The Kansas State Wildcats, ranked No. 4 in the country, will play the nation's top-ranked team in the Duke Blue Devils. Kansas State played their most complete game of the year on Monday night against Gonzaga and they're looking for a similar performance against Duke in the final of the CBE Classic on Tuesday night at 9:15 p.m. on ESPN2.
Kansas State's biggest advantage is how deep their team is and how aggressive they are. Both teams like to run the floor while they both want to make their opponent run their half-court offense. This should be a helluva a game for those that like to see teams do the little things right.
Here are three keys to the game between Kansas State and Duke.
Shooting the three. Kansas State came out firing on Monday night against Gonzaga finishing 12-of-26 at the three point line. If they shoot like that, then this is a rough game for Duke. The stats show, though, that they're more of a 36 percent three point shooting team -- not 46 percent. Duke has the edge here based on their consistency but K-State clearly has the ability to step it up.
The free points. Duke is a very good free-throw shooting team looking at a 75 percent clip as a team. Kansas State? 50 percent. KSU also commits a lot of fouls so Duke will get their chances at the free throw line. Kansas State can't afford to give up the free points.
Crowd noise. This will be a Kansas State-heavy crowd since the game is in Kansas City. Don't get me wrong -- Duke travels well -- but this is K-State's night. Not all of Duke's key players have a ton of experience right now which means crowd noise could become a factor. This should be a very raucous crowd.