No. 11 Kansas State and West Virginia have a lot on the line when they finish the Big 12 regular season Saturday afternoon in Morgantown.

The Wildcats (23-7, 11-6) can wrap up the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament, while the Mountaineers (17-13, 6-11) can strengthen their push for an NCAA Tournament bid.

The two teams opened the Big 12 season with K-State’s 82-76 victory in Manhattan, Kan., on Dec. 31.

The Wildcats have won four straight games since hitting a lull in early February. They beat Oklahoma 85-69 on Wednesday night on the strength of a 28-8 run wrapped around halftime.

Not much was expected of K-State coming into the season. The Wildcats were picked 10th in the preseason poll and went 11-1 in the non-conference portion of the schedule, but there were few impressive wins in that mix.

When the Mountaineers arrived in Manhattan, they were the ranked team. K-State trailed No. 24 West Virginia by 11 at halftime but stormed back to send the game to overtime, where the Wildcats prevailed.

Markquis Nowell scored 21 of his game-high 23 points after halftime, coming three steals shy of the school’s first triple-double. He added 10 assists.

The Wildcats enter Saturday’s action in a three-way tie for second in the Big 12 with Baylor and Texas. The Wildcats split with Texas and swept Baylor, while the Longhorns and Bears split. If they all finish with the same record, K-State would own all tiebreakers.

The Wildcats have two of the top three scorers in the league with one game remaining. Keyontae Johnson is second with 17.6 points per game and Nowell is third at 16.8.

“It’s the habits that we created from Day One,” Nowell said about the team’s expectation to win, even when nobody else believed in them. “Just going 1-0, winning each day, doing everything possible to get better. And Coach (Jerome) Tang embodied that in us from the first time he stepped foot on campus.

“We just live by that each and every day. So now it’s a habit, we try to win everything that we do, win each game, win each media, win each day.”

West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was perturbed to put it nicely after the first meeting between the teams this season. After blowing a lead, the Mountaineers still had a chance to get the win but fell short. Huggins said it was time for self-reflection.

“To tell the honest to God’s truth, we did some really, really stupid things that enabled them to cut the lead to get back in the game to make it a situation where they were a couple possessions from tying the score or taking the lead, whatever,” he said Dec. 31. “I don’t know how you can consistently miss one-footers, which we did. I don’t know how you can consistently miss free throws when they’re asked to make 100 before they leave practice. Make 100, not shoot 100. Make 100. Which obviously, they’ve cheated on. It catches up with you man. I think in any walk of life, the more you try to cheat it, the more it comes back to bite you in the ass.”

The Mountaineers appear to have enough bit to make the Big Dance, but a fourth win this season against a Top 25 team wouldn’t hurt.

Many bracketologists had them either out of the field or in one of the last at-large spots in the field prior to a huge 72-69 win at Iowa State on Monday. The Mountaineers trailed by seven points in the second half before rallying.

With two bigs on the injured list and another (Tre Mitchell) ejected with a flagrant-2 foul, Huggins went to a four-guard lineup. That worked.

“We went small and offensively that really helped us,” Huggins said. “I thought, defensively, we had some guys that really did a good job for us that really haven’t played as much as they probably need to. Kobe Johnson was terrific defensively. He got up on (Gabe) Kalscheur and when we went real small, he guarded their post guy. He’s got the strength to do it.”

West Virginia is 12-4 at home this season.

–Field Level Media

The top two teams in the Southeastern Conference close out the regular season when No. 2 Alabama visits No. 24 Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon in College Station, Texas.

There is not much at stake thanks to an incredible second-half rally Wednesday by the Crimson Tide (26-4, 16-1 SEC). They fought back from a 17-point deficit in the second half against Auburn by using a 16-0 run that started midway through the frame.

With Jahvon Quinerly leading the way with 24 points, Alabama coach Nate Oats saw his club win 90-85 in overtime and end up cutting down the nets to celebrate its second SEC regular-season title in three years.

It was the third consecutive close shave by the Crimson Tide and star freshman Brandon Miller. Alabama has won four straight, with the last three decided by a total of 10 points.

“Listen, I just couldn’t be more proud of this group,” Oats said after the Crimson Tide finished 15-0 at home, their first perfect showing since 2010-11. “… Winning the SEC is not an easy thing to do. I mean, look at the teams in this league. It’s a great league.”

Locked in as the No. 2 seed in the SEC tourney, coach Buzz Williams’ Aggies (22-8, 14-3) have been a large part of that greatness.

The Aggies’ breakout season has been the talk of the conference, but Alabama’s win over Auburn deprived them of a shot at splitting the crown with a home win Saturday. That was a real possibility with 10 minutes left in Tuscaloosa and the Crimson Tide down 66-49.

On Tuesday at woeful Ole Miss, which owns a 3-14 mark in conference play and relieved fifth-year coach Kermit Davis of his duties on Feb. 24, the home side gave the Aggies all they could handle from the opening tip.

Playing under interim coach Win Case, Ole Miss jumped out to a double-digit lead at 20-8. But the Aggies scratched back, took the lead for the second time on Wade Taylor IV’s trey at 4:06 of the first half and never trailed again in a 69-61 win.

“We went from (12) down to the lead by halftime,” Williams said. “We were able to change the rhythm to being more conducive for us and who we are.”

Though Alabama has shown signs of weakness recently — it is just 11 for 53 (20.8 percent) the last two games from long distance — Williams said his team will need a better effort against the newly minted champs.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do before Saturday,” said Williams. “I know they’ve got the best players. I know they’re No. 1 in the league in offense and defense. I haven’t had time to look at them yet, but I know that much about them.”

