Kansas basketball: This Sunflower Showdown has extra flair

Kansas basketball and Kansas State are set to meet in the Sunflower Showdown for the second time this season, but don’t let the extra flair fool you.

Despite the records, Kansas basketball, and Kansas State’s game this Saturday will be a fun one. There’s some bad blood between these teams, as evidenced by the now-infamous “Sunflower Throwdown.”

I’m sure everyone and their mother has seen the videos and pictures of the fight, but it did a lot of damage to both programs. Here are the punishments that were handed out after the smoke cleared:

• Silvio De Sousa – 12 games
• David McCormack – 2 games
• James Love – 8 games
• Antonio Gordon – 3 games

In case you missed it or forgot, here’s the entire brawl:

Obviously the bad blood between the teams will fuel the competition this Saturday. Expect a physical game from both teams, and possibly one of the rowdier opposing environments the Jayhawks have faced this season. Not that the Octagon of Doom is a tough place to play per se, but when the Jayhawks are in town, the Wildcat faithful fill up the arena.

While the brawl in the first game provides a unique angle to this game, the fact of the matter is that Kansas is far superior to the Wildcats in every way.

The Jayhawks lead Kansas State in basically every statistical category from their record all the way down to free throw percentage. Kansas basketball will likely be a double-digit road favorite too, given the Wildcats were just beaten by 11 at home by a subpar Texas squad.

Honestly, you have to kind of feel bad for Kansas State. Later tonight, they’ll travel to Waco to play the No. two ranked Baylor Bears before getting the No. one Jayhawks on Saturday. It’s a tough week, to say the least as the Wildcats will try to avoid losing their eighth and ninth games respectively.

You can catch the Jayhawks tip-off against the Kansas State this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (Central) on CBS.