MORGANTOWN — The No. 6 WVU men’s basketball team woke up on Jan. 21 alone in second place in the Big 12 standings, trailing only Kansas.
Sagaba Konate awoke to even more respect thrown his way following his 10 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks in the Mountaineers’ 86-51 victory against Texas.
That respect may start in practice, where the majority of Konate’s teammates have already stopped challenging him, because he simply blocks their shots.
“Esa [Ahmad] is the only one who goes at him,” WVU point guard Jevon Carter said.
Ahmad’s side of the story: “Yeah, I still challenge Sags and try to dunk on him,” he said. “He gets a few blocks, but I’m successful most of the time. Maybe 50-50.”
That’s better odds than what the Longhorns had.
A highlighted matchup with Texas’ 6-foot-11 center Mohamed Bamba — a projected lottery pick in the 2018 NBA Draft — looked good on paper.
Bamba finished just one point shy of a double-double with nine points, 13 rebounds and four blocks.
But, Konate stole the show and even picked up his first block of the game by blocking Bamba’s lay-up attempt just 40 seconds into the game.
He had five more that were just as impressive. His highlight swat came with 15:07 remaining in the game, when Texas guard Kerwin Roach II lined up for what appeared to be a run-out dunk.
Instead, Konate went up with both hands — his pattened maneuver that gets called a SagaBlock on the team’s video scoreboard — and rejected the shot.
“My coaches tell me, ‘Sags, every night you have to grab every rebound. Even if you aren’t making any shots, help your team out,’ ” Konate said. “They want me to block any type of shot I can.”
Konate said he views rebounding as his top priority, with blocking shots second and scoring third.
His 58 blocks on the season are already five more than Konate had last season — in 37 games played.
He may get a look at a few more today, as the Mountaineers (16-3, 5-2 Big 12) travel to No. 24 TCU (14-5, 2-5), for a 9 p.m. tip-off, at the Ed & Rae Schollmaier Arena.
The Horned Frogs have lost four of five and have had their shots blocked 30 times combined in those games.
Since the start of Big 12 play, opponents are blocking an average of 6.2 of TCU’s shots per game.
Kansas State, which is last in the Big 12, averaging 2.7 blocks per game, blocked five against TCU during Saturday’s 73-68 victory.
“When a guy tries to drive and shoot a floater, that’s a lot easier for me to block,” Konate said. “If a guy is driving and is going to try a dunk, he’s coming with a lot more force. That’s why I jump with both hands up.
“I don’t ever think I’m going to let the guy dunk. I’m just going to try and block everything that comes my way.”
Looking at Konate’s play now, teammates marvel at how far he’s come in such a short time.
Growing up in Mali, Africa with 12 siblings, Konate was a future soccer star until he kept growing and his father got him interested in basketball.
“I didn’t even basketball play until 2011,” he said.
As part of a traveling assistance program that also helped many of his brothers reach the United States to play basketball — Konate’s older brother, Bakary, is a 6-11 senior at Minnesota, who plays 13 minutes per game as a reserve — Konate became a standout at Kennedy Catholic in Hermitage, Pa.
WVU head coach Bob Huggins has said the language barrier held Konate back — English is Konate’s third language — last season.
Konate’s teammates have helped out.
“His English is pretty good now,” Huggins said. “I mean, he knows a lot of words he probably shouldn’t know. He learned them from his dastardly teammates. He’s a talented, talented guy.”
