GAME NOTES: The 2015 Big 12 Conference tips off on Wednesday evening, with the first bout pitting the ninth-seeded TCU Horned Frogs against the eighth-seeded Kansas State Wildcats.

All games are being played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, and the winner of this bout will take on top-seeded Kansas in the quarterfinal round on Thursday.

TCU enters the event having lost three in a row and four of its last five overall. The team is seeking its first win in the Big 12 Tournament after losing a game in each of its first two years in the league. This season, the Horned Frogs are 17-14 overall, and they went just 4-14 against their conference rivals to finish in ninth place in the standings.

Kansas State owns an 11-18 record in the tournament, having never won the title, although it has reached the finals in two of the last five years, losing both times to rival Kansas. With regard to this season, the Wildcats have won only three of their last 11 games, although one of those victories came against the Jayhawks just a couple of weeks ago. K-State finished the regular season at 15-16 overall and 8-10 in conference.

These two teams split a pair of meetings during the regular season, with each winning at home. As a result, Kansas State owns an 8-3 series advantage, although two of TCU's three wins have come in the postseason. The first being a 77-72 decision in the 1968 NCAA Tournament, and the second a 72-71 verdict during the 1999 NIT.

Despite being the worst free-throw shooting team in the Big 12 (.615), TCU didn't fare all that poorly this season with regard to its production at the offensive end of the court. The team has only one double-digit scorer in Kyan Anderson (13.6 ppg, 4.3 apg), but six others net between 5.6 and 9.6 ppg, helping the team generate 68.5 ppg to rank sixth in the conference. The Frogs have done a nice job with their backs to the basket, yielding just 62.2 ppg in holding the opposition to a mere 39.8 percent success rate from the field overall. They also rank second in the league in blocked shots (5.35 per game), and third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.12).

Even though Kansas State has three players averaging double digits in the scoring column, it ranks as one of the weakest offensive teams in the Big 12 as it puts up just 62.9 ppg. Marcus Foster (12.9 ppg), Nino Williams (11.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and Thomas Gipson (11.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg) have done their best to keep the Wildcats competitive, but none of them actually cause many sleepless nights for opposing coaches wondering how best to stop them. KSU's defensive prowess hasn't been terrible, with the 'Cats permitting 63.7 ppg while goading foes into nearly 13 turnovers per outing.

Don't expect an offensive explosion from either team, but K-State should be able to prevail on the strength of solid efforts from its top three players.