Depth big reason for No. 18 K-State's success

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MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) - Bruce Weber is willing to admit that he's not exactly pleased with the way Kansas State's Big 12 schedule worked out.

The double round-robin format means each team will play 18 games from the first week of January through the first week of March. To fit it all in, teams will only get one week during that stretch when they play just once - the closest thing to a bye that they'll get.

The 18th-ranked Wildcats had theirs after their very first game.

But if any team is built to deal with the rigors of conference life, it just may be Weber's bunch of veterans. Not only have most of them been through the grind a couple times, there are a lot of them: An astonishing 11 players average at least 11 minutes per game.