Jeff Sagarin listed the program 27th in his all-time rankings in the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia.

Kansas State's best finish at the tournament came in 1951, when it lost to Kentucky in the national championship game.

[4][5] The team also had some notably successful seasons before the creation of the NIT (1938) and the NCAA tournament (1939), including conference titles in 1917 and 1919 under coach Zora G. Clevenger.

The Helms Athletic Foundation named Frank Reynolds the program's first All-American player in 1917, and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll retroactively ranked Kansas State #12 in 1910, #18 in 1916, #8 in 1917 and #7 in 1919.

[6] After a lengthy period with little success during the 1990s and 2000s, the team returned to prominence under head coach Frank Martin.

Following that season, Kansas State freshman Michael Beasley was named an All-American and Big 12 Conference Player of the Year.

In the 2009–10 season, the team spent much of the year ranked in the Top 10 of the AP poll and finished second in the Big 12.

The team received a #2 seed in the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and advanced to the Elite Eight.

Along the way, the Wildcats defeated Xavier in a double-overtime thriller, which CBSSports.com called "one of the best games in the history of the Sweet 16.

"[7] On March 31, 2012, Bruce Weber was announced as head coach after Frank Martin left for South Carolina.

K-State appeared in the NCAA tournament five times in Weber's seven seasons, including advancing to the Elite Eight in 2018.

In what was supposed to be the rubber game, in the 1988 Big Eight Conference men's basketball tournament, Kansas State won a decisive victory by a 69–54 score.

Led by Danny Manning's 20 points, KU turned a tight game into a runaway and prevailed 71–58.

The rivalry slipped in significance after the 1988 season, and from 1994 to 2005 KU won 31 straight games against K-State, the longest streak for either school in the series.

Jeff Sagarin's rankings of the nation's top programs by decade in the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia nicely track the history of the rivalry.

[12] As of the 2022–23 season, Missouri is Kansas State's second most-played rival, with 237 games dating back to 1907.

Since Missouri's move to the SEC, the two teams have matched up twice, meeting on neutral floors in 2015 and 2018, both Kansas State victories.