KANSAS CITY – It wasn't exactly a Joe Namath moment, but the night before Lamont West sort of called West Virginia's stunning victory over seventh-ranked Texas Tech.
 
He was the guy after Wednesday night's win over Oklahoma to say the Mountaineers owed Texas Tech.
 
A few moments later, a reporter asked West to repeat what he had said.
 
"We owe them," Lamont answered.
 
"Own or owe them?"
 
"We owe them; they beat us last time," he repeated.
 
His coach, Bob Huggins, was asked about Lamont's statement and the possibility of his junior forward rattling the cage of a sleeping tiger.
 
"I don't know what Lamont thinks, man. Why do you ask me what Lamont thinks? I don't know if Lamont knows what Lamont thinks," he said.
 
Perhaps, but West has played on some very good West Virginia basketball teams in the past, and he was simply sick and tired of being pushed around by the rest of the league.
 
After last night's win, West was a little more specific.
 
"To be honest with you, we've lost to all of the teams in the Big 12 so everyone we play is going to be paybacks so it don't matter who we play," he said.
 
Good point.
 
Kansas, tonight's opponent, ran West Virginia right out of Allen Fieldhouse, just as Texas Tech did to the Mountaineers in United Supermarkets Arena.
 
But, obviously, the West Virginia team it was playing before is certainly not the same team it is playing right now.
 
"They played great, won three of their last five and got a chemistry," Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said. "They've had some additions and some subtractions from their program, and they have some guys that play with joy, and we were concerned about this game. In no way did we take them lightly. 
 
"Give West Virginia credit, they beat us," Beard added.
 
These guys are hungry. They are determined, and they are playing together. We saw none of this just a couple of weeks ago.
 
"We are a different team now. I feel like we have a different mentality," West admitted. "It's the Big 12 Tournament, and we started off the season 0-0 and now we're 2-0."
 
But why? Why now and why so late in the season when the margin of error is so razor-thin?
 
"Everybody just made up in their minds that we were tired of losing," West said. "Really, it was the losing. We weren't really locking in like we were supposed to, and I just feel like we got tired of it. We had to change our attitudes."
 
Lamont West is exhibit A.
 
How many times have we seen Lamont dribble the ball to the basket with his head down and try some sort of scoop shot or difficult, twisting layup that sometimes goes through the basket but oftentimes doesn't?
 
Well, last night, West made one of the prettiest offensive plays of the season when he got the ball along the baseline, made a move to his right and instead of attempting another circus shot at a key moment in the game, he handed it off to teammate Jermaine Haley for a big and-one basket.
 
West's head was finally up, first of all, and more importantly, he was willing to pass the ball to an open teammate.
 
When he did that, among the most surprised people in the Sprint Center was Haley.
 
"Knowing Lamont, yeah," he laughed. "Shout out to Lamont. He made a great pass, and I really just needed to be in the right spot and do my job and put the ball through the hoop."
 
To set the record straight, Lamont correctly points out that he made the same play the night before against Oklahoma.
 
"I did it to Logan (Routt), so I knew once I attacked somebody had to help or I was going to lay it up," West said. "Once I saw Jermaine, I just passed it to him."
 
Earlier this week, Huggins said his team was getting closer and closer to being a good basketball team despite its losing record.
 
We saw growth in a road loss at Baylor, and we saw more growth in impressive home wins against TCU and Iowa State.
 
And we've seen even more growth in Kansas City, where West Virginia has won back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 22-30 when it beat Jacksonville State and Lehigh, albeit in unimpressive fashion.
 
The players remaining on the roster are paying attention to what the coaches are telling them, and they're willing to do what they're being coached to do. And when a guy who has won 859 games is telling them what to do, it's probably a good idea to listen with eyes and ears wide open.
 
"We are paying attention to the scouting reports more," West explained. "I feel like we are more in tune to how people play and what their moves are. The coaches do a real good job of breaking down personnel, and I just feel like we are paying more attention in practice, and we've got more of a will to guard."
 
Consequently, these guys have more of a will to win.
 
"Every team goes through ebbs and flows and ups and downs, but the team I watched play tonight is hungry," Kansas coach Bill Self said of the Mountaineers after his Jayhawks deposited Texas last night. "They're playing with a free mind. The basket is looking big to them and certainly, they're rebounding the ball like Huggins' teams have historically done at West Virginia.
 
"Forget about the records, when Kansas and West Virginia play you usually get your money's worth as a game."
 
Tonight's Big 12 Tournament semifinal matchup against the third-seeded Jayhawks will likely tip off sometime around 9:30 p.m. EDT following game one between No. 1 seed Kansas State and No. 5 seed Iowa State.