There’s an overused basketball cliché about having more turnovers than a bakery … but sometimes clichés are appropriate.

That was the case Saturday night in the WVU Coliseum when the Mountaineers’ 20 turnovers contributed a great deal in their 69-61 loss to seventh-ranked Texas.

“You can’t turn the ball over 20 times,� stated a dejected West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins, as his club fell to 11-8 overall and 1-6 in the Big 12 Conference. “We talked about that earlier in the year and said we were going to fix it. We had it down to where we were turning it over maybe six times a game, which still isn’t good but it’s way better than 20. Now we’re back to 20, and not against pressure. We just throw the ball to the wrong team.�

WVU’s 20 turnovers Saturday equaled its season high, as it gave the ball away 20 times in an 82-76 overtime loss at Kansas State on Dec. 31 as well. It’s also the 17th time in their 11 seasons as a member of the Big 12 that the Mountaineers have turned it over 20 or more times in a conference game. They have a 5-12 record in those charitable affairs.

“I can’t give you anything specific,� said WVU junior forward Tre Mitchell when asked about what led to the turnover problems. “I would say one (of reason) is me. I had five (turnovers), so clearly there is an issue there.

“We were just careless with the ball, and we have to take better care of it.�

Mitchell did have 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds Saturday, but he was just four of 11 from the field. Senior guard Kedrian Johnson was the only Mountaineer with more points than Mitchell, as he scored a career-high 22, but he also had a turnover issue with six. Texas was led in scoring by senior guard Marcus Carr, who had 23 points, 19 of which came in the second half.

It was that second half that pushed the Longhorns (16-3/5-2) to their eighth win over West Virginia in the last 10 meetings. WVU led 28-26 at halftime, but then Texas began to heat up offensively, converting 53.8% of its field goals (14 of 26) in the final 20 minutes, while also slowing down the Mountaineers, who made just 35.7% of their tries from the floor (10 of 28) in the period. That disparity allowed the visitors to outscore West Virginia 43-33 in the second half. UT closed the game with a 6-0 run in the final two and a half minutes to turn a razor-thin 63-61 lead into an eight-point victory.

“I know that Texas likes to pride itself on defense, but the situation is we pick and choose when we want to play together,� said an introspective Mitchell. “We pick and choose the moments that we want to move the ball, when we want to work together, when we want to screen for our teammate to get them open. Then we pick and choose moments where we say, ‘Forget about everybody else. I’m just going to try to do something myself.’ We have to start sharing the ball more and stay consistent with it. We had success with that early on, but then we deviated from it.�

It was an especially emotional loss for Mitchell, who transferred to West Virginia this past summer after spending the 2021-22 season at Texas.

“I just wanted to win, man; I just wanted to win,� said Mitchell, his heading hanging low. “Those were dudes (for UT), I went to war with them a year ago, worked out with them in the summer, went through ups and downs with them last year and built relationships with them. But that doesn’t change the fact that when we step in between those lines in different jerseys, it’s mine against yours. I just wanted to do what I could do to help us win, and clearly I didn’t do too well at that.�

After a snapping five-game losing streak with a 74-65 victory over No. 17 TCU on Wednesday, the Mountaineers couldn’t sustain the momentum Saturday against another ranked Big 12 foe. They’ll try to bounce back Wednesday (7 p.m. on ESPN) at Texas Tech (10-9/0-7).

“We just have to come to practice and work to get better,� stated Johnson. “We can’t dwell on it. We have plenty of games left. We just have to get better from this point.�

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There’s an overused basketball cliché about having more turnovers than a bakery … but sometimes clichés are appropriate.

That was the case Saturday night in the WVU Coliseum when the Mountaineers’ 20 turnovers contributed a great deal in their 69-61 loss to seventh-ranked Texas.

“You can’t turn the ball over 20 times,� stated a dejected West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins, as his club fell to 11-8 overall and 1-6 in the Big 12 Conference. “We talked about that earlier in the year and said we were going to fix it. We had it down to where we were turning it over maybe six times a game, which still isn’t good but it’s way better than 20. Now we’re back to 20, and not against pressure. We just throw the ball to the wrong team.�

WVU’s 20 turnovers Saturday equaled its season high, as it gave the ball away 20 times in an 82-76 overtime loss at Kansas State on Dec. 31 as well. It’s also the 17th time in their 11 seasons as a member of the Big 12 that the Mountaineers have turned it over 20 or more times in a conference game. They have a 5-12 record in those charitable affairs.

