West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Kansas State Wildcats Pick & Prediction JANUARY 9th 2024

Kansas State travels to West Virginia on Tuesday looking to build on an impressive start to the Big 12 season, while the Mountaineers look to rebound from a demoralizing loss in its season opener.

Kansas State (11-3, 1-0 Big 12) welcomed visiting UCF to the conference with an emphatic 77-52 victory on Saturday. The Wildcats scored the first 12 points of the game and never trailed. They led by as many as 35 points in the second half.

“When the ball goes through the hoop, it makes the game a lot easier and a lot more fun for everybody,” Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang said. “We’re just blessed to be 1-0. Erase it. One-game season. Now we move on to the next one.”

Tylor Perry scored a season-high 25 points, mostly from long range. He hit six of his first eight 3-pointers as he displayed an aggressiveness the Wildcats had not seen in the nonconference portion of the schedule.

“I want (Perry) to stay aggressive,” Tang said. “It’s one of his superpowers, his ability to shoot the ball. I know he wants to prove that he can be a point guard, but he has to continue to trust in his work.”

West Virginia (5-9, 0-1) also faced a new entrant to the Big 12 but the results were disappointing. No. 3 Houston got 20 points from LJ Cryer and used a suffocating defense to defeat West Virginia 89-55. The host Cougars led 48-22 at halftime.

“The way they play is not a good matchup for us by any means,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “You look at the rebounding and we ended up 40-34, which is better than I thought it would be, but they just made shots.”

RaeQuan Battle, who came into the game averaging 27.3 points in his three games, was 1 of 9 from the floor and finished with just four points. Patrick Suemnick led the Mountaineers with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

The Mountaineers are the 14-team conference’s only team with a losing overall record.

–Field Level Media