KANSAS CITY – West Virginia looks to continue its season on Wednesday night when it faces Kansas State in the opening game of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
 
West Virginia, the tournament's No. 9 seed with a 4-14 overall conference record, will take on No. 8-seeded Kansas State (6-12) in Wednesday night's lone game. The tournament this year was reduced to nine teams because Oklahoma State was placed on one-year NCAA probation and is not eligible to participate in this year's NCAA Tournament.
 
That means the winner of Wednesday night's game will meet tournament No. 1 seed Kansas in Thursday afternoon's second contest.
 
Also on Thursday, No. 4-seeded Texas faces No. 5-seed TCU in the opening game of the first session, while the evening session features No. 2-seeded Baylor playing No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 3 Texas Tech meeting No. 6 Iowa State in the nightcap.
 
"I think we have something to play for," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "They were great yesterday and not quite as good today, but they're excited about playing."
 
The tournament semifinals will take place Friday with the championship game tipping off at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. All of the games will be televised on some form of ESPN.
 
West Virginia is coming into Kansas City on the heels of its 70-64 victory over TCU on Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum to snap its seven-game losing streak.
 
Senior guard Taz Sherman poured in a game-high 25 points and the Mountaineers overcame a six-point deficit with 6:27 left by holding the Horned Frogs to just one field goal for the remainder of the game.
 
WVU outrebounded TCU 33 to 29 after suffering a 42-to-24 rebounding deficit when the two teams met in Fort Worth earlier in the season.
 
Sherman, an All-Big 12 Second Team choice, is averaging a team-best 18.3 points per game. The Missouri City, Texas, resident recently surpassed 1,000 points for his career and now shows 1,070, placing him 45^th all-time at WVU.
 
His season scoring average is the highest by a Mountaineer since forward Kevin Jones averaged 19.9 points per game in 2012.
 
"This is my first year here (with full capacity)," Sherman said. "COVID shut down last year and there were limited fans so it's going to be good for all of us. I'm especially excited for the freshmen and the newer guys who haven't really experienced the atmosphere of the Big 12 tournament."
 
Old Dominion transfer Malik Curry also surpassed 1,000 points for his college career, with 285 of those scored at West Virginia. The senior guard has tallied double figures in his last four games, including a season-high 27 points in a recent loss to Texas. 
 
He is West Virginia's top sub off the bench.
 
The Mountaineers used a starting lineup consisting of Sherman and seniors Sean McNeil (12.2 ppg.) and Kedrian Johnson (5.3 ppg.) in the backcourt, with sophomore Jalen Bridges (8.5 ppg.) and Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year Gabe Osabuohien (5.0 ppg.) up front. It was Osabuohien's first start of the season on Senior Day.
 
"Me, personally, I'm motivated and just focusing on getting the rest of the team on the same page and making sure everybody is locked in for tomorrow," Osabuohien said. "It's going to be a matter of who wants it more, and I don't think K-State wants to win more than me."
 
Kansas State (14-16 overall) is limping into Wednesday night's game with five straight losses, including a 78-71 defeat last Saturday against Oklahoma, which has raised questions about coach Bruce Weber's job security.
 
The Wildcats have had three straight losing seasons since claiming a share of the Big 12 title in 2019 and reaching the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in 2018.
 
Weber's 10-year record in Manhattan is 184-145, but attendance at Bramlage Coliseum has declined significantly with the Wildcats failing to draw a crowd of 10,000 for any game this year. According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, Weber has one year remaining on his contract and his current buyout is just $1 million.
 
"I'm just worried about West Virginia, that's all I can worry about," Weber said following Saturday's loss to the Sooners.
 
The two teams split this year with West Virginia claiming a 71-68 win in Morgantown on Jan. 8 against a COVID-stricken Wildcat team that was also without Weber.
 
McNeil tallied a season-high 26 points for West Virginia, while Nijel Pack paced Kansas State with 20. The Wildcats jumped out to an early 23-6 lead before the Mountaineers finally woke up.
 
The second time around in Manhattan a month later, it was Kansas State that came back from a double-digit deficit early in the second half. West Virginia led K-State 54-44 with 16:12 left but then went without a field goal for the next 10 minutes in the Wildcats' five-point victory.
 
Guard Markquis Nowell scored 21 points and Missouri transfer Mark Smith tallied 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Wildcats.
 
Sherman led WVU with 23.
 
College basketball analytics expert KenPom basically rates Wednesday night's game a toss-up with Kansas State's win probability listed at 53% and West Virginia's at 47%. Despite the two teams' losing records, Kansas State has an NCAA NET ranking of 71 while West Virginia's is 79.
 
"We've played 17 Quad 1 games," Huggins pointed out. "We've played the third-hardest schedule in the country, and we've lost a bunch of games right at the end. Nobody else has played the schedule we've played, which you hope will bode well for us."
 
"We're not one of those teams that doesn't think we can win – we definitely feel like we can win," Sherman added.
 
A 7 p.m. ET tip has been assigned for the game, which will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Rich Hollenberg and Chris Spatola).
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs begins at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Tournament Tidbits … West Virginia has won 19 of 34 conference tournament games since 2005 and has reached the finals in three of the last five Big 12 tournaments … Bob Huggins has a 46-22 career record in conference tournament games with 10 championships … West Virginia has faced the third toughest schedule in the country this year based on the NCAA NET rankings with 17 regular season games against Quadrant 1 teams – the most of any school in the country … West Virginia and Kansas State have met one prior time in Big 12 Tournament play in 2017 when the Mountaineers came away with an exciting 51-50 victory … Overall, West Virginia owns a 14-9 record in series play against K-State .. This year marks the full return of the Big 12 Tournament to Kansas since COVID-19 canceled the 2020 event and shut down the country when the arena was still known as the Sprint Center … Last year's tournament was played in a bubble setting with reduced attendance … No Mountaineers have played in this event when it was at full capacity, although Osabuohien has SEC tournament experience while playing at Arkansas ... It's been a very difficult last couple of weeks for veteran sports information director Bryan Messerly, who lost of his mother Libby Messerly earlier this week ... This is the first conference tournament the Weirton native has missed in 20-plus years working for the Mountaineers dating back to Gale Catlett's tenure ... Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Messerlys.