travel to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Utes on Thursday. As the Big 12 stands today, K-State is firmly in 15th place, sitting above the only team they beat in Big 12 in the Iowa State Cyclones. Even if KSU were to win, they’d still be far behind the top eight, leaving them out of the Big 12 tournament for the 2026 season.

Even if there isn’t postseason soccer in the cards, K-State could get back to .500 with a win against Utah as they sit at 6-7-5. K-State still has a chance to tie the program record for single season wins, which was set in Corbin’s first year when the Cats went 7-6-5.

As the Cats play their final 90 minutes, 20 players out of the 27 player roster are juniors or younger, meaning there is plenty of talent that could return and develop next season. This season may have been rough in conference play, but the Cats are still on the right track after two years with coach Corbin.

Volleyball:

Friday, Nov. 6th vs Cincinnati – 5 p.m. – Manhattan, KS – ESPN+

Sunday, Nov. 8th vs Baylor – 2 p.m. – Manhattan, KS – ESPN+

As K-State volleyball enters the twilight of their season, HC Jason Mansfield’s group has gone from a 9-0 nonconference record to battling for a .500 record entering the month of November. In their past eight games, the Cats have been shut out in five of them, collecting only one win in that span of time. The schedule has been particularly hard with multiple ranked matchups in the past couple of weeks and the amount of youth in this Wildcat unit has been a struggle against experienced groups.

With that being said, the young Wildcats have shown a lot of promise, particularly players like Addison Massey. As a freshman, Massey has led the team in kills by a wide margin while being top five in assists and service aces. Along with Massey, Emerson Van Lannen leads the team in assists and service aces, being another bright spot on this young K-State squad.

The Wildcats will host Cincinnati and Baylor this weekend, giving them a chance to collect their second win in Big 12 play. While the Cats have already lost to the Bearcats this season, this will be the first matchup with the Bears this season. Baylor and K-State have both lost their last two games to TCU and Kansas, but Baylor took both ranked teams to five sets. K-State has to take one of these two games to stay above .500, so it will be do or die for Mansfield’s squad.

Football:

Thursday, Nov. 7th vs Oklahoma State – 12 p.m. – TNT

Meanwhile, if K-State basketball looks easy to root for, K-State football has become a bit of an arduous chore after five games of Big 12 play. Collin Klein’s first time under the helm has not gone as expected, as the Cats sit at .500 after two losses to struggling Big 12 programs on the road. K-State’s Halloween head-to-head was haunted by the ghosts of K-State’s past as the Wildcats lost 27-24 in an overtime contest that was a lot closer than many would’ve anticipated two weeks ago.

Though K-State football has looked rough, it isn’t because they’re a bad team. Multiple senior leaders have been sidelined for weeks, including star QB Avery Johnson, who could be sidelined for the remainder of the season. On top of Johnson, K-State had been without their two star tight ends and senior offensive tackles for a lot of the season, leading to an offensive line that has looked very messy against Big 12 talent.

With Oklahoma State coming off of a tough loss to Iowa State, the Cowboys are gonna be looking to let off some steam against a K-State defense that has had the luxury of playing struggling offenses for the better part of a month. OSU quarterback Drew Mestemaker has remained one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football, throwing for the second most yards in FBS and scoring the most passing touchdowns in the country. 

The Cowboys ironically are known for getting into shootouts, and K-State’s offense is more like a musket in pace without Johnson. Blake Barnett played a solid game for the Cats, but OSU is not Colorado; Barnett and K-State’s secondary will have to show out in order to steal a win against a high flying Cowboys squad.