Mountaineers, Wildcats to Meet Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum – West Virginia University Athletics

Tale of the Tape
Points Per Game	72.6	71.8
Scoring Margin	+0.8	+7.9
Field Goal Percentage	.450	.427
OPP Field Goal Percentage	.446	.397
3-PT Field Goal Percentage	.336	.336
OPP 3-PT Field Goal Percentage	.364	.282
Free Throw Percentage	.679	.757
Rebounds Per Game	33.3	34.5
Assists Per Game	13.5	13.5
Turnovers Per Game	12.1	10.8
Steals Per Game	7.2	8.1
Blocks Per Game	3.4	4.8
Streak	L6	L1

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will be in a similar situation to Tuesday night when it lost 65-57 to Arizona State this Saturday when it plays at Kansas State.
 
The Sun Devils were looking to snap a four-game losing streak and did so at the expense of the 23^rd-ranked Mountaineers, coming off an impressive 64-57 victory over second-ranked Iowa State three days prior.
 
On Saturday evening in Manhattan, Kansas, West Virginia will be facing equally desperate Kansas State, losers of six straight Big 12 games after tipping off conference play with a 70-67 home victory over Cincinnati back on Dec. 30.
 
That means the entire month of January has been losses for third-year coach Jerome Tang, whose record has gone from 26-10 his first year, to 19-15 last year to 7-11 so far this season.
 
The Wildcats’ recent skid has included a one-point road defeat at TCU, a four-point home loss to Texas Tech and most recently, an eight-point loss at Baylor where Tang once served as Scott Drew’s No. 1 assistant.
 
West Virginia coach Darian DeVries, recently the recipient of the Jim Phelan “Mid-Season” Award, presented to college basketball’s top Division I head coach, believes Kansas State has been making strides with its lineup full of transfer portal additions.
 
Despite Tang now being in year three at Kansas State, all five Wildcat starters began their college careers at other schools.
 
“They’ve been competitive in a lot of their games; they just haven’t gotten a lot of them in the win column the way they would like,” DeVries said.
 
And just like Arizona State, Kansas State will present plenty of challenges with their size up front. Leading scorer David N’Guessan, a 6-foot-9 former Virginia Tech transfer, averages 12.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, but DeVries said everything K-State does offensive runs through 6-foot-10 senior Coleman Hawkins, an Illinois important.
 
Hawkins averages 10.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and has handed out a team-leading 79 assists.
 
“There are some things that are unique to them, and a lot of it is because of Coleman Hawkins,” DeVries noted. “They play a lot through him and he’s kind of that point-forward for them as sort of their facilitator. They will play him in the post or out in space, and he will put you in some difficult spots on what you want to do with his ball screens.”
 
The conundrum, as DeVries sees it, is do you double Hawkins, or do you take your chances by playing him one-on-one because he’s such an outstanding passer who has also made 21 threes?
 
It’s sort of a pick-your-poison proposition.
 
“If you are going to play him one-on-one, he’s a guy that can back you down or get you to a spot,” DeVries explained. “But if you bring (extra) people he’s a very willing passer and he’s very unselfish in that way.”
 
Villanova transfer Brendan Hausen is second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.9 points per game.
 
Arizona State’s size was a big issue for West Virginia in last Tuesday night’s loss. The Sun Devils outrebounded 46 to 28, including one stretch midway through the second half when WVU’s only two boards were credited as team rebounds.
 
Most of WVU’s offense came in transition off Arizona State turnovers, and when that dried up in the second half, the Mountaineers struggled offensively. West Virginia shot just 31% overall and missed 25 of its 29 three-point attempts. Had the Mountaineers misfired on just 22 of those threes, that would have been enough to defeat Arizona State.
 
Partly to blame was a flu bug that impacted some of the players, including guard Sincere Harris, not to mention a difficult stretch that saw the team play five games in nine days, two of which were in Boulder, Colorado, and Houston, Texas.
 
DeVries said his guys are now beyond the virus and is hopeful they can find their legs again when it meets Kansas State on Saturday night. He wants his team getting back to playing the tough, aggressive defense that has led to 13 victories, including three over top 10-ranked teams.
 
“It certainly let us down in the second half the other night, and that’s something we just can’t let afford to have happen,” he said. “For us, it’s always going to be about our defense and our ability to make things difficult for opposing offenses.” 
 
Guard Javon Small, the Big 12’s leading scorer averaging 19.5 points per game, led the Mountaineers with 14 points against Arizona State earlier this week, but he saw a wave of defenders and finished the night just 2-of-11 from the floor, including 0-for-8 from three.
 
West Virginia, 13-5 overall and 4-3 in Big 12 play, is currently tied with Baylor in sixth place in the conference standings.
 
Houston (7-0), Iowa State and Arizona (6-1), and Kansas and Texas Tech (5-2) are above them.
 
Kansas State is one spot above winless Colorado at the bottom of the league standings.
 
The Wildcats won both meetings last year, including a 94-90 overtime decision in Manhattan. WVU’s four wins in Bramlage Coliseum have come in 2021, 2018, 2016 ad 2015. Overall, the Mountaineers are just 4-8 in the facility.
 
Saturday’s game will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on the CBS Sports Network (Jordan Kent and Mike O’Donnell).
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and studio host David Kahn begins at 5 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.