MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said earlier today on a Zoom call with media that his team will be back to full strength when it faces 11-1 Kansas State in its Big 12 opener on Saturday night at Bramlage Coliseum.
 
Forward Emmitt Matthews Jr., who missed two games with a left knee injury sustained in the UAB win back on Dec. 10, is practicing and will be available against the Wildcats.
 
"He's going to play," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "He's ready to go."
 
No. 24 West Virginia (10-2) won both of its games without Matthews in the lineup, albeit in lackluster fashion against Buffalo (96-78) and most recently against Stony Brook (75-64) a week ago.
 
It will be nine days between games when WVU faces Kansas State Saturday in a game that will tip at 7 p.m. and will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
 
Kansas State will have been idle for 10 days after depositing Radford 73-65 on Tuesday, Dec. 21.
 
The two teams playing on Saturday will be completely different than the ones we saw facing off against each other in the first round of last year's Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.
 
Just two players remain from Kansas State – guard Markquis Nowell and forward Ismael Massoud – since the Wildcats parted ways with veteran coach Bruce Weber. In his place is long-time Baylor assistant Jerome Tang, who has done lots of shopping in the transfer portal.
 
Three of the five K-State players expected to start against the Mountaineers come from the portal, most notably former preseason SEC player of the year Keyontae Johnson, a 6-foot-6, 230-pound senior forward.
 
Johnson collapsed while playing a game for Florida in December 2020, and it took him close to two full years trying to get medically cleared to play again. Once he did, his suitors included Nebraska, Memphis and Western Kentucky before choosing Kansas State.
 
"It was a touchy deal because of his health situation," Huggins said of his recruitment when he became available in the portal. "It was really just a hard thing to see when he went down and then you read what happened in the interim between then and now and the kid has been through a lot."
 
In 12 games, he's averaging a team-best 17.7 points per game while shooting an impressive 58% from the floor. Johnson is also tops on the team in rebounding (6.8 rpg.) and 3-point field goal percentage (45.9%).
 
He's clearly a strong candidate for Big 12 newcomer of the year.
 
"He was a McDonald's All-American, and he was the best player Florida had," Huggins said. "When he went down is really when they really struggled. He can shoot it, bounce it and pass it."
 
Lang also added 6-foot-9, 215-pound Virginia Tech transfer David N'Guessan to go with 6-foot-10, 210-pound junior college transfer Nae'Quan Tomlin inside. Those two are combining to average 19.5 points and 11.2 boards per game.
 
Mississippi State transfer Cam Carter (6-foot-3, 190) pairs with Nowell in the backcourt. Carter shows averages of 6.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, while Nowell is averaging 13.7 points and a team-best 8.3 assists per game.
 
"We'd like to keep it out of the little fella's hands because he's the one making all the passes," Huggins said. "He's the one penetrating with the ball. He's the one drawing defenders and he's a terrific passer.
 
"He's the one who initiates their offense. He gets the ball to the right people, but they rely so much on him creating offense," Huggins added. "Without question, he's the engine that makes their train run."
 
The Wildcats are also getting valuable minutes from Arkansas State transfer Desi Sills (9.0 ppg.), Stony Brook transfer Tykei Greene (4.1 ppg.) and Hofstra transfer Abayomi Iyiola (2.9 ppg.).
 
Sills and Iyiola were once teammates at Arkansas during the Razorbacks' Elite Eight run in 2021.
 
K-State's best wins this year are against California (63-54), LSU (61-59) and Nebraska (71-56) with its lone loss coming at Butler 76-64 on Nov. 30.

"They're running really good stuff," Huggins said. "His bigs are versatile. They can bounce it."
 
The Wildcats are 31^st in this week's NCAA NET rankings, meaning this will be a Quad 1 game for the Mountaineers.
 
West Virginia moved up one spot to 10^th in this week's NET rankings and will likely resume its normal starting rotation consisting of Tre Mitchell, Jimmy Bell Jr. and Matthews at forward, with Erik Stevenson and Kedrian Johnson in the backcourt.
 
Kobe Johnson got the starting nod during Matthews' two-game absence.
 
Stevenson leads four double-figure scorers with a 14.5 points-per-game average. The South Carolina transfer is shooting 52.5%, one of seven different players connecting on better than 50% of their shot attempts this season.
 
Overall, West Virginia is shooting 49.2% as a team and is averaging 81.3 points per game – the second highest of any Huggins coached squad at WVU.
 
Mitchell is contributing 12.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, while Matthews and Iowa transfer Joe Toussaint who 10.8 points-per-game averages.
 
The Mountaineers returned to the national rankings earlier this week after a season-long hiatus last year. WVU also ranks 21^st in this week's Kenpom rankings – 41^st in defensive efficiency and 21^st in offensive efficiency.
 
West Virginia is 6-4 in Big 12 openers and Saturday's contest will be the eighth time in the last 11 years the Mountaineers will open league play on the road. West Virginia will remain on the road to play at Oklahoma State on Monday night.
 
It will be interesting to see what type of crowd Kansas State can draw for Saturday's game with the football team playing Alabama in the Sugar Bowl the same day.
 
"I would assume that it won't be the packed house that it would be if there wasn't a bowl game going on the same day," Huggins said.
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Jay Jacobs and David Kahn will be available on many stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the mobile apps WVU Gameday and The Varsity Network. 
 
Satellite radio coverage on SiriusXM channel 380.