In a series that features just 22 meetings though it dates back to 1958, Texas A&M trails the Crimson Tide 10-12. However, the Aggies have won four straight and are 6-2 in the series on their home court.

–Field Level Media

The COVID-19 pandemic not only forced the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament in 2020, it also threw a monkey wrench into another hallowed college basketball tradition: Senior Day.

With the NCAA granting athletes an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic, there now are two types of seniors: those in their fifth year and those in their fourth who may opt to return.

When No. 13 Virginia (22-6, 14-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) hosts Louisville (4-26, 2-17) in the regular-season finale on Saturday, the Cavaliers will honor five seniors — including three who likely will play their final college game in Charlottesville.

Point guard Kihei Clark is the only player left from Virginia’s 2018-19 NCAA title team. Jayden Gardner and Ben Vander Plas are grad transfers from East Carolina and Ohio, respectively.

The trio of starters helped put Virginia in position to capture its sixth ACC regular-season title since 2014 before the team sustained road losses last week at Boston College and North Carolina.

The Cavaliers are tied for first place in the ACC with Miami and Pittsburgh. But those teams meet on Saturday, and both already own the tiebreaker with Virginia by virtue of head-to-head victories.

Virginia bounced back from a pair of losses with a 64-57 win over Clemson on Tuesday. Gardner, Armaan Franklin and Isaac McKneely scored 12 points apiece.

Virginia had been in an offensive slump, shooting less than 40 percent in three straight games. Tuesday wasn’t much better as the Cavaliers made 40.7 percent of their attempts, but they controlled tempo against a team that had scored at least 91 points in its previous three wins.

Clemson guards Chase Hunter and Brevin Galloway made only 4 of 17 shots, combining for 10 points as they struggled to get quality looks. Three days earlier in a win at North Carolina State, the duo combined for 43 points on 12-for-22 shooting.

“At this time of the year, you’ll never be successful if you don’t sit down and guard and make people earn,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Your offense can come and go, but the defense always has to be there.”

Virginia’s recent lackluster play can be traced to Feb. 15 when it struggled to a 61-58 win at Louisville, with El Ellis (21 points) nearly propelling the Cardinals to the upset.

Ellis, the second-leading scorer in the ACC, has been the shining light in a lost season for Louisville. In the Cardinals’ last win, Ellis scored 28 points in an 83-73 victory over Clemson.

Ellis took his flowers Tuesday when Louisville played its final home game, falling to Virginia Tech 71-54. But the senior guard could be back next season, depending on his NBA stock.

“My mindset right now is to test the waters,” Ellis said on Monday.

Louisville trailed throughout the second half against Virginia Tech. A pair of 3-pointers by 44 seconds apart by Ellis and JJ Traynor got the Cardinals close at 50-47. But aside from those two shots, Louisville missed its other 12 attempts from deep.

Afterward, frustrated Louisville coach Kenny Payne questioned his team’s effort.

“I ask these players every day, ‘Do you understand what it means to be in that jersey and what, fully, you have to sacrifice to be in that jersey?'” Payne said. “I don’t think a majority of them do.”

–Field Level Media

No. 20 Providence looks to avoid back-to-back home losses Saturday when it closes out the Big East regular season against Seton Hall in Rhode Island.

The Friars’ 17-game home winning streak ended with Wednesday night’s 94-89 loss to No. 19 Xavier. Providence (21-9, 13-6) entered that game with a 15-0 record at home this season, including an 8-0 mark in the Big East.

“In our building, it’s probably the hardest place to win in college basketball,” Friars coach Ed Cooley said. “Give them (Xavier) credit — they made shots and they made us work for everything. The schedule says we have more games, we’ll coach them up, love them up — we’ll get better. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s late in the season.”

Providence never had the lead against Xavier and trailed by 22 points in the first half.

“When you lose, it stings,” Cooley said. “When you lose at home, I feel like somebody broke in. I feel like somebody came in, and took our toys from under the Christmas tree. I feel like somebody took our food. I feel like somebody broke our windows.”

Ed Croswell led Providence by scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the loss. It was his eighth double-double of the season.

Seton Hall (16-14, 9-10) is coming off Tuesday’s 76-72 home loss to Villanova. The Pirates have lost three straight and five of their last six.

Seton Hall was without point guard Kadary Richmond (back) against Villanova. His injury also prevented him from playing in the previous game, an 82-60 loss to Xavier on Feb. 24. Richmond ranks third on the team in scoring (10.1 points per game) and second in rebounding (5.2).

“We battled,” Seton Hall center Tyrese Samuel said. “That’s the point. One man goes down and we have to keep playing hard. I give credit to them. They made (22 of 23) from the free-throw line. It’s hard to beat a team that does that down the stretch.”

Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway offered no timetable for Richmond’s return.

“We get Kadary, it’s a plus,” Holloway said. “If he can’t come back we’re going to continue to battle hard and try to win these games.”

Richmond scored a game-high 28 points and collected nine rebounds when Providence won at Seton Hall 71-67 earlier this season. Seton Hall led by nine at halftime, but the Friars wrestled the lead away with an 8-0 run that made it a 62-57 game late in the second half.

Bryce Hopkins led Providence with 24 points and 10 rebounds in that victory. Croswell added 21 points and nine boards.

Hopkins is fifth among Big East players in scoring (16.4) and second in rebounding (8.8).

Seton Hall is ninth in the conference in field-goal percentage (43.5) and 11th in free-throw percentage (68.2). The Pirates will be the No. 7 seed for next week’s Big East tournament and will open the tourney against 10th-seeded DePaul on Wednesday.

–Field Level Media