Kansas State Wildcats vs. WVU Mountaineers: Lineups, time, TV and a prediction
The details
When/where: 1 p.m. Saturday, WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, West Virginia
TV/radio: ESPN2; KKGQ (92.3 FM) in Wichita, KCSP (610 AM) in Kansas City.
Projected lineups
P | No. | Kansas State | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 14 | Makol Mawien | 6-9 | Sr. | 7.3 |
F | 23 | Montavious Murphy | 6-9 | Fr. | 5.2 |
G | 20 | Xavier Sneed | 6-5 | Sr. | 14.6 |
G | 4 | David Sloan | 6-0 | Jr. | 4.9 |
G | 3 | DaJuan Gordon | 6-4 | Fr. | 6.8 |
P | No. | West Virginia | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 1 | Derek Culver | 6-10 | So. | 10.7 |
F | 34 | Oscar Tshiebwe | 6-9 | Fr. | 11.4 |
F | 11 | Emmitt Matthews | 6-7 | So. | 6.9 |
G | 5 | Jordan McCabe | 6-0 | So. | 3.4 |
G | 10 | Jermaine Haley | 6-7 | Sr. | 9.4 |
About Kansas State (9-11, 2-5 Big 12): The Wildcats are on a bit of an upswing after recent home victories over West Virginia and Oklahoma. K-State won both of those games with strong defense and solid offense. Now it’s time to see if that formula can get it a win on the road. The Wildcats haven’t won away from Bramlage Coliseum since an early November victory at UNLV. It seems as though Bruce Weber has settled on a new starting lineup that features David Sloan and DaJuan Gordon in the backcourt. Expect Cartier Diarra and Mike McGuirl to come off the bench for the third straight game.
About West Virginia (16-4, 4-3 Big 12): The Mountaineers are coming off an 89-81 road loss to Texas Tech. That dropped them three games behind Baylor in the Big 12 championship race, which means they can’t afford many more losses if they hope to stay in the mix. There is some good news for Bob Huggins’ team, though. West Virginia will play its next two games at home, where it has been dominant this season. The Mountainers are 10-0 at WVU Coliseum with their last four home victories coming by an average of 26.5 points. That’s impressive considering those games were played against Texas Tech, TCU, Texas and Missouri. West Virginia likes to play through its front court of Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe, both of whom nearly average a double-double.
Prediction
This has the look of a revenge game for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers will be out for blood after unexpectedly losing to the Wildcats 84-68 two weeks ago at Bramlage Coliseum. The Wildcats raced to a 24-point lead in that game behind a season-high 25 points from Cartier Diarra and a parade of uncontested dunks from virtually everyone on the roster.
West Virginia played its worst game of the season that day, and Huggins benched his star forwards for long stretches out of frustration. That seems unlikely to happen again at WVU Coliseum.
Few teams in all of college basketball have enjoyed a better home-court advantage than West Virginia this season. The last two Big 12 teams to play in Morgantown got blasted 97-59 (Texas) and 81-49 (TCU). The Mountaineers take their defense to another level at home.
K-State plays strong enough on defense to prevent that kind of score from happening on Saturday, but it’s hard to imagine the Wildcats pulling an upset here.
West Virginia 71, K-State 55.