No. 22 Kansas Basketball vs West Virginia: Get to Know the Mountaineers

The No. 22 ranked Kansas Jayhawks (11-4, 1-1) tip off against the West Virginia Mountaineers (10-5, 1-1) in Morgantown, West Virginia, at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday afternoon for KU’s second Big 12 road game of the season.

The Jayhawks are coming off a historic comeback win in overtime over TCU earlier this week (104-100), while the Mountaineers are fresh off a close 62-60 home win versus Cincinnati.

Here are some things to know about the Mountaineers heading ahead of the game on Saturday.

History

The Jayhawks own a 21-8 all-time record against West Virginia dating back to their first matchup on Jan. 28, 2013, when the Mountaineers first joined the Big 12 Conference.

KU won the first three contests before West Virginia began to even up the series through the 2015-16 season. But since that time, the Jayhawks have dominated the Mountaineers, going 14-6 over the past decade.

However, the Mountaineers have gotten the better of KU lately, winning in Lawrence last season and in Morgantown the season before. And Morgantown has historically been a tough place for Kansas to play as the Mountaineers own a 7-5 home record over the Jayhawks dating back to 2013.

Record

The Mountaineers enter Saturday’s contest with 10-5 overall record and a 1-1 record in the Big 12. The one conference loss came in an ugly 80-59 loss at Iowa State last week.

The Mountaineers’ nine non-conference wins were all against unimpressive opponents such as Lafayette, Lehigh, and others. West Virginia has lost to every Power 4 program they’ve faced this year except for a win against a now 7-8 Pittsburgh team back in November and a now 8-7 Cincinnati team earlier this week.

Key Players

The Mountaineers are led in scoring by 5-foot-10 senior guard Honor Huff. He’s averaging 17.1 points per game and shoots over 41% from 3-point range. In fact, he’s known as one of the most lethal 3-point shooters in the entire country and should present a real challenge for KU on defense.

Only two other players currently average double-digit scoring for the Mountaineers and that’s 6-foot-6 senior guard Chance Moore who averages 13.0 points per game and 6-foot-9 senior forward Brenen Lorient who averages 10.1 points per game.

Moore also leads the Mountaineers in rebounding with 6.0 per game, while Lorient is second with 5.5.

Coaching

The Mountaineers are led by head coach Ross Hodge. He is in his first year as head coach at West Virginia after previously leading North Texas as head coach for two seasons.

At the Division I level, Hodge currently holds a 56-29 record (.657 winning percentage) as a head coach. He compiled a record of 146-24 as a head coach at the junior college level at Paris Junior College and Midland College in Texas.