There undoubtedly will be more purple than blue in the stands tonight in Allen Fieldhouse, when the ninth-ranked Kansas State women’s basketball team comes to Lawrence.
That, at least, has been the trend for the last few years because thousands of Wildcat fans have made the pilgrimage to Lawrence.
“It’s just meant such a great deal to our basketball team to know that our fans, whenever it’s possible, that they’ll hit the road and go support us in a big way in such a tremendous rivalry game,” K-State coach Deb Patterson said.
“Everyone in the state understands that KU-Kansas State rivalry. It’s long, it’s storied, it extends across every sport that both of our institutions host. In a great rivalry and matchup like the one K-State and KU have always had, that adds a special dimension and makes it fun. Not just for players on both teams, but fans of both programs.”
The series hasn’t been fun for the Jayhawks in recent seasons. KU (9-11 overall, 2-7 Big 12 Conference) has lost five straight to Kansas State by an average margin of 25.8 points.
Even more discouraging for the Jayhawks is that fact that they’ve lost their homecourt advantage in their last two home games against the Wildcats. Kansas State defeated Kansas, 65-40, in 2002 at Allen Fieldhouse in front of 11,858 mostly pro-purple patrons. Last year the Wildcats won 88-49 in front of a crowd of 5,318 — again the majority was made up of KSU supporters.
Kansas interim head coach Lynette Woodard, who despite being a four-time Kodak All-American and the all-time women’s collegiate scoring leader, had a losing record against the Wildcats — going 8-11 in her career from 1978-81.
But Woodard said she wouldn’t be shocked if her team was able to pull off a surprise tonight against the (17-3, 8-1) Wildcats, who lead the all-time series 46-40.
“Everyone’s excited about the game, the players are hyped,” Woodard said. “It’s a challenge, and an opportunity for them to go out and play hard, and maybe knock off one of the elite teams in this country.
“Nebraska did it a couple of weeks ago, and we just feel like have as good a shot as anyone. We’re at home, I feel good about that and hopefully our fans will rally around us and come out and support us. If that’s the case I think we’ll do a good job.”
The Jayhawks will have to a much better job of slowing Kansas State than they did in their first meeting.
Although Kansas played nearly even with Kansas State in the second half of its 79-50 loss last month in Bramlage Coliseum, the Wildcats ran away with the game in the first half. In front of 13,340 fans — the largest crowd ever to witness the in-state rivalry since it began in 1969 — K-State outscored KU 52-26 on 65.6 percent shooting.
However, Patterson said that score wasn’t an indication of how things would likely go tonight. After all two Jayhawk starters — Tamara Ransburg and Larisha Graves, and reserve Kandis Bonner — sat out the game serving a one-game suspension mandated by the Big 12 after their involvement in a fracas following KU’s 55-52 win Jan. 10 at Missouri.
“I just feel like anytime you take two players out of the starting lineup of a Big 12 basketball team, you’ve really significantly bent it,” Patterson said. “I kind of feel like we’ll be lining up against Kansas for the first time this season.”
