MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A rejuvenated West Virginia University men's basketball team will meet Oklahoma State in an important early afternoon Big 12 game Saturday at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.
 
The Mountaineers are rejuvenated because a pair of recent victories over Kansas State and Oklahoma have put them right back into the Big 12 title hunt with a month left in the regular season.
 
West Virginia, 18-6/7-4, is now one game behind league-leading Kansas and Texas Tech in the conference standings with the Cowboys looming.
 
In other Big 12 action Saturday, Kansas is at seventh-place Baylor, Texas Tech is at fourth-place Kansas State, fourth-place Oklahoma is at last-place Iowa State and sixth-place Texas is at seventh-place TCU.
 
In Morgantown, WVU is looking to sweep the season series from Oklahoma State, 14-10/4-7, for the third time since joining the Big 12 in 2012.
 
WVU claimed five wins in a row against Oklahoma State before the Cowboys came to Morgantown last February and stunned the Mountaineers, 82-75.
 
"I see a really good team that is capable of making a deep run in March," Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton Jr. said of West Virginia. "It's a team that is really well coached; tough; physical and is playing really well here the last two weeks.
 
"Unfortunately, we're so reactive to everything nowadays - and every single team in America goes through a period when they don't play well," he added. "It's a long season, and we overreact to everything. A couple of weeks ago they played a really tough stretch and now they've figured it out and are playing like their normal selves. I'm expecting it to be a really tough opponent in Morgantown on Saturday."
 
Earlier this year, West Virginia got 15 points off the bench from freshman forward Teddy Allen to defeat Oklahoma State, 85-79, in Stillwater. The Mountaineers withstood a 51.1 percent shooting effort from OSU by forcing 21 turnovers and connecting on a sizzling 52 percent of their field goal attempts in the second half.
 
Jeffrey Carroll and Tavarius Shine scored 17 and Lindy Waters added 13 in the OSU loss.
 
The Cowboys got everyone's attention last Saturday when they went to Lawrence and knocked off seventh-ranked Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse, 84-79. Guard Kendall Smith scored 24 points and forward Cameron McGriff added 20 points and nine rebounds in probably the most shocking upset in the Big 12 this season.
 
"Oklahoma State is good," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "They've got a bunch of guys that can shoot the ball. They can score points, and I think they've gotten a whole lot better defensively.
 
"You go watch the Kansas game, and they made hard shots," Huggins said. "They just didn't make open shots."
 
Oklahoma State also shows a neutral site victory earlier this year against No. 19 Florida State as well as recent conference wins against Iowa State, Texas and Oklahoma.
 
Last Tuesday, Oklahoma State dropped a 67-56 home decision to Baylor.
 
Carroll is one of three double-figure Cowboy scorers averaging 15.5 points per game. Smith (11.6 ppg.) and Shine (11.4 ppg.) are the others.
 
Six-nine, 245-pound junior forward Mitchell Solomon continues to be Oklahoma State's most versatile player averaging 8.1 points and 6.3 rebounds while handing out 41 assists, blocking 28 shots and making 24 steals.
 
"Solomon has been terrific for them," Huggins said.
 
In Monday's 75-73 win Monday at No. 17 Oklahoma, sophomore forward Lamont West made five straight 3-point field goals during one stretch in the first half and scored 17 points to help West Virginia knock off the Sooners in Norman.
 
West, who started the first 20 games of the season, came off the bench and had his best scoring performance in nearly a month. He had registered just 5, 3 and 8 points in WVU's most recent three games against Kentucky, Iowa State and Kansas State.
 
"He can score," Huggins said Thursday. "I think any time you can put a guy on the floor who can score that bodes well for you. We've got to keep working with him, working with (Wesley Harris), and I think Esa (Ahmad) is getting better and is feeling more comfortable.
 
"It's really the whole group," he added.
 
Emerging sophomore forward Sagaba Konate continues to give West Virginia a lethal presence around the rim, scoring in double figures for the seventh straight game and the 14^th time overall this season against the Sooners.
 
He finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks, bringing his season block total to 73, now third-most in school history.
 
His next block will tie John Flowers (2011) for second, and he's got a good shot of reaching D'or Fischer's school-record of 124, accomplished in 2004.
 
Konate is averaging 14.7 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.7 blocks over his last seven games.
 
Junior forward Esa Ahmad has also played better of late since going scoreless in West Virginia's two losses to TCU and Kentucky. In his last three games, Ahmad is averaging 13 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 65.2 percent from the floor.
 
He had 14 points and five rebounds in West Virginia's win at Oklahoma.
 
Guard Jevon Carter continues to lead the team in scoring (16.6 ppg.), assists (6.8 apg.) and steals (3.3 spg.) and is second to Konate in rebounding with an average of 5.0 boards per contest.
 
Four other players are averaging double figures: senior guard Daxter Miles Jr. (12.1 ppg.), West (10.8 ppg.), Konate (10.7 ppg.) and Ahmad (10.0 ppg.).
 
Sophomore guard Beetle Bolden is close at 9.8 points per game. Nine players got into the game Monday night at Oklahoma, down from 12 on Saturday in the blowout win against Kansas State.
 
"I'd like to get back to playing more guys," Huggins said. "I tell them all the time, 'I don't decide how many minutes you play. You do.' That hasn't changed."
 
Tipoff for Saturday's game is noon and the contest will be televised nationally on ESPN (Rich Hollenberg and Fran Fraschilla). The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage on affiliates throughout the Mountain State will begin at 11 a.m. The broadcast can also be accessed online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
 


Briefly: Saturday's Oklahoma State game is Varsity Club Weekend for West Virginia University men's basketball with a number of former players, coaches, assistant coaches and support personnel returning to campus. As of Thursday, those confirmed to attend Saturday's game include Nate Adrian, Leon Agnew, Willie Akers, Dave Allara, Warren Baker, Steve Berger, Dale Blaney, Jeremy Bodkin, Jack Brautigam, Truck Bryant, Russell Chapman, Darryl Dillenback, Dr. Brooks Gainer, Jim Gerkin, Bud Henderson, Dennis Hosey, Bob Jeran, Kevin Johnston, Greg Jones, Kevin Jones, Tim Kearney, Ron LaNeve, Junius Lewis, David Liguori, James Long, Bob Lowe, Bill Maphis, Gary McPherson, Lowes Moore, Noah Moore, Greg Nance, Kevin Noreen, John Oliver, Damian Owens, Judy Price, Darryl Prue, Rick Ramsey, Jim Ritchie, Tom Roberts, Tony Robertson, Maurice Robinson, Bill Ryczaj, Jim Smallridge, Brent Solheim, Josh Sowards, Alan Vance, John Vidovich, Bucky Waters, Larry Woods, John Wooten, Josh Yeager and Rudy Zatezalo.