JUST IN: Texas and Kansas State square off as they attempt to turn things around.

When Texas and Kansas State play each other on Monday in a crucial conference game in Austin, Texas, both teams hope to climb the Big 12 rankings.

In the 14-team rankings, Kansas State (15-10, 5-7) and the Longhorns (16-9, 5-7 Big 12) are tied for ninth place with Cincinnati. With five games remaining until the league tournament, the winner of Monday’s match would drop to eleventh place.

The tournament’s first round is played by the four clubs that finished last in the regular season, which means it would require five victories in five days to win the championship—a difficult undertaking.

The Longhorns lost badly against No. 3 Houston on Saturday, falling 82–61. Now, they return home. Texas lost to the Cougars for the second time this season, trailing by as much as 26 points in the final minutes of the game and falling behind by 23 points at one point in the second half.

With a minus-11 rebounding differential, a 38.6 percent shooting percentage, and their lowest offensive output of the season, Dylan Disu led Texas with 16 points and seven rebounds in the defeat.

“We didn’t come out with what we have to do in terms of physicality, but the (Houston) game got away from us a little bit toward the end of the first half,” Texas coach Rodney Terry said following the defeat. “You have to stand your ground.”

After losing to TCU 75-72 at home in the last seconds on Saturday, the Wildcats will be visiting Austin. With fifteen seconds left, Cam Carter sank two free throws for Kansas State to level the score at 72, but TCU answered with a game-winning three-pointer.

In the defeat, Arthur Kaluma scored 11 points, David N’Guessan contributed 12 points, and Tylor Perry led the Wildcats with 24 points. Kansas State has lost six of their last seven games and two of their last three.

Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang remarked on Saturday, “Our guys fought.” “We can attempt to make up for the fact that we aren’t always the brightest people. But they threw in the towel. Nobody is in a panic in the changing room.

“We can figure out how to fix one or two possessions and turn this thing around. It’s a Big 12 game that comes down to one possession. We have a Texas Longhorn team playing at home that is in some of the same circumstances as us, so we have to move on to the next one.”