MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State was rewarded for a successful season on Sunday night, as the Wildcats earned their 32nd overall bid to the NCAA Tournament, including the first under head coach Jerome Tang.
No. 12/12 K-State (23-9, 11-7 Big 12) was selected as the No. 3 seed in the East Regional and will travel to Greensboro, N.C., to play No. 14 seed Montana State (25-9, 15-3 Big Sky) in the first round on Friday, March 17 at the Greensboro Coliseum. The winner will advance to play the winner of the No. 6 seed Kentucky (21-11, 12-6 SEC) and No. 11 seed Providence (21-11, 13-7 BIG EAST) on Sunday, March 19.
K-State and Montana State will tip off at 8:40 p.m., CT (9:40 p.m., ET) on CBS with Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Evan Washburn on the call. It will be proceeded by the Kentucky-Providence game, which is set for 6:10 p.m., CT (7:10 p.m., CT), also on CBS.
A limited number of first and second round tickets remain in the K-State allotment and are now available to request until 11:59 p.m., CT tonight. All requests will be assigned in order of Ahearn Fund priority points. Fans with orders that cannot be filled will be notified by 10 a.m., CT tomorrow. Ticket requests are for both the first and second rounds and only the sessions in which K-State plays. Tickets are priced at $100 for lower-level tickets and $80 for upper-level locations for each session. Fans can request tickets by clicking here.
"Wow, this is terrific. I mean, in light of like what's happening in other places right now," said Tang. "I just told our administration and our staff that we can't get tired of or take this for granted! Because it's hard to do. It's really, really hard to do. And so, it's a blessing. We're very thankful to God for this opportunity. I know that it was because of him that I'm sitting here. We have a team that we have and without the type of season that bad, we got crazy faith on our shirts because it took crazy what people some people called crazy and other people called faith, we call crazy faith, and just very, very thankful."
K-State was the No. 11 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, including third among the four No. 3 seeds (trailing Baylor and Gonzaga). The No. 3 seed is the second highest by a Wildcat team since seeding began in 1979 and the highest since the 2010 team was selected as a No. 2 seed.
The Wildcats will be joined at the venue by No. 3 seed Xavier (25-9), No. 6 seed Iowa State (19-13), No. 14 Kennesaw State (26-8) and the winner of the First Four matchup between No. 11 seeds Mississippi State (21-12) and Pittsburgh (22-11) of the Midwest Regional. The top seed in the East Regional are No. 1 seed Purdue (29-5), No. 2 seed Marquette (28-6), No. 3 seed K-State, No. 4 seed Tennessee (23-10), No. 5 seed Duke (26-8), No. 6 seed Kentucky (21-11) and No. 7 seed Michigan State (19-12).
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