“I can’t give you anything specific,� said WVU junior forward Tre Mitchell when asked about what led to the turnover problems. “I would say one (of reason) is me. I had five (turnovers), so clearly there is an issue there.

“We were just careless with the ball, and we have to take better care of it.�

Mitchell did have 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds Saturday, but he was just four of 11 from the field. Senior guard Kedrian Johnson was the only Mountaineer with more points than Mitchell, as he scored a career-high 22, but he also had a turnover issue with six. Texas was led in scoring by senior guard Marcus Carr, who had 23 points, 19 of which came in the second half.

It was that second half that pushed the Longhorns (16-3/5-2) to their eighth win over West Virginia in the last 10 meetings. WVU led 28-26 at halftime, but then Texas began to heat up offensively, converting 53.8% of its field goals (14 of 26) in the final 20 minutes, while also slowing down the Mountaineers, who made just 35.7% of their tries from the floor (10 of 28) in the period. That disparity allowed the visitors to outscore West Virginia 43-33 in the second half. UT closed the game with a 6-0 run in the final two and a half minutes to turn a razor-thin 63-61 lead into an eight-point victory.

“I know that Texas likes to pride itself on defense, but the situation is we pick and choose when we want to play together,� said an introspective Mitchell. “We pick and choose the moments that we want to move the ball, when we want to work together, when we want to screen for our teammate to get them open. Then we pick and choose moments where we say, ‘Forget about everybody else. I’m just going to try to do something myself.’ We have to start sharing the ball more and stay consistent with it. We had success with that early on, but then we deviated from it.�

It was an especially emotional loss for Mitchell, who transferred to West Virginia this past summer after spending the 2021-22 season at Texas.

“I just wanted to win, man; I just wanted to win,� said Mitchell, his heading hanging low. “Those were dudes (for UT), I went to war with them a year ago, worked out with them in the summer, went through ups and downs with them last year and built relationships with them. But that doesn’t change the fact that when we step in between those lines in different jerseys, it’s mine against yours. I just wanted to do what I could do to help us win, and clearly I didn’t do too well at that.�

After a snapping five-game losing streak with a 74-65 victory over No. 17 TCU on Wednesday, the Mountaineers couldn’t sustain the momentum Saturday against another ranked Big 12 foe. They’ll try to bounce back Wednesday (7 p.m. on ESPN) at Texas Tech (10-9/0-7).

“We just have to come to practice and work to get better,� stated Johnson. “We can’t dwell on it. We have plenty of games left. We just have to get better from this point.�

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — It was just like the old days. The Coliseum was rocking and rolling, the student section alive, taunting the opposition, which on this night was TCU, which was mugged badly by West Virginia.

The five-game losing streak the Mountaineers were riding seemed to be history as just two ticks under 12 minutes remained when big Jimmy Bell brought yet another roar from the crowd with a thundering dunk to make it 54-37. That, for those who have left their abacus at home, is a 17-point lead.

But in college basketball in general and in the Big 12 in particular, no lead is safe, especially if you are on a five-game losing streak and playing a team that has never won on your home court in 10 tries.

You just knew something was going to happen, and it did as the Horned Frogs put themselves together and made a run that cut the lead to two points with 5:14 to go.

Would this be another disappointment? Not this time. Huggins called a timeout, the team regrouped and the Mountaineers hung on for a 74-65 victory.

What happens in the college game, where leads just seem to melt away like a popsicle on a 90-degree summer day?

“If I knew the answer to that I could write a book and sell it to every coach in America,� coach Bob Huggins said. “I think they came out with an edge because we pretty much manhandled them in the first half. We didn’t come out with the same kind of edge and got a little careless with the ball I don’t know how many times.

“We talked in the huddle throughout about how we were going to get back in this game, chip away, and that’s what we did,� TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We got to two and didn’t finish it off.�

So how did WVU right the ship?

That came in the timeout that Huggins called when the lead slipped down to two points.

“Stay disciplined. That’s what it was with that timeout there,� guard Joe Toussaint said. “Basketball is a game of runs. We knew TCU was on their run. That’s a tough team. They’re not going to back down. We made our run after that.�

Had they not, this would have been the most crushing defeat of the season, one from which they probably couldn’t recover.

But throughout, Bell had given the Mountaineers a physical presence that TCU couldn’t match, putting together a double-double that included 15 points and 12 rebounds.

And WVU had great success double-teaming ball screens and cutting TCU’s wonderful transition game, the nation’s best, down a walk. The box score said that they didn’t have any transition points in the first, and while they got cranked up in the second as they chipped away behind 85% shooting through the first 15 minutes, WVU re-found the touch down the stretch.

