No. 23 West Virginia will aim for a more diverse offensive attack against Kansas State in a Big 12 tilt on Saturday in Manhattan, Kan.
The Mountaineers (13-5, 4-3 Big 12) cracked the AP Top 25 for the second time this year and promptly dropped a 65-57 home game to Arizona State on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Kansas State (7-11, 1-6) fell to Baylor in a 70-62 road loss on Wednesday. The Wildcats have lost six straight and nine of the past 10 games.
Even though Javon Small leads the Big 12 in scoring at 19.5 points per game, West Virginia coach Darian DeVries wants more offensive options to emerge. The Mountaineers shot just 31 percent against the Sun Devils and didn’t score a bucket for almost eight minutes in the second half.
“We have to be able to find different ways to score,” DeVries said. “That’s been our struggle. We have to continue to get movements, set some flare screens, get some down screens and actions to free guys up where they don’t have to be primary ball handlers but can come off something to create some space and get two on the ball. That’s where we struggle sometimes.”
It was the Mountaineers’ fourth game in nine days, and they showed signs of fatigue as West Virginia faced a 46-28 rebounding deficit and 4-of-29 shooting from 3-point range, with Small going 0-for-8 from beyond the arc. This is where DeVries wants the Mountaineers to lean into their defense for success.
Sencire Harris is second on the team with 29 steals, including four against Arizona State. The redshirt sophomore transfer from Illinois averages 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He didn’t play last year as he worked on getting stronger and improving his offense.
After Wednesday’s setback at Baylor, Kansas State coach Jerome Tang welcomed the opposing team’s coach, Scott Drew, into the Wildcats’ locker room for a few postgame words. Tang was an assistant coach under Drew at Baylor for 19 years before taking the K-State gig in 2022.
Tang recalled the 2014 NCAA Tournament when Baylor got off to a rough start yet caught fire down the stretch and made a run to the Sweet 16.
“Scott came into the locker room and told the guys to keep fighting and keep believing,” Tang said. “We started conference play 2-8 and everybody had given up on us. We finished 9-9, won three games in the Big 12 tournament and went to the Sweet 16. We beat Creighton and Doug McDermott in the second round. This team can turn it around. We have to keep fighting and believing. We are healthy mentally, physically and spiritually.”
David N’Guessan leads Kansas State in scoring at 12.6 points per game and pulls down a team-high 7.4 rebounds per game. The senior wing is second on the team with 15 blocks and third with 15 steals.
Tightening up their defense is something Tang wants the Wildcats to do as they look to snap their losing streak.
“We have to figure out how to get stops down the stretch,” Tang said. “That’s for us to look at as a staff and see what we can do differently. We have to figure out how to draw more fouls and not foul as much.”
–Field Level Media
