MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Cade Cunningham scored 40 points on 21 shots Saturday to lead Oklahoma State past Oklahoma in overtime.
Kansas State had 30 more looks at a bucket over a 40-minute game against No. 10 West Virginia, yet managed to score just three more points than Cunningham.
That was maybe the stat of the day, as the Mountaineers rolled past the Wildcats, 65-43, at the
Coliseum.
Is that great defense by the Mountaineers or just really bad offense by Kansas State?
“Our defense was much better in the second half,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “The first half, I think both teams were miserable.”
In truth, maybe it was a little bit of both. Kansas State played without its leading scorer in freshman point guard Nijel Pack, who was out with an eye infection, and connected on just 15 of 51 (29.4%) from the field.
The Wildcats launched 19 3-pointers, but only made three.
K-State’s 43 points was the second-fewest points allowed by WVU in Big 12 play.
Some of that has to be credited to Kansas State being young and inexperienced and some of it has to be credited to West Virginia waking up and playing a little D.
“I think this was one of a few really well-rounded defensive performances,” said WVU guard Sean McNeil, who finished with a game-high 16 points. “Our match-up has been really good. We still have to make some tweaks and adjustments, nothing is ever really perfect. Our defense is slowly progressing. Once we make that jump, we’ll be pretty special.”
Now, we fully understand that No. 2 Baylor is coming to town on Tuesday, and that any progressing WVU defense will be pushed to its limits.
It’s very possible the Bears may match Kansas State’s 43 points on Saturday just in the first half.
Baylor’s offense is a well-oiled machine, and if you want to know why, it may have something to do with the fact the Bears are shooting an astonishing 43% as a team from 3-point range.
This is one big but, but what happens to WVU if the Mountaineers are truly getting better on defense?
What happens if Baylor doesn’t light up the Coliseum scoreboard?
If WVU’s defensive potential gets anywhere close to what it can do offensively, well, we’ll let Jordan McCabe tell you where that could lead the Mountaineers:
“Defensively, we’re shoring up a few things that is a part of Huggs’ philosophy,” McCabe began. “If we get that down, this is a national championship team. I don’t think anybody is shying away from that statement anymore.”
WVU looked the part against the Wildcats by dismantling a team it was supposed to dismantle.
That’s what national-championship caliber teams do. They don’t let lesser teams hang around for more than a half and WVU pulled away with a 17-0 run in the second half that saw K-State go scoreless for six minutes.
In the end, the Wildcats had more fouls (19) than they did baskets (15).
“Yeah, I think we have some struggles,” Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber said. ”We had a few bad possessions. They got a couple of baskets to start the (second) half and then I think we cut it to eight or nine. I called timeout because we had guys that were just dead and I thought maybe we could give them a little break.”
The funny thing is WVU had a similar game against K-State earlier this season and held the Wildcats to 49 points.
Back then, just when you thought maybe the Mountaineers were turning it around defensively, they gave up 87 and 85 points to Texas Tech and Florida — at the Coliseum.
So, here we go again. WVU looks good on defense just in time for No. 2 Baylor to sneak in a visit.
If the Mountaineers ever want to be known as a complete team and not just one with streaky shooters or a dominant big man down low, Tuesday’s game against the Bears would be the best time to prove just that.
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