Bell was a big part of that, but so was point guard Keddy Johnson, who was immaculate in scoring a WVU game-high 20 points, one less than his cousin, Mike Miles Jr., who had 21 for TCU.

“We talked yesterday,� Johnson reported, “but not today. After the game it was all love, though.�

Key in shaking off the TCU challenge was Joe Toussaint, who came off the bench to light a late fire. While he made only 3 of 12 shots and finished with seven points, they all came at just the right moment to engage the Mountaineer clutch for the last five minutes.

And he added three important assists, which kept the goblins from eating the team up.

It’s hard to find answers when a team is coming at you, scoring when your balls are rimming in and out of the basket, getting calls they didn’t get earlier in the game. It can work on the psyche of an entire team., especially one already in a losing streak.

“They were good in the huddle,� Huggins said of his players. “They were probably better than I was. Keddy has been great. He is, without question, our leader. He’s the guy that really runs the show. Joe was good. I thought our bench was good. I think it was those guys, and the other guys get on board when they see those guys are still enthusiastic and talking about winning the game.�

West Virginia's Big 12 losing streak extended to five on Saturday afternoon, and without question its season is on the brink of disaster. Only a comparable winning streak could get the Mountaineers back into contention for a postseason spot, and given all of the woes that have beset the team over the past couple of weeks, it's hard to predict such an occurrence.

Amidst all the angst over missed free throws, turnovers, poor decisions, lack of self control, bad passes and a coach firing, there was at least one item that offered a bit of hope in WVU's 77-76 loss against Oklahoma. That was the emergence of a smallish lineup that helped the Mountaineers battle back into the game. From the 10:07 mark down to the 1:43 juncture, WVU did not substitute, playing a lineup consisting of Joe Toussaint, Erik Stevenson, Kedrian Johnson, Emmitt Matthews and Tre Mitchell. Kobe Johnson and Seth Wilson got one possession segments over the last 1:43, but it was that five which produced some of WVU's best offensive play of the day.

From the 11:41 timestamp to the end of the game, WVU was 12-15 from the field, producing good shots on nearly all of its possessions. Unfortunately, one of the not so good shots was Stevenson's 3-point force, in which he was moving away from the basket, with 18 seconds to play. That, like WVU's missed free throws, also came at a critical juncture and served to blow up what was at least a good effort on the day.

Still, there may have been a diamond, or at least a topaz, found amid the slough and slurry of the day. Could West Virginia benefit or produce more consistent play with this lineup, supplemented by Seth Wilson and one of the more active forwards, such as James Okonkwo or Pat Suemnick?

Of course, this is not a magic bullet, and it's no guarantee that it will help WVU get a win in the league, let alone produce the run that it needs just to be visible over the horizon in the standings. But it's clear that West Virginia can't score enough when trying to "throw it close" as it did to Derek Culver, so perhaps this is the next thing to try.

There are also drawbacks to this approach. Rebounding is one, as the Mountaineers had only 19 in the game, and only three live ball boards in the final 14:36. Is increased offensive efficiency worth a rebounding drop-off? That could be the case.

The second thing to consider is that this lineup may have been more effective against an Oklahoma team that doesn't have a post scorer or overwhelming height. Could this lineup work against Baylor or some of the other league teams that can throw waves of 6-9 or taller players on the floor? That's probably something that has to be tried to see if it can work.

As a counterpoint, playing this smaller lineup allows WVU to switch every screen and every pick and roll. Sure, it might wind up with a mismatch somewhere. But it will also have five players with the mobility to guard anywhere on the court, hopefully preventing some of the open looks and drives to the basket that have resulted when Mountaineers try to decide whether to go over or under screens, whether to switch, whether to trap or whether to hedge and recover. With this lineup, it can be one rule – switch everything.

Of course, everyone has to rebound for this to have a chance. In the last 10 minutes, the Sooners had four offensive rebounds, including a huge one at the :47 second mark that led to a pair of free throws that gave it the lead for good. Granted, two different Mountaineers had hands on the ball, but the fact is that they didn't come up with it, and that can't continue to be a part of WVU's rebounding milieu.

Before the game, Huggins alluded to the fact that some changes to the offensive schemes were going to change. That's a direct result of the Harrison firing, but was this total commitment to a more mobile lineup one of those plans? However it got into the rotation, this at least offered some good results. WVU shot 46% from the field against a team that had been yielding a success rate of only 27%, and scored 76 points against a squad that had been allowing over 62. Even though it have some negatives that it will need to compensate for by playing a shorter lineup, this might be the one that best takes advantage of the talent it does possess.

