MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — To have a legitimate chance at pulling off an upset Saturday against No. 3 Kansas, West Virginia had to keep up offensively with one of the more talented teams in all of college basketball.
The Mountaineers did just that during their 91-85 victory by shooting a season-best 51.8 percent from the field and making 12-of-21 three-pointers. Additionally, a 21 for 25 effort on free throws didn’t hurt the cause as West Virginia matched its season-high offensive output in its best win to date.
Yet above the offensive efficiency the Mountaineers displayed was an even more important factor in the outcome, according to WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert.
“I told the guys before the game they might as well tear up the game plan and throw it in a fire if you don’t find a way to out-rebound them or figure out a way to be neck and neck with them on the glass,” Eilert said. “If we’re minus 14 or 15 on the glass, there’s no chance we’re winning. They heard it loud and clear and out-rebounded them by nine. That was a huge difference in the game.”
The Mountaineers finished with 31 boards to the Jayhawks’ 22. Even throughout a first half that could have hardly featured more offense and ended in a 51-all tie, West Virginia had a 15-10 edge in rebounding.
WVU also finished with nine of the game’s 14 offensive rebounds, allowing the Mountaineers to score 13 second-chance points to the Jayhawks’ eight.
“We didn’t come as turned up as we needed to be,” KU head coach Bill Self said.
There was no more important sequence on the offensive glass than the one that occurred with just inside 40 seconds remaining as West Virginia was in possession and led, 82-81.
Noah Farrakhan misfired on a jump shot, but teammate RaeQuan Battle came down with the offensive board and was fouled, allowing WVU to maintain possession. Out of a timeout, Battle missed a jumper that was rebounded by teammate Quinn Slazinski, who was immediately fouled.
Slazinski stepped to the free-throw line with 34 seconds remaining and made the first, before missing the second. The forward was keenly aware his second foul shot was off the mark and made a heady play to follow the miss and offensive rebound it, allowing him to immediately go back to the free-throw line, where he converted both attempts for a four-point lead.
“We understand what Kansas was bringing,” Slazinski said. “They have two bigs down low that are relentless at the rim. It was looking at each other in practice like at this point, there’s nothing else to talk about. We just have to bring it. We’re boxing out and starting to do a lot more drills repping it and making it more of a focus rather than, ‘hey guys, let’s rebound.’ I’m so proud of our team for rebounding the ball great. We came up with a couple crazy offensive rebounds and that’s a formula for winning basketball.”
West Virginia (7-11, 2-3) has out-rebounded its opponent in six of its seven victories, albeit by just one in separate victories.
For a team that lost the rebounding margin by six in a Big 12-opening loss at Houston, 13 in a home setback to Kansas State and 14 in last Wednesday’s defeat at Oklahoma, Saturday’s effort on the glass was a major bright spot and a big step forward, especially considering that it came without the Mountaineers’ top rebounder in center Jesse Edwards.
Battle’s nine boards were a game high and Pat Suemnick, starting at center in place of Edwards, followed with six.
“[Kansas is] one of the best offensive transition teams and we watched the Oklahoma tape and we had guys in no man’s land — guys that aren’t getting back or crashing,” Eilert said. “So I said, ‘make a decision.’ If you’re not going to crash and get us an extra possession, which nobody other than Pat gave us an offensive rebound [against Oklahoma], then get back. Don’t get caught up in no man’s land where they’re going downhill and we didn’t even try for the offensive rebound.
“I harped on it pretty hardcore and it resonated with them. Credit to them for positively reacting and taking that to heart.”
Suemnick more than held his own in a matchup with Kansas’ 7-foot-2 center Hunter Dickinson.
Dickinson, one of the more productive players in the nation, finished with 19 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals, two blocks and four turnovers.
Suemnick, who has made the most of an expanded role over the last month, scored 20 points to go with his six boards, two assists, one steal and two turnovers.
“Pat has done an incredible job and continues to build his confidence each night, and he’s just getting better and better,” Eilert said. “Some of it is taking advantage of that opportunity and he’s done that every single game.”
Wednesday will mark five weeks since Edwards underwent surgery and though a return Tuesday at Central Florida may be far-fetched, the center appears on the brink of playing in the near future.
“He’s a lot closer than I thought he was going to be,” Eilert said. “Didn’t know how the appointment was going to go. He got a good report, but he was in a brace until then, so he hadn’t had any movement. We threw him out at practice [Friday] and he was rearing to go and try it out. He wants to do everything he can to help the team.
“We went a little bit of 5-on-5 and it was a little bit tender when he started guarding guys. We backed off real quick to make sure that we don’t set him backwards. We want to make sure that we have him moving forward and we don’t want to have a setback.”
