WVU Travels to K-State
Mountaineers seek 2nd straight victory in Big 12
Trending
MORGANTOWN -- Survive and advance -- that's life in the Big 12 Conference as No. 7 West Virginia (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) travels to Manhattan, Kansas, today to face a Wildcats team coming off an impressive 91-75 victory over Iowa State.
"This is us," Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins quipped following his team's 85-79 win Oklahoma State on Friday. "This is what we do. We grind. We rebound. Somehow, I've got to get it through their heads that we grind. That's what we do."
Trailing by seven at the half (46-39) and by as many as nine in the second half, West Virginia turned to freshman Teddy Allen and away from its famous full-court press to overcome the upset-minded Cowboys.
Allen tallied 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second 30 minutes of play while senior standout Jevon Carter struggled offensively -- hitting only 2 of 10 shots -- and defensively committing a career-high eight turnovers.
"It was a hard lick and he didn't play very well," Huggins said. "But the first thing he said when he goes into the locker room was, 'I didn't play well and I'm sorry. But we won and I'm happy.' That's rhetoric for some people, but he means it.
"He's a guy who loves to win. Everybody is going to have a bad day once in a while. Numbers wise, that's probably as bad as he's played in four years. He's never had eight turnovers before. But he does things like getting five steals for us or kind of igniting things in the second half with that steal. He rebounds the ball and goes and makes free throws at the end of the game, even though he didn't play particularly well. That's J.C. and that's what he does."
Carter and Company will have to continue that grind when it takes on a K-State five (11-2, 1-0) that always plays well at Bramlage Coliseum.
Last season the Wildcats dropped 2 of 3 meetings with the Mountaineers, but the one win came at home by a 79-75 score.
"This game is going to be like the Virginia game," Huggins said. "That's why you play a team like Virginia because it prepares you for this."
West Virginia had its five-game winning streak against the Wildcats snapped, including its two-game winning streak at Bramlage Coliseum as five KSU players reached double digits while WVU was led by then-senior Tarik Phillips' game high 20.
"We didn't play with that edge we have to have," Huggins said following the game. "We have to play with an edge and when we don't we lose games that we shouldn't lose."
Huggins will go with his normal line up of Carter, who leads the team in scoring (17.7 ppg), assists (83), steals (49) and free throw shooting (87.3 percent), and senior Daxter Miles Jr. at the guards with sophomores Lamont West, Wesley Harris and Sagaba Konate at the forwards.
KSU will counter with juniors Barry Brown (14.4 ppg) and Kamau Stokes (14.2) at the guards with junior Dean Wade (13.2) and sophomores Makol Mawien (7.0) and Xavier Sneed (11.6) at the forwards.
Wade is coming off a monster game against ISU when the 6-foot-10 forward made good on 13 of 16 shots from the floor -- including 6 of 8 from behind the arc -- en route to a game-high 34 points.
The Mountaineers head into their second consecutive road contest with seven players averaging seven points or better per game with Miles (14.6 ppg), West (12.1) and top reserve James 'Beetle' Bolden (10.9) all contributing double digits.
"There are going to be a lot of games where you don't play well," Huggins said. "We are a microcosm of our state, so we have to be tougher than everybody else.
"It's West Virginia. Everybody else plays for their school. We play for our state."