The normal 60 minutes weren’t enough for a decision in Saturday’s Big 12 Conference opener between West Virginia and Kansas State.

The two combatants were tied at 66-66 at the end of regulation at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas. From there, though, the Wildcats controlled the overtime session, outscoring WVU 16-10 to take an 82-76 victory.

It’s the third time in the last four years that the Mountaineers, who are now 10-3 overall this season, have lost their Big 12 regular-season opener. With its win, K-State improved to 12-1 overall and 1-0 in the league.

“We seemingly had the game under control, but then we did some stupid things to let them get back in the game,� said WVU head coach Bob Huggins after the loss to the Wildcats.

Dominating the glass (31-12 in the first half), especially on the offensive end (9-0 on second-chance points in the first 20 minutes), allowed West Virginia to jump out to a 17-3 lead in the opening 8:39, and it was ahead 23-10 with 7:15 to play in the first half.

Kansas State slowed the bleeding after that, though it still trailed 32-21 at halftime.

“We passed the ball well in the first half,� noted Huggins on the MSN postgame radio show. “We were cutting, and we looked like a basketball team. We were defending … better. We’re not a very good defensive team, but we were defending better.�

The Wildcats owned much of the second half, though.

WVU’s Erik Stevenson had to go to the bench after picking up his third and then fourth foul in the first minute of the period, and without the senior guard, the Mountaineer offense struggled mightily. It had more turnovers (six) than made field goals (four of 11 from the field) in the half’s initial 10 minutes, as K-State outscored WVU 23-12 in that stretch, completely erasing West Virginia’s lead.

The ‘Cats kept charging from there and eventually went on top by eight.

Just when they appeared dead, though, the Mountaineers responded with an 8-0 run of their own to tie the game at 52-52.

The lead seesawed from there before Kansas State took a 66-63 advantage into the final 13 seconds of regulation. Tre Mitchell’s try to tie it from 3-point land missed badly, but WVU’s Emmitt Matthews was able to track down the ball as it seemed to be headed out of bounds and throw it back to Kedrian Johnson, who was wide open from behind the arc and drained the trey to send the contest into overtime.

West Virginia couldn’t maintain the momentum, though. The Wildcats regained the lead from the outset of the extra five-minute OT session and finished with the six-point victory.

“We played point-drop (zone defense) at the end of (regulation), and that got us back in the game,� explained West Virginia’s Hall of Fame head coach. “We took the game into overtime, but then we let down. They got how many point-blank shots because we had guys out of position? We gave the game away.�

West Virginia also hurt itself at the free-throw line. Though it had made 73.9% on foul shots in its first 12 games, it was a chilly 20 of 38 (52.6%) from the stripe at KSU. The Mountaineers’ two big men, Jimmy Bell (2 of 8) and Mo Wague (4 of 10), in particular struggled on charity attempts. K-State was only slightly better from the line (21 of 34, 61.8%), but the Wildcats held a significant edge in taking care of the ball. They had just 11 turnovers compared to WVU’s 20, and that allowed the home team to have a 22-18 advantage in points off turnovers.

“How do you continue to miss that many free throws?� pondered a frustrated Huggins. “When the season started out, I was in my office and I’d hear balls bouncing and guys were down there (in the practice gym). They weren’t killing themselves, but they were in there working on their own on free throws and things like that. I don’t see them down there anymore.�

Three Mountaineers reached double figures in the scoring department led by Mitchell who had 16 points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds. Wague also had a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds), while Matthews scored 12 points.

K-State got 23 points from its diminutive guard Markquis Nowello, who also had 10 assists and seven steals. Keyontae Johnson added 18 points for the Wildcats.

The normal 60 minutes weren’t enough for a decision in Saturday’s Big 12 Conference opener between West Virginia and Kansas State.

The two combatants were tied at 66-66 at the end of regulation at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas. From there, though, the Wildcats controlled the overtime session, outscoring WVU 16-10 to take an 82-76 victory.

It’s the third time in the last four years that the Mountaineers, who are now 10-3 overall this season, have lost their Big 12 regular-season opener. With its win, K-State improved to 12-1 overall and 1-0 in the league.

West Virginia will move over to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for the second part of its two-game road swing, where it faces Oklahoma State Monday night (7 p.m. on ESPNU).

