The bottom of the Big 12 Conference is a little bit different than the bottom of most conferences.
With four Big 12 teams in the top 15 of the NCAA’s NET rankings through Saturday night’s games, there are more chances for the bottom teams to construct an impressive resume and make a run at an at-large berth.
For Kansas State and West Virginia, Monday night’s game in Manhattan, Kan., offers an opportunity for one of them to grab a win that could spark a late run into the 68-team NCAA field next month. Each has some high-profile games left on the schedule.
And the Wildcats (13-11, 5-7) come into this one with momentum after rallying Saturday for a 75-69 overtime win at Iowa State. They allowed just 29 points after halftime, limiting the Cyclones to 31.4 percent shooting from the field.
“The plays went our way and our guys made plays and made shots,” Kansas State coach Bruce Weber said.
Nijel Pack scored 19 points, his fourth straight game leading the Wildcats in scoring. Markquis Nowell added 16, including a game-sealing 3-pointer in overtime, while Mark Smith chipped in 15 points and nine rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers (14-10, 3-8) enter with what Pat Riley once called “menmotum,” the opposite of momentum. They absorbed an 81-58 pounding Saturday at Oklahoma State for their eighth loss in nine games.
Nothing went right for West Virginia, which is desperate to get back to the firm that enabled the Mountaineers to open the season 11-1. They hit just 19 of 60 shots from the field and the Cowboys dominated with a 2-to-1 advantage on the boards (48-24) and boasted a 40-16 advantage in points in the paint.
Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins said his team did a poor job of running its offense.
“When you run a set, you look at option one, then option two and maybe option three, and there were times where we didn’t even look at option one,” he said. “And didn’t even want to look at option one.”
West Virginia edged Kansas State 71-68 on Jan. 9 in Morgantown behind 26 points and four 3-pointers from Sean McNeil. At that point, WVU was 12-2 on the season, but is just 2-8 since then.
–Field Level Media
