Monday's Pregame Beat: Kansas State's season on the line?

9:00 pm: No. 1 Kansas @ Kansas State: Its too early to truly say this is a make or break game for the Wildcats, but, well, we are getting pretty close to it. Most bracket projections have K-State either sitting somewhere on the bubble's edge -- one of the last few teams into the dance, or one of the first few teams sent to the NIT. You don't think a win over the No. 1 team in the country could help that standing a bit?

As Kellis Robbinett, a K-State beat writer for the Wichita Eagle, pointed out earlier today on twitter, no Big 12 team has ever made the NCAA Tournament with a 7-9 league record. Only one has ever made it at 8-8. K-State is currently 4-6 in the league and still has to play Missouri at home and Texas on the road. I know that past seasons have nothing to do with this season's bubble, but its belies a larger, incredibly obvious point -- K-State need to start winning games. And soon.

Beat Kansas, lost to Missouri and Texas, and win your other three Big 12 games, and the Wildcats are probably dancing. Lose to Kansas and Texas, beat Missouri and the other three teams on the schedule, and K-State will be much less comfortable. Lose to Missouri and Kansas, and, well, K-State is not winning in Austin.

If the Wildcats are going to win today, it will need to be a result of their defense. The Jayhawks are firing on all cylinders, in every sense of the word. The last five games, they are averaging 91.2 ppg and winning by an average margin of 21.2 ppg. That includes a 90-66 beatdown that the Wildcats suffered at the hands of the Jayhawks back in January.

Side note: for pregame reading, click this.

7:00 pm: West Virginia @ No. 20 Syracuse: The Orange have been struggling of late. They can't defend the three, Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine have proven to be the inconsistent, poor decision makers we all expected, and Rick Jackson has had a tendency to get into foul trouble. West Virginia has been pretty inconsistent themselves, struggling with offensive consistency and keeping players from being suspended. Someone has to turn things around by winning this game.