“We seemingly had the game under control, but then we did some stupid things to let them get back in the game,� said WVU head coach Bob Huggins after the loss to the Wildcats.

Dominating the glass (31-12 in the first half), especially on the offensive end (9-0 on second-chance points in the first 20 minutes), allowed West Virginia to jump out to a 17-3 lead in the opening 8:39, and it was ahead 23-10 with 7:15 to play in the first half.

Kansas State slowed the bleeding after that, though it still trailed 32-21 at halftime.

“We passed the ball well in the first half,� noted Huggins on the MSN postgame radio show. “We were cutting, and we looked like a basketball team. We were defending … better. We’re not a very good defensive team, but we were defending better.�

The Wildcats owned much of the second half, though.

WVU’s Erik Stevenson had to go to the bench after picking up his third and then fourth foul in the first minute of the period, and without the senior guard, the Mountaineer offense struggled mightily. It had more turnovers (six) than made field goals (four of 11 from the field) in the half’s initial 10 minutes, as K-State outscored WVU 23-12 in that stretch, completely erasing West Virginia’s lead.

The ‘Cats kept charging from there and eventually went on top by eight.

Just when they appeared dead, though, the Mountaineers responded with an 8-0 run of their own to tie the game at 52-52.

The lead seesawed from there before Kansas State took a 66-63 advantage into the final 13 seconds of regulation. Tre Mitchell’s try to tie it from 3-point land missed badly, but WVU’s Emmitt Matthews was able to track down the ball as it seemed to be headed out of bounds and throw it back to Kedrian Johnson, who was wide open from behind the arc and drained the trey to send the contest into overtime.

West Virginia couldn’t maintain the momentum, though. The Wildcats regained the lead from the outset of the extra five-minute OT session and finished with the six-point victory.

“We played point-drop (zone defense) at the end of (regulation), and that got us back in the game,� explained West Virginia’s Hall of Fame head coach. “We took the game into overtime, but then we let down. They got how many point-blank shots because we had guys out of position? We gave the game away.�

West Virginia also hurt itself at the free-throw line. Though it had made 73.9% on foul shots in its first 12 games, it was a chilly 20 of 38 (52.6%) from the stripe at KSU. The Mountaineers’ two big men, Jimmy Bell (2 of 8) and Mo Wague (4 of 10), in particular struggled on charity attempts. K-State was only slightly better from the line (21 of 34, 61.8%), but the Wildcats held a significant edge in taking care of the ball. They had just 11 turnovers compared to WVU’s 20, and that allowed the home team to have a 22-18 advantage in points off turnovers.

“How do you continue to miss that many free throws?� pondered a frustrated Huggins. “When the season started out, I was in my office and I’d hear balls bouncing and guys were down there (in the practice gym). They weren’t killing themselves, but they were in there working on their own on free throws and things like that. I don’t see them down there anymore.�

Three Mountaineers reached double figures in the scoring department led by Mitchell who had 16 points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds. Wague also had a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds), while Matthews scored 12 points.

K-State got 23 points from its diminutive guard Markquis Nowello, who also had 10 assists and seven steals. Keyontae Johnson added 18 points for the Wildcats.

It would be easy to tag West Virginia's woeful performance at the free throw line as the biggest reason for its 82-76 overtime loss to Kansas State on New Year's Eve. However, just like the 18 misses that clanked resoundingly off the rim, trying to pin the blame on just that factor would also be well off the mark.

Sure, WVU was just 20-38 from the line in the game, and had it made just one more in regulation time, it could have snuck out of Manhattan with a win. However, K-State wasn't much better from the line, making just 21 of 34, so in some ways those two showings canceled each other out.

More problematic, though, was West Virginia's passing and ball security. On the surface, WVU's 20 turnovers were bad enough, resulting in 22 K-State points. They also kept WVU from getting 20 potential shots, and even though the Mountaineers made just 41% of their tries from the field, even for or five more attempts might have been enough to make the difference.

This becomes even more important when considering the fact that Kansas State, even while being outrebounded 50-36, managed six more shots from the field than WVU. Make that number equal, and West Virginia might have had a chance to win the game.

It's not just the turnovers, though. A number of West Virginia's passes, even those that eventually find their way into the correct hands, aren't delivered in the right spot. Players posting up get the ball low or on the wrong side of their bodies. Deliveries to the wing are wide or lead the recipient away from the basket. Almost none are made after a ball fake, making it easier for defenders to deflect the pass or react quickly. It might have been easier, in this game, to count the number of passes that were completed and targeted correctly than to tabulate the number that were flawed.

