MORGANTOWN — Any kind of run West Virginia makes in the Big 12 tournament will go through the state of Kansas.
The Mountaineers (15-16, 4-14 Big 12) were already assured of the No. 9 seed long before it finished their regular season Saturday with a 70-64 victory against TCU.
Kansas State (14-16, 6-12) grabbed the No. 8 seed following its 78-71 loss against Oklahoma on Saturday and will enter the conference tournament on a five-game losing streak.
WVU and K-State are now in Wednesday’s only play-in game — Oklahoma State is ineligible for the tournament this year as part of its punishment from being involved in the FBI investigation into illegal recruiting, meaning only nine teams are in Kansas City — with the winner advancing to play top-seeded Kansas on Thursday.
The Jayhawks, who finished in a tie with Baylor for the conference championship, won the tiebreaker based on going 1-1 against Texas Tech, while the Bears were swept by the Red Raiders.
That’s the technical jargon, so to speak.
What also has to go into account is Kansas City is just a few hours from the campuses of Kansas State and Kansas and those two schools generally have some of the better followings at the Big 12 tournament, making WVU’s trip to the Big 12 tournament almost a true road game.
So, any kind of miracle postseason run would begin on an uphill slope.
“We still believe,” WVU guard Taz Sherman said. “We believe we can get to where we want to go.”
WVU is 8-8 all-time in the Big 12 tournament, with different periods of success and setbacks.
The Mountaineers needed four attempts just to pick up its first Big 12 tournament win and then played in the championship game from 2016-18 and made it to the semifinals in 2019.
After COVID-19 canceled the 2020 tournament, WVU lost in the quarterfinals against Oklahoma State last season.
Which brings us to the current state of affairs.
The Mountaineers ended a second seven-game losing streak Saturday by knocking off TCU.
Kansas State and WVU split during the regular season, with the Wildcats pulling off a 78-73 victory on Feb. 14 in the most recent matchup.
In that game, WVU held a 42-35 lead at halftime, but the Wildcats came back in the second half on the strength of their free-throw shooting.
Kansas State went 19 of 26 from the line in the second half and was 31 of 39 for the game. That’s the most free throws made and attempted against the Mountaineers this season.
Kansas State’s guard trio of Nijel Pack, Mark Smith and Markquis Nowell have also combined to average 47.5 points in the two games against West Virginia this season.
Still, it’s a matter of which WVU team shows up in Kansas City.
Will it be the one who just out-rebounded the top rebounding team in the Big 12 or the one that allowed opponents to shoot 51% from the floor during the second seven-game losing streak?
“I don’t know,” Huggins said. “We were 12-1 at one point and it didn’t seem to help us much. We’ve just got to go play. We’ve got to make up our minds that we’re going to come in and play. We’ve played everyone in the league, we know we can win.”
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