Report: LSU, Kansas State to begin home-and-home series in 2023-24 season

LSU and Kansas State are going to tipoff a home-and-home men’s basketball series this upcoming season, according to Jon Rothstein. The two squads will face off in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Nov. 9, 2023, in the first game of the pairing.

A return game in Manhattan, Kansas, will take place sometime in the 2024-25 season. It will likely be during the non-conference heavy portion of the schedule in November or December of that year.

This game is also being added to the schedule in the first year that the midseason Big 12/SEC Challenge won’t take place in recent memory. The showcase had pitted various SEC teams against Big 12 squads, usually in late January.

With that event no longer obliging LSU or Kansas State to participate, they’ve opted to keep some inter-league play going.

Both teams will feature second-year coaches, too, albeit coming off very different levels of success. Both coaches, Jerome Tang at Kansas State and Matt McMahon at LSU, had to mine the transfer portal and almost complete revamp their respective rosters. But the Tigers went 14-19 and struggled for long stretches. The Wildcats made the Elite Eight, finishing 26-10 and establishing themselves as a force in the Big 12 going forward.

LSU is still awaiting NCAA infractions hearing results for famed FBI college basketball case

LSU faced eight Level I violations as a result of the scandal — six against the basketball program, one against the football team and another for both sports combined. It also resulted in the firing of Will Wade last season, which opened the door for the Tigers to hire Matt McMahon from Murray State. Since then, Wade has become the head coach job at McNeese State and is suspended for the start of the season.

Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde reported in April that LSU had met with the NCAA in April and could hear back on the infractions some time in the spring.

Kansas and LSU are the last two programs who need to receive rulings regarding the FB investigation. NC State, Memphis, Louisville and Arizona have all had their situations resolved.

Kansas was handed five Level I violations, including an allegation of payments from an Adidas bag man to people close to Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa. Head coach Bill Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend are at the center of that investigation, and they were both suspended for the first four games of this past season.