Such passes, as might be imagined, do almost as much to disrupt the offense as dribbling in place for 10 seconds or refusing to pass at all. After an opening eight minutes in which WVU ran out to a 17-3 lead on the strength of crisp offense, it reverted to the sloppy play that has characterized its passing for too many stretches this year. That allowed K-State to outscore WVU by 20 points over the next 37 minutes and saddle the Mountaineers with a loss that will likely haunt it for much of the season.

At this point, it's hard to imagine this team correcting this problem in any substantial way. It will have to overcome those errors with good shooting -- something that wasn't present on this night. And as a result, West Virginia starts out the season 0-1 in the league, and again looking up from the bottom of the standings.

And now, the tests come much more quickly.

While West Virginia's men's basketball team has certainly faced quality competition, having tipped off against five opponents currently residing in Quads 1 or 2 of the NCAA's NET, those challenges are about to go spiraling upward as it enters Big 12 play.

Kansas State (11-1) at West Virginia (10-2)Sat Dec 31 7:00 PM ETBramlage ColiseumManhattan, KSTV: ESPN+NET: WVU: 11 / KSU: 35Series: WVU 15-9Last Game: KSU 78-73Twitter: @BlueGoldNewsFacebook: BlueGoldNewsWeb: BlueGoldNews.com

Kansas State, with a handful of Top 25 votes and a very NCAA-worthy NET ranking of 35, is up first for the Mountaineers on New Year's Eve. First-year head coach Jerome Tang has gotten the Wildcats off to a better start that just about everyone anticipated, with their 11-1 record to date the best by a first-year coach in school history.

There might be a bit of a question about K-State's schedule to date -- its strength of schedule is 294th in the country and there have been no Quad 1 opponents so far -- but there's no doubt the Wildcats are playing much better this season.

Forward Keyontae Johnson (6-6, 230 lbs.) , a transfer from Florida who sat out two seasons after suffering an on-court medical emergency while with the Gators, is averaging 17.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, and will provide a tough match-up for WVU's forwards, as he ranges the entire floor while hitting a wildly efficient 58% of his shots, including nearly 46% from 3-point range.

The key to the Wildcat offense, though, according to WVU head coach Bob Huggins, is diminutive Markquis Nowell (5-8, 160 lbs.). Nowell sports a better than 3-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, helping fuel K-State's excellent mark of 221 assists on 327 made shots this season. The Cats are 12th nationally in assists per game.

"We'd like to keep it out of the little fellow's hands," Huggins said. "He's the one making the passes. He's the one penetrating with the ball. He's drawing defenders, and he's a terrific passer. The vast majority of what happens with getting other people open comes from him."

How will WVU do that? It will likely extend Nowell's defender full court to try to deny him the ball on inbounds passes, and do the same after he makes an initial pass in the frontcourt, after which he often filters through the set to get a return pass and attack the lane.

On-ball defense has not been a strength for WVU this year, so this is definitely a case of easier said than done. Can the Mountaineers keep Nowell out of the lane and deny him the ball enough to hamper the K-State attack? That's the focal point for this contest. Nowell does have 32 turnovers this year, but given the amount of time he handles the ball, that's not a terrible figure.

"The numbers are deceiving," Huggins said. "He's not a guy who brings the ball down the floor and enters it to the wing and trots away. He is their offense. He initiates it, he's terrific at penetrate and pitch, and gets the ball to the right people. They rely so much on him to create offense. They don't run a lot of staggers or cross screens or anything like that. He is without a question the engine that makes the train run."

Track the number of times Nowell gets in the lane, or is able to catch the ball without pressure. As those figures increase, so too will K-State's chances of winning.

* * * * * *

The league opener matches the two teams that were picked at the bottom of the Big 12 in the preseason coaches' poll. The Mountaineers were tabbed ninth, while K-State placed 10th.

* * * * * *

West Virginia holds the advantage in most of the offensive efficiency categories, while Kansas State as the edge in most defensive efficiency numbers. Does that make the game boil down to the matchups when WVU has the ball? Clearly, the Mountaineers must continue to get the good shooting it has produced thus far in the season. It has shot 50.4% from the field in its 10 wins -- a number that drops to 43.4% in its two losses.

* * * * * *

Kansas State will be playing its fifth game in its last six contests at home. Its lone road game over that stretch was in Kansas City against Nebraska.

* * * * * *

The game has been designated as "Lego Night, as Lego master builders will create a life-sized Wildcat-themed display on the Bramlage Coliseum concourse.