It’s likely too late to make a difference in West Virginia’s postseason destiny, but a win over a ranked team on Saturday was exactly what the program needed.
The Mountaineers hope to parlay their upset of then-No. 19 BYU into a strong finish to the season, starting with Tuesday’s trip to face Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan.
West Virginia (17-12, 8-8 Big 12) snapped a three-game losing streak with a 79-71 win at home against the Cougars on Saturday. Honor Huff scored 19 points and dished out six assists, while Brenen Lorient added 18 points. Lorient’s nine rebounds helped the team secure a 39-29 edge on the boards.
“I told the guys in the locker room that I really felt like (Saturday) was a byproduct of the previous 72 hours,” West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge told reporters, “and just their ability to stay the course, stay together, handle disappointment in the same manner that they handle success, be the same guys, put the same work in, learn from it, not run from it, not point fingers, not blame and getting that 72 hours onto the floor.”
The Mountaineers won’t appear in any bracketologists’ latest mock tournament fields, but a trip to the NIT or College Basketball Crown isn’t out of the question. They’re also playing for better seeding in the Big 12 tournament, where running the table would give them a surprise NCAA Tournament bid.
None of this is true for Kansas State (11-18, 2-14), which can finish no better than 15th in the 16-team Big 12 and would need a miraculous five wins in five days there.
The Wildcats are already two weeks removed from firing coach Jerome Tang, and while it produced a 90-74 win over Baylor in interim coach Matthew Driscoll’s first game on the job, they’ve lost three in a row since, most recently 77-68 on Saturday vs. TCU.
P.J. Haggerty continues to shoulder the load for K-State with 23.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
Driscoll indicated that Abdi Bashir Jr., the team’s No. 2 scorer with 13.2 ppg on 44.4% from 3-point range, was not close to returning from a stress fracture in his foot that’s sidelined him since mid-January. Driscoll explained that the nature of the injury is delicate.
“It’s gonna be a game-time decision until it’s not,” Driscoll said.
