FARGO - The route from Fargo to Manhattan, Kansas is a familiar one for Bison fans. Now they'll have another reason to traverse to the Little Apple.
North Dakota State will open the next basketball season against Kansas State out of the Big 12. CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein was the first to report the game Wednesday evening. Bison head coach Dave Richman confirmed the game to WDAY Sports' Dom Izzo later that night.
Source: Kansas State will host North Dakota State to open the 2019-20 college basketball season.
This game will be played in early November and mark the fifth all-time matchup between the schools. The last game was December of 2006, when Ben Woodside missed a three-pointer as time expired as the Wildcats escaped with a 83-81 win in front of a packed Bison Sports Arena.
NDSU will return a majority of its roster in 2019-20 that won a game in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Duke. Kansas State won 25 games last season under head coach Bruce Weber, before losing in the first round to UC Irvine. The Wildcats top three scorers from last season will be gone to graduation, while the fourth, Xavier Sneed, has his name in the NBA Draft pool.
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The Bison have played two previous times in Manhattan, in 1967 and 2004, both Wildcat wins. For NDSU, this marks the tenth all-time game against a Big 12 school. The Bison have just one win in the previous nine, the 2014 NCAA Tournament overtime victory over Oklahoma.
The NDSU-Kansas State connections are strong, beginning with the 2013 football upset over the Wildcats. Former athletic director Gene Taylor took over as K-State A.D. in 2017 and he hired Bison football coach Chris Klieman to take over as Wildcat head coach for the 2019 season.
