Mountaineers head to Kansas State looking to avoid first skid this season

Hoping to continue a season-long trend of avoiding consecutive losses, No. 23 West Virginia faces Kansas State at 6 p.m. Saturday inside Bramlage Coliseum.

The Mountaineers (13-5, 4-3) hope to add to the January struggles of Kansas State (7-11, 1-6), which has lost six straight and yet to win in 2025.

Yet as his team prepares to face the Wildcats in a matchup airing on CBS Sports Network, first-year West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries sees a plenty capable opponent that’s been competitive in three straight setbacks against Texas Tech and at Kansas and Baylor and is 1-6 in games decided by 10 or fewer points, including 1-4 in Big 12 play. With the exception of a 30-point loss to Houston, KSU’s other six league games have had a margin of no more than 13 points.

“Outside of the Houston game, their games have come right down to the wire,” DeVries said. “They’ve been right there. They led at Kansas, had Texas Tech at home, had Baylor down double digits on the road, beat Cincinnati at home. They just haven’t had the wins to show for it. They’re a really talented team and present a lot of problems for you.”

KSU much runs of its offense through Coleman Hawkins, a 6-foot-10 Illinois transfer and previous teammates with WVU’s Amani Hansberry and Sencire Harris from his days at the Big Ten school.

Hawkins enters averaging 10.7 points and seven rebounds to go with a team-high 79 assists.

“What makes him good is his versatility,” DeVries said. “He can shoot it from deep and then his ability to go post. Kind of like us with a pick and pop five [center], they use him as more of a four [power forward], but it still puts you in some tough spots. If you switch it, he takes you in the post with a little guard, and you have to bring some help most of the time. He’s such a willing passer that it makes the guys on the backside really efficient from a catch and shoot standpoint. Overall, his versatility to shoot, post and pass makes him so difficult makes him so difficult to stop.”

David N’Guessan leads the team with a scoring average of 12.6 points on better than 64 percent shooting and is also the top rebounder at 7.4 per game, a figure that includes an average of more than three offensive boards.

“He gets a lot of it close to the rim. He can do some other things. He’s pretty versatile,” DeVries said. “He can put it on the deck and go make plays. He’ll face you up at 12-15 (feet) and go make a play. He’s had a good year for them — very efficient.”

Brendan Hausen is KSU’s top perimeter threat with 55 three-pointers at an impressive 40 percent clip, and his 11.9 scoring average is second on the squad.

Guards Dug McDaniel (9.5) and Max Jones (9.1) are just south of averaging double-figure scoring.

In addition to preparing for the challenges the Wildcats present, DeVries has his team focused on self improvement after the Mountaineers put forth perhaps their worst showing this season Tuesday in a 65-57 home loss to Arizona State. West Virginia never led in the second half, was out-rebounded 46-28, made 4-of-29 three-pointers and allowed the Sun Devils to shoot 16 for 26 in the second half as they stayed in front down to win for the first time in five road contests.

“Our defensive rebounding wasn’t good enough in that game and our defense in general in the second half,” DeVries said. “You’re not winning games allowing that type of efficiency by an opponent. We’d been doing a pretty good job in those two areas, but we didn’t in that second half especially.”

Mountaineer guard Javon Small, who leads the Big 12 with a scoring average of 19.5 points, suffered through one of his more forgettable performances in a WVU uniform the last time out. Ten of Small’s 14 points came on free throws and the explosive playmaker made 2-of-11 shots and missed all nine of his three-pointers.

WVU made only 18-of-58 shots against ASU and has had difficulty scoring consistently. The Mountaineers are averaging 62.9 points in seven Big 12 games, leaving them 15th in the league and ahead of only Cincinnati in that category.  They’re also 15th in the conference with a field-goal percentage of 40.

Kansas State, however, has struggled preventing opponents from scoring and is 12th in the conference surrendering 73 points on average, and 13th in field goal percentage defense at 46.5 percent in league matchups.

“You can get some transition,” DeVries said. “Transition is going to be important for us as it always is, and finding ways to get easy ones with space in a broken floor.”

DeVries said Friday nothing has changed regarding the status forward Tucker DeVries and guard Jayden Stone. DeVries has yet to participate in Big 12 play and has missed 10 straight contests altogether as a result of an upper body injury, while Stone has yet to play this season as a result of a preseason injury.

West Virginia has won 16 of 28 previous matchups with the Wildcats, but is 4-8 all-time at Bramlage Coliseum.