West Virginia hosts Kansas with Kysre Gondrezick out for her third game

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Tynice Martin doesn’t hesitate in saying the West Virginia women’s basketball team has its back against the wall.

She’s been there before. Her teammates, not so much.

“No pressure,” Martin said, sort of joking. “We’ve got to get our players to understand that even though our backs are against the wall, we still have time. We just have to take it one game at a time and one practice at a time and go from there.”

Martin is the only WVU player remaining from the 2016-17 season in which the Mountaineers made a memorable run through the Big 12 tournament to capture the title.

In the regular season in 2016-17, WVU entered the tournament in sixth place in the league standings and with a losing record in Big 12 play.

The Mountaineers (15-9, 5-8) are headed in that direction again with no guarantee there will be a miracle run in the Big 12 tournament this time.

WVU hosts Kansas (13-11, 2-11) at 5 p.m. today in a must-win game for the Mountaineers if they want to remain in the NCAA tournament conversation.

The problem: The Jayhawks are coming off their program’s biggest win of the season, an 82-67 victory against Texas, and have had a week off since then to prepare for WVU.

Mountaineers head coach Mike Carey credited Kansas coach Brandon Schneider with the way he managed the game against the Longhorns.

“I’ve always said he’s a great coach, but he just hasn’t had the talent,” Carey said. “When you do scouts and prepare for teams, you see who can coach and who can’t. He’s always been one that I felt thank God he doesn’t have all this talent, because he does a great job. He coaches the heck out of that team.”

For a third consecutive game, the Mountaineers will be without leading scorer Kysre Gondrezick (16.1 ppg), who is in concussion protocol. The junior guard was practicing with teammates on Friday, but Carey said she hasn’t been cleared for contact.

“She’s definitely out for Saturday, and then we’ll kind of go from there,” Carey said.

Gondrezick’s absence has opened the door for forward Kari Niblack to take on more of an offensive role. Niblack has averaged 15.5 points and 9.5 rebounds over the last two games.

“It helps us obviously,” Martin said. “Without Kysre, we’re missing out on 16 points. Kari can give us a double-double every time. When we control the boards, it’s a great thing for us. Having her step up and score, too, is great. I hope she can stay on a roll.”

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