West Virginia meets Kansas State in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament

MORGANTOWN — The last-second shot that didn’t fall against Texas. The inbounds pass that was stolen away at Iowa State. The lost halftime leads.

All of it played a role in West Virginia finishing in last place in the Big 12 role and why the Mountaineers (15-16, 4-14) are the No. 9 seed for the conference tournament that begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, when WVU plays Kansas State.

None of those reasons, and whatever else contributed to WVU’s record, is worth remembering and its value to what happens in the Big 12 tournament is minimal.

WVU STATS

“We just kind of flushed the season,” is how WVU guard Sean McNeil summed it up in the best manner possible. “Obviously it wasn’t what we expected it to be or what we wanted it to be.”

The task at hand now is how does WVU take what’s been a dreadful season and try to make the most of it?

In the thoughts of Taz Sherman, the Mountaineers leading scorer and senior guard, that answer is to simply care enough.

“You can have teams to where it’s like, ‘O.K., we don’t think that we can go far, so we might as well get out of this tournament early,’ ” Sherman said. “That’s not us. We strongly feel like we can win this whole thing. We know we can compete with anybody.”

Great stories have been written by teams that have long been written off.

Greater still are the stories made by teams that are told they can’t do something and then that team defies logic and shouts back, “Well, just wait and see what we do next.”

Before the Mountaineers can find themselves with a great opportunity, they must first step up the ladder and knock off the Wildcats (14-16, 6-12) in the opening round inside the T-Mobile Center.

It won’t be easy, but then again, nothing has been this season for WVU.

K-State will attack with four guards looking to drive the ball and pitch it back out to open shooters like Nijel Pack and Markquis Nowell.

Those two have each had a 20-point game against the Mountaineers this season.

“They’ve got really good guards with Nowell and Pack and we’ve got to contain them to have a good chance of winning the game,” McNeil said.

And if they find a way to contain Pack and Nowell, there’s Mark Smith to contend with. Smith is a taller guard at 6-foot-4, who averaged 15.5 points per game in the two meetings against West Virginia this season, who just happens to also grab just shy of nine rebounds per game.

“They do a really good job and Bruce (Weber) is a really good coach,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “They do a really good job of keeping some size around the basket. We’ve got some guys they’re not going to chase, so why not stand them in front of the rim to protect those little guys?”

If a victory comes Wednesday, the reward is playing No. 6 Kansas a day later. The Jayhawks swept WVU during the season by a combined 39 points.

“I think we can win against anyone,” Sherman said. “There’s teams we didn’t beat at all. Having a win against a team and then playing them twice, it does give you a confidence boost. With our team, it could be anyone, and we would still have the same confidence level going in.”

Confident? Well, maybe the thinking is enough bad things happened during the regular season that the Mountaineers are now due for a few good things.

Or maybe it’s just the finality of it all. WVU has seven seniors, and while McNeil and Kedrian Johnson have the option of returning for one more season, the others may have only one more loss left in their college careers.

Sometimes, as WVU senior Gabe Osabuohien said, when the end is in sight, guys may go the extra mile to keep from getting there.

“I think it will be a matter of who wants it more,” Osabuohien said. “And I don’t think K-State wants it more than me.”

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