Everyone’s on our side tonight at the Paradise Jam semifinals.
After finally putting together a decent performance against George Washington — albeit one not without a late-game case of acid reflux — K-State takes the court again against a team everyone loves to hate. Even more than Duke!
The Game
The Kansas State Wildcats (4-1) visit the Liberty Flames (5-1) in the semifinals of the 2024 Paradise Jam.
This is the first meeting between the schools.
Liberty has only been a school since 1971, joined NCAA Division II in 1980, and moved up to Division I in 1988. In that time, they’ve made one NAIA tournament appearance (1983) and five NCAA tournament appearances (six, technically, but their first-round game in 2020 was cancelled because of reasons most Liberty alums don’t believe).
Ritchie McKay is in his 12th season overall as head coach of the Flames, having left after two seasons to be an assistant at Virginia when Tony Bennett took over in Charlottesville because that was a better gig. During that first stint, McKay coached Seth Curry as a freshman before Curry transferred to Duke. McKay’s overall record at Liberty is 247-128; his total overall record is 412-286, including two-year stints at Portland State, Colorado State, and Oregon State before a five-year sojourn in Albuquerque as New Mexico’s head coach. He took the Lobos to the dance in 2005, losing in the first round to end a 26-7 season.
The Flames are led by guard Kaden Metheny (15.4 PPG) and forward Zach Cleveland (12.3 PPG, 5.3 APG, 6.3 RPG).
Tipoff
Sunday, November 24, 7:00pm CT at Elridge Wilburn Blake Sports and Fitness Center (3,000) in Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
Tickets
Look, you’re not going. If you were, tickets would be $55 onsite.
Odds
The Cats opened at -1.5. Yikes. DraftKings now has it at -3.5 with the over at 134.5, which maths out to 69-66 K-State. The money line is -170 for K-State, +142 for Liberty. Oddshark’s computer is more generous, projecting a 78-70 win for the Cats.
Television
Nada.
Radio
Brian Smoller and Ben Boyle on the K-State Sports Network as well as via satellite on SiriusXM 388.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on ESPN+ (subscription required). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats allegedly provided by StatBroadcast, but no link provided yet.
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