MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia, ranked No. 24 in the AP Poll a week ago and currently 16^th in this week's NCAA NET Rankings, is one of four teams with 0-2 records to begin Big 12 play.
 
Others are 19^th-rated Baylor, two years removed from a national championship, Texas Tech, which saw its 27-game home winning streak snapped Wednesday night against Kansas, and Oklahoma, which has lost its two home games by a total of only four points.
 
Kansas State, which rallied from 14 points down to defeat West Virginia 82-76 in overtime, scored 116 points in a 13-point victory at sixth-ranked Texas two nights ago. The Wildcats were predicted to finish last in this year's Big 12 preseason coaches' poll.
 
In 10 conference games so far this year, the average margin of victory is 5.7 points. The Big 12's average NET ranking is 26.8 with next lowest conference's average 60.1.
 
Statistical guru KenPom has all 10 Big 12 teams in his top 37, and no other league in America has even half of its teams in the top 37. So, yes, West Virginia is 0-2 with critical conference home games looming on Saturday night against third-ranked Kansas and next Wednesday night against No. 19 Baylor. 
 
Therefore, some perspective is certainly in order.
 
"That means we're playing in the best league in America against the best people in America that are coached by the best coaches in America," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "I've thought back in some of the leagues I've been in and I've coached against what people consider to be some of the greatest coaches of all-time, I just didn't do it game after game, after game after game, after game."
 
In the Big 12, it's not just how you play, but who you play, when you play and where you play, and Saturday night, WVU gets its crack at last year's NCAA champions in front of a sold-out crowd at the WVU Coliseum.
 
West Virginia has defeated Kansas six times since joining the Big 12 and all six of those victories have come in the Coliseum, most recently in 2021.
 
Kansas, despite winning eight of the last nine meetings against West Virginia, is only 4-6 in this building and the Mountaineers are hoping a boisterous and vocal home crowd can once again make things tough on the Jayhawks.
 
But Kansas is still Kansas, despite seeing 60% of last year's starting lineup depart, including Final Four Most Valuable Player Ochai Agbaji.
 
The dude for coach Bill Self this year is 6-foot-8, 225-pound power forward Jalen Wilson, who is averaging a team-best 20.6 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. The Denton, Texas, resident is back in Self's good graces after missing the first three games of last season on suspicion of driving under the influence.
 
He ended up averaging 11.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game for Self's second KU national championship team and is close to doubling that scoring output so far this season. 
 
"Bill has always had THE guy," Huggins said. "It's kind of like Bill has a four-leaf clover in his pocket. He has guys now who are pros who he had last year, and they weren't even being recruited by people. And of course, the fools that we are we start recruiting them and he just goes in and takes them because they're right there in his backyard."
 
Wilson is shooting only 41.8% overall from the floor, but he's made 31 triples and has been to the foul line 73 times where he's made a team-best 54. Twice, Wilson has submitted and pulled his name from the NBA Draft, but this year it looks like he's putting together a season that will be compelling enough for pro teams to take a more serious look at him.
 
Gradey Dick, a 6-foot-8 freshman guard from Wichita, Kansas, appears to be the next Jayhawk star in the making with averages of 14.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, while 6-foot-6, 210-pound senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. is averaging 11.2 points and 7.2 boards per contest.
 
Kansas (13-1, 2-0) only goes about seven deep, with forward KJ Adams Jr. and guards Dajuan Harris, Joseph Yesufu and Bobby Pettiford getting the bulk of the remaining minutes, but down the bench are more four- and five-star recruits.
 
Kansas has won six games by a margin of two possessions or less, including last Saturday's two-point home victory against Oklahoma State when it rallied from 15 points down at halftime and its three-point win earlier this week at Texas Tech to snap the Red Raiders' 27-game winning streak at United Supermarkets Arena.
 
West Virginia (10-4, 0-2) has played well in spurts in all 14 games this year, but in its last two defeats, second-half lapses proved costly.
 
"We've got to make things happen at the end of games," Huggins said. "We've got to have people step up, and we've got to do a much, much better job of valuing the ball.
 
"We've got to cut down on the dumb things, and we've got good enough players that they shouldn't be doing the dumb things that is happening," Huggins said.
 
WVU has turned the ball over 35 times and has shot only 39.1% from the floor in its two conference defeats. Another area of concern has been free throw shooting, where the Mountaineers are converting just 56.1% of their 66 attempts in league play.
 
Ball security will be vitally important on Saturday night now that starting point guard Kedrian Johnson has been ruled out after sustaining a concussion, Huggins revealed Thursday night during his weekly radio show.
 
Huggins calls Johnson the best "on-the-ball defender" in the Big 12.
 
"Keedy is not a rah-rah guy and not a big talker, but Keedy is the one guy that every single guy on our team respects," Huggins said.
 
The Johnson injury likely means Joe Toussaint will slide into a starting role and join Erik Stevenson in the backcourt. Emmitt Matthews Jr., Tre Mitchell and Jimmy Bell Jr. are expected to get the starting nods at the forward spots on Saturday night.
 
A special tip time of 6 p.m. has been assigned for the game, which will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ (Tyler Denning and Mark Adams).
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Jay Jacobs and studio host David Kahn tips off at 5 p.m. with the Coliseum Countdown.