WVU Basketball

5 Things Before WVU vs. Kansas State

Published

4 months ago

January 9, 2024

WVU hosts Kansas State in their home Big 12 opener on Tuesday night. Let’s take a look at five things to know before the game.

Meet the Opponent: Kansas State

Kansas State is entering year two under Jerome Tang, who led the Wildcats to the Elite-8 last season. K-State lost Keyontae Johnson (pro), Markquis Nowell (pro) and Desi Sills (graduation) over last offseason, as well as Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who entered the transfer portal in December, heading to Memphis.

Tang and his staff have built their roster similarly to last season with North Texas G Tylor Perry taking Nowell’s role. KSU also landed Arthur Kaluma from Creighton. Returning guard Camryn Carter leads the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game.

K-State has notable wins over Providence (73-70) and Villanova (72-71). The Wildcats’ three losses come from Nebraska, USC and Miami (FL).

Eilert Says It’ll Take Time to Mesh

WVU interim HC Josh Eilert talked once again about how the team needs to mesh and play more together following the returns of Kerr Kriisa, Noah Farrakhan and RaeQuan Battle. Since the trio returned to the floor for the Mountaineers in mid-December, the entire team has needed to take on different roles from the original group that could play in November.

“It takes time to mesh. It takes time to build that chemistry,” Eilert said on Monday. “You know I was probably naive enough to think that we were just going to float three guys into the equation and it’s all going to work out perfectly.”

“That takes time. A lot of times teams bring in a lot of transfers and there are a lot of new personalities, new faces. They work together all summer and they might go on a foreign tour but they’re all there from day one,” Eilert added.

Kriisa and Farrakhan will be suiting up for their sixth game with the Mountaineers while Battle is going for game No. 5.

Can WVU Bounce Back From Blowout Houston Loss

West Virginia currently sits at 5-9 after a 34-point loss at Houston. UH has shown to be an elite team on offense and defense but WVU has no time to sulk on any loss. They have to move on and collect any type of wins at this point.

K-State is coming off a 25-point win over UCF in Manhattan, Ks. The Wildcats have looked shaky at times against lower competition during non-conference play but have gotten the job done.