With less than a month left in the Big 12 regular season, two struggling teams will meet up Wednesday night when Kansas State hosts Cincinnati in Manhattan, Kan.

The Wildcats (10-13, 1-9 Big 12) will take to their home court having dropped four straight contests and nine of 10.

Coach Jerome Tang’s squad opened Tuesday in a last-place tie with Utah, which hosted No. 3 Houston that night.

Kansas State was fighting a flu bug spreading through the team during a blowout home loss to No. 8 Iowa State, but the team showed promise at TCU, losing in Texas 84-82 despite a gritty performance by top scorer P.J. Haggerty.

Haggerty returned to his home state and scored 30 points on 14-of-24 shooting, including 2 of 5 from three-point range.

“We have to bring this kind of focus and energy to Bramlage (Coliseum),” Tang said, looking ahead to the Cincinnati matchup. “Our fans deserve that right now. … Our fans deserve this kind of focus and energy.”

Haggerty averages 23.3 points per game and has paced the team in scoring in the past dozen games. He also leads in rebounding at 5.2. David Castillo adds 11.7 points, while Nate Johnson scores 11.3.

The Bearcats (12-12, 4-7) have dropped four of the past six games but are coming off their best win in conference play, a 92-72 thrashing of rival UCF at home in Ohio.

Opening the game as the worst shooting team in the Big 12 at 47.1%, Cincinnati turned in a season-best 58.9% (33 of 56) performance and waylaid the Knights in a long-shot bid to make the NCAA Tournament field.

Listed as probable for Wednesday, Estonian guard Kerr Kriisa (5.8 points, 3.0 assists) missed four consecutive games with a shoulder separation in January. He returned for five games but didn’t play against UCF.

Coach Wes Miller has given backcourt mate Keyshuan Tillery more playing time. Tillery logged 17 minutes against the Knights.

“Keyshuan’s minutes in the first half were significant,” Miller said of Tillery, who averages three points while playing 10 minutes per game. “He’s going to be an elite college guard. Elite. I see (him) in a Final Four one day because he’s got leadership characteristics. He’s got the competitive edge and all the ability.”

Baba Miller leads the Bearcats with 13.6 points and 10.5 rebounds.

–Field Level Media

If Washington is going to make a run and reach the NCAA Tournament bubble, now is the time.

Of the Huskies’ seven remaining Big Ten Conference games, five are against teams they are either tied with or below them in the standings.

That stretch starts Wednesday night when the Huskies (12-12 overall, 4-9 Big Ten) play host to Penn State (10-14, 1-12) in Seattle.

Washington also has matchups against Minnesota (4-9 in conference), Maryland (2-10), Rutgers (2-11) and Oregon (1-12) remaining, with games against Wisconsin (8-4) and USC (7-6) the only opponents above them in the standings.

The Huskies nearly posted a big road victory Saturday before falling to UCLA 77-73.

“I’m proud of our guys’ effort, but at the end of the day it’s not good enough,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “It’s just not. We have to break through.”

Sprinkle lamented his team’s 13 turnovers compared to just seven by UCLA and 12-of-18 shooting from the free-throw line. The Huskies’ turnovers led to 20 points for the Bruins.

“You can’t do it against good teams. Not (against) any Big Ten team on the road,” Sprinkle said.

Wesley Yates III scored a team-high 21 points for the Huskies and Hannes Steinbach added 13 points and seven rebounds. Quimari Peterson came off the bench and scored 12, making three 3-pointers, and had seven assists.

The Nittany Lions beat Minnesota 77-75 on Feb. 1 for their first conference victory of the season. After a lopsided loss to at Michigan, they dropped a 77-75 decision to visiting USC on Sunday after leading by 12 points in the second half.

Freddie Dilione V led Penn State with 23 points against the Trojans.

“We had stretches of playing winning basketball (Sunday),” Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said. “We didn’t have enough of it. Our margin of error is thin.”

Like Sprinkle, Rhoades pointed to turnovers and free throws. The Nittany Lions gave the ball away 17 times — nearly twice their average of 9.8 — and went 9 of 15 at the line.

“You’ve got to make your free throws, especially the guys that are getting fouled the most, and we got to take care of the basketball,” Rhoades said. “That really hurt.”

–Field Level Media

A visit to Pebble Beach last year helped set up Rory McIlroy for one of the biggest moments of his golf career.

McIlroy earned a two-shot victory at the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, kickstarting a stellar run that saw him win the Players Championship before completing the career Grand Slam by capturing the Green Jacket at the Masters.

The 36-year-old Northern Ireland native is back on the Monterey Peninsula this week to defend his Pebble Beach championship.

“Obviously last year was a great way to start the 2025 season,” McIlroy said. “Historically I haven’t played Pebble Beach that well. I’ve played OK, but nothing spectacular.

“I think winning on a golf course that I hadn’t won on before, hadn’t really contended on before, I feel like it gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season.”

He added of his triumphant performance at Pebble Beach Golf Links that he was pleased with “how in control I was with my ball flight, especially in tough conditions last year on the Saturday. There was a lot of things that I worked on in the offseason that I brought with me into here. Yeah, it was a massive confidence boost and obviously then went on to play well in that early part of the season, won at The Players and then obviously into the Masters.

“Yeah, it was a perfect way to start the year here last year. Hoping for something similar this.”

An aggressive approach and clutch work on the greens were key to prevailing at Pebble Beach, McIlroy believes.

“I hit driver a lot, giving myself short irons in,” he said of his 2025 strategy. “I think last year as well, it was probably the best putting performance I’ve ever had on poa greens. I usually come to the West Coast and I struggle a little bit on the poa, and last year I didn’t. I holed a lot of putts and that was a big difference.”

McIlroy finished last season and started this season well, too. After the PGA Tour playoffs concluded, he captured the Irish Open, tied for third in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and finished second at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

After tying for 14th at the Australian Open to end 2025, he tied for third and tied for 33rd in two Middle Eastern events to kick off 2026.

“Game feels in good shape,” McIlroy said. “I had two weeks in Dubai to sort of shake the rust off. Played OK, wasn’t anything spectacular. But I’ve had two nice weeks at home and done some practice. … I feel pretty good coming in here.”

–Field Level Media