FHSU Athletics
Fort Hays State (0-0) at
Kansas State (0-0)
Tuesday, October 29 - 7 p.m.
Manhattan, Kan. - Bramlage Coliseum
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Fort Hays State Men's Basketball is set to play an exhibition contest against Kansas State University on Tuesday night in Manhattan, Kan. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Bramlage Coliseum. Fort Hays State is coming off its 14th appearance all-time in the NCAA Tournament (8th under head coach Mark Johnson) in 2023-24, finishing with a 23-8 record overall. The Wildcats finished 19-15 overall in 2023-24 and made an appearance in the NIT.
The last time Fort Hays State and Kansas State met, Fort Hays State left Manhattan with an 81-68 win on December 8, 2020. Though it was a regular season game for Kansas State, it was an exhibition for Fort Hays State. It was during the COVID season of 2020-21. Head coach Mark Johnson and associate head coach Jeremy Brown were in quarantine and could not travel with the team to the game, so assistant coach Todd Johnston had to lead the Tigers that night. The Tigers shot a blistering 55.2 percent from the field that night with 10 3-point field goals made, while holding KSU to 44 percent. Kansas State is now officially 3-3 all-time against FHSU in regular season games and both wins for FHSU in Manhattan all-time have oddly been on December 8, the other occurring in 1936 by a score of 47-25. The Wildcats are 4-0 in exhibition games against FHSU, but FHSU technically is now 1-4 against KSU in exhibitions for its official history and 2-3 against the Wildcats in regular season play. Kaleb Hammeke and Traejon Davis were the only current Tigers on that 2020-21 FHSU team and Hammeke scored 15 points the last time the teams met.
The Tigers enter their 24th season under head coach Mark Johnson, who brings an overall record of 451-220 into the 2024-25 campaign. The Tigers have three conference championships under his guidance (two regular season and one tournament). The Tigers reached at least 20 wins for the third-straight year in 2023-24 and it marked the 12th time reaching at least 20 on Johnson's watch.
The Tigers fell 59-58 to Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year on a buzzer beater in the loaded Central Regional. It was a matchup of Top 20 nationally ranked teams in the first round, UMD at No. 10 and FHSU at No. 19. The Tigers were in the Top 25 of the last seven NABC polls released during the 2023-24 season. Minnesota State, the region's top seed, went on to win the regional and eventually the national championship, proving how good the Central Region was in 2023-24.
Fort Hays State's defense has been its identity in recent years. The Tigers were the national leader in scoring defense last year, allowing 57.9 points per game. They were one point per game better than conference foe Northwest Missouri State (58.9). In 2022-23, Northwest Missouri State had the best scoring defense in the nation (56.3), while Fort Hays State ranked second (57.2). The Tigers were second nationally also in 2021-22 at 56.6 per game, only behind Miles which had an average of 56.2. The Tigers held the opposition to 60 points or less in 17 of 31 games in 2023-24, which included 11 games inside of 50.
With the grind-out possession-style of play for the Tigers last year, they also were among the nation's best in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 39.8 percent from the field for the season. They ranked sixth nationally in that category, just 0.8 percent off the national lead. FHSU has held the opposition to less than 40 percent shooting from the field for the season in each of the last three years.
The Tigers return seven players from their 2023-24 squad, led by graduate student Kaleb Hammeke who enters his fifth year on the court. Traejon Davis also enters his fifth year on the floor for the Tigers. They are the longest-tenured Tigers on the roster. Hammeke led the Tigers in scoring (13.6 ppg) and assists (4.1 apg) in 2023-24, while also making a team-best 46 3-point field goals and 90 free throws for the season. He shot 87.4 percent at the free-throw line last year and reached double figures in scoring in 25 of 31 games. Hammeke is also the top returning rebounder for the Tigers, averaging 5.1 per game a year ago.
Davis, along with Shaun Riley and R.J. Crawford, started a significant amount of games for the Tigers in 2023-24. Kyle Grill also returns after playing in all but one contest last year. Lucas Hammeke saw action in only eight games, hampered with a mid-season injury, while Petar Asceric redshirted the 2023-24 season. The five players aside from Hammeke that played last year combined for 24.1 points per game. Hard to replace will be All-MIAA performers Elijah Nnanabu and Bjarni Jonsson, both exhausting their eligibility in 2023-24. Nnanabu was a two-time all-conference performer, while Jonsson was the MIAA Defensive Player of the Year, a two-time all-conference performer, and a three-time MIAA All-Defensive Team performer.