'We remove the numbers from the brackets' Tang says Wildcats ignore tournament seeding

GREENSBORO, N.C. (KSNT)- K-State was the underdog six months ago.

The Wildcats were picked to finish last in the Big 12 in preseason polls. Instead, K-State earned a third-place conference finish and a three-seed in the NCAA tournament.

In a full-circle story, the Wildcats are far from an underdog in round one of the big dance. K-State will play 14-seed Montana State, and most people are picking KSU. Jerome Tang says his team will not overlook their Friday opponent just because it is a lower seed.

"We remove the numbers from the bracket," Tang said. "It's one team against another at a neutral site. We know they're going to be prepared, we're going to be prepared. We don't want them to chase us, we want to be the guys doing the hunting. I'm sure they're going to be doing the same thing. Once that ball is tipped the ball doesn't care about numbers, you got to go make it happen."

Junior forward Nae'Qwan Tomlin feels like the team's preparation has been going well.

"We feel good. I feel like we're fresh," Tomlin said. "We got fresh legs. Just the momentum from those last practices are going to help us carry over to this next game."

K-State plays Montana State at 8:40 CT on Friday.