SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Kansas State comes in after two straight wins to open the season, beating North Dakota State on opening night before traveling west to top UNLV on Saturday in overtime. Cartier Diarra and Xavier Sneed both score in double digits for K-State through two games, while Makol Mawien is the teams leading rebounder with 13 thus far. The Wildcats graduated a senior class that won 88 games and went to three NCAA Tournaments, including the 2018 Elite Eight, a group that included the teams top-three scorers from a season ago. 

KANSAS STATE HEAD COACH BRUCE WEBER
Entering his eighth season with the Wildcats, Bruce Weber has over 150 wins at K-State and 13 career NCAA Tournament appearances. He has now taken three schools to the Sweet 16, including Southern Illinois, Illinois, and Kansas State. 

HAWKS ON THE ROAD
Monmouth was just 5-11 in true road games last season, but got out on the right foot with a win at Lehigh on Tuesday. King Rice is 55-77 all-time in opponents gyms.

K-STATE AT HOME
The Wildcats have won over 76% of the games they have played at Bramlage Coliseum in 32 seasons, and have topped 38 Top-25 teams there. Kansas State was 14-2 in Manhattan a season ago.

SERIES NOTES
-The teams have met just once, in December 2002 in Manhattan. 
-MU was outscored by just two in the second half, 42-40, and trailed by just two with less than 14 minutes remaining in the contest.
-The Hawks were led by Dwayne Byfield's 18 points, while Jason Krayl had 13 and Kevin Owens contributed 10 points and 12 rebounds.
-MU netted eight second-half triples in the game.
-Pervis Pasco went 9-for-9 for the Wildcats, a mark that is still second in K-State history for field goal attempts without a miss, scoring 19 points. 

BREAKOUT GAME FOR RUTTY
Sophomore forward Nikkei Rutty established the post early on against Hofstra, and converted a career high five field goals for his first career double-digit scoring effort, finishing with 10 points. The big man also snagged seven rebounds, a career best, and blocked a pair of shots, tied for a career best. He has started the first two games of the season.

PAPAS DISHING IT OUT
Junior guard George Papas collected seven assists, three more than his previous career high, in the Hawks' contest at Hofstra. Papas has seen significant time in the early season at the point guard spot after playing a majority of his minutes as a freshman and sophomore off the ball. He made just his second career start in the season opener at Lehigh and the first since December 16, 2017 as a freshman, making a critical late game three pointer in the win. 

ASSIST-TURNOVER SUCCESS
Monmouth has had an equal or positive assist-turnover ratio in both games played this season after doing so just seven times all of last year. MU had 16 assists and 16 turnovers at Lehigh before going 18 assists-10 turnovers at Hofstra, led by seven helpers from George Papas after Sam Chaput dished out seven at Lehigh.

SALNAVE AND HAMMOND ALMOST MATCHED
Since the beginning of last season, Monmouth's Preseason All-MAAC Second Team selections Ray Salnave and Deion Hammond are separated by just two points and three total minutes played in 36 games played. Salnave has 429 points in 939 minutes, while Hammond has 427 points in 942 minutes. 

SPREADING THE WEALTH
All 12 players in uniform have seen action in both contests for King Rice to open the season, and 11 of the 12 have scored in each game. Gob Gabriel was the only Hawk to not score at Lehigh, while Sam Ibiezugbe was the lone Hawk left off the scoring column at Hofstra.

FIRST CAREER START
Sophomore guard Samuel Chaput made his first career start at Hofstra, playing 14:32 in the game. Despite dealing with a nagging injury preseason, Chaput dished out a career-best seven assists in the win over Lehigh, and did so while playing a career-high 28 minutes. He added four points and turned it over just twice on the night. 

BIG SAM BEING BIG SAM
Senior center Sam Ibiezugbe collected a career-high eight rebounds in just 10+ minutes against Lehigh, also converting three field goals for six points, one off his career high for made shots. The big man had a steal and an assist and disrupted several Lehigh possessions inside defensively.

18 ASSISTS
Monmouth dished out 18 assists against Hofstra, the most MU has accumulated in the last 55 games dating back to a 19-assist performance at Quinnipiac on December 28, 2017. The Hawks are averaging 17 assists per contest through two games. 

TRAVELING HAWKS
Monmouth will travel 6,035 miles before returning to West Long Branch for its first home game on November 26. That travel will all take place in a 17-day span between November 5 and November 22, with MU traveling to Lehigh, Hofstra, Kansas State and Kansas, Pittsburgh and Orlando for seven contests before returning to the OceanFirst Bank Center.

MAAC PRESEASON
Monmouth was chosen to finish fourth in the MAAC by the league's head coaches. MU was five points behind third-selected Quinnipiac and two points clear of the fifth selection, Manhattan. Ray Salnave and Deion Hammond were selected to the conference's Preseason Second Team after finishing just four points apart from each other overall a season ago. Salnave led MU with 11.9 points per game with Hammond checking in at 11.8, while the latter led MU in made threes with 74.

WHAT THE HAWKS LOST
The Hawks had four players on last year's roster that will not return this season, with that group accounting for 23.0% of the Hawks scoring. The biggest loss was All-MAAC Third Team choice Diago Quinn, who led MU in rebounding and blocks while becoming the all-time games played leader in Hawks history. Nick Rutherford left via transfer after leading the Hawks in steals, while Trevon Gross (out of eligibility) and Dave Calloway Jr. are no longer on the roster.

WHAT THE HAWKS RETURN
Monmouth returns its top two scorers and four of the first five. Of the 11 players coming back for the Blue and White, eight of them have at least two years of experience in the program and will be juniors or higher entering the season. Mustapha Traore is the only Hawk coming back that started every single game a season ago.

MU VS. THE BIG 12
-The Hawks are 0-3 against current members of the Big 12 Conference, falling to Kansas State in 2002 and dropping a pair to West Virginia in 2014 and 2018. 
-King Rice is 0-2 against Big 12 competition, falling twice to West Virginia.
-MU will play two Big 12 teams this season in Kansas State and Kansas.