Kansas State Desperate for More Wins Before Big 12 Tournament
Are West Virginia vs Kansas State Odds Too High for Wildcats?
There aren’t too many exciting games to start the new week. However, the Big 12 will feature the West Virginia Mountaineers against the Kansas State Wildcats in a national broadcast on ESPN2.
West Virginia is 9-18 and won’t play in any postseason tournament. They have four games left on the schedule and are expected to lose all of them.
On the other hand, Kansas State is a bubble team. The Wildcats have added 16 wins this season but have lost seven of their last nine games to create some doubt about their playoff chances. However, Kansas State’s win against BYU on Saturday certainly didn’t hurt their chances.
The 84-74 win over BYU ended a four-game losing streak and pushed Kansas State to 6-8 in conference play.
With that said, Kansas State is a 9.5-point favorite at -120. Meanwhile, the total is sitting at 143.5 for this game.
Let’s break down these West Virginia vs Kansas State odds below and provide a best bet for this college basketball game as well.
Wildcats vs Mountaineers 
Day/Time:
Location: Bramlage Coliseum, Manhattan, KS
Streaming: ESPN2
West Virginia vs Kansas State Odds & Trends
The West Virginia Mountaineers haven’t helped their backers this season. The Mountaineers have gone 10-17 against the spread and are 0-7 on the road this season.
They’ve also hit the Under in one more game than the Over this year.
Still, the winless road record isn’t ideal this late into the NCAAB season.
Kansas State is 12-3 at home and 14-13 against the spread. The Wildcats have also hit the Under in 14 games of their 27.
West Virginia and Kansas State each played on January 9 at West Virginia. However, Kansas State still earned an 81-67 win on the road as a two-point favorite.
A Potential Coaching Change In West Virginia
West Virginia will likely move on from Josh Eilert this offseason. The Mountaineers haven’t even won ten games this season after Eilert was slated as the interim coach in June when Bob Huggins called it quits.
The Mountaineers have been very inconsistent this year and haven’t been prepared on the road.
The rumors earlier were that West Virginia had been looking for a permanent fix after Huggins left. However, the timing wasn’t good, so the Mountaineers just went with Eilert this season.
It clearly hasn’t worked. Therefore, West Virginia will be looking for a high-major coach this off-season.
Sensing Urgency In Manhattan
As stated earlier, the Kansas State Wildcats are on the bubble for an NCAA Tournament appearance. This year’s team lost many of last year’s NCAAB players that took Kansas State on a miracle run.
After the Wildcats earned a win over BYU, star player Tylor Perry stated that the Wildcats are desperate for wins and need to start doing something about it. They showed terrific heart on Saturday and are massive favorites against West Virginia tonight.
However, in the next three games after this one, Kansas State will likely be underdogs against Cincinnati and Kansas on the road and Iowa State at home. The Wildcats can’t afford to lose to West Virginia, but ultimately, they would need a couple of upsets against the three remaining teams before the Big 12 Tournament.
Of course, a Big 12 Tournament Championship would be enough to make the NCAA Tournament. But winning the final four games in the regular season would likely take the pressure off them in the Big 12 Tournament.
Kansas State All The Way
The Kansas State Wildcats are one of the better defenses in the nation. The Wildcats have held NCAAB teams to 30.4% from three and 46.1% from inside the arc. They’ve also limited teams from getting to the foul line and have earned 11.4% of blocks when shots go up.
Meanwhile, West Virginia has seen its shots get blocked 11.9% of the time. Therefore, the Wildcats should add many blocks in this game.
West Virginia has also hit only 33.9% from deep and 47% from inside the arc. The rate inside is brutal. But when you add West Virginia’s offensive rebounding rate of 26.7%, the Mountaineers don’t have much presence inside.
Kansas State’s only blunder on defense is its rebounding. But that shouldn’t be an issue against West Virginia.
On the flip side, Kansas State has only hit 30.7% from deep, which isn’t good. Still, the Wildcats have nailed 52.4% from inside the arc and have earned 33.1% of offensive rebounds.
Kansas State figures to win the rebounding battle and should get more second chances. Although the Wildcats turn the ball over 21.2% of the time, West Virginia has earned only 15% of turnovers per game this year. Kansas State should ultimately keep the turnovers below their seasonal average at home.
Therefore, although the NCAAB public betting will ride Kansas State, we still like the Wildcats too. They’re much higher in the college basketball rankings, proving that Kansas State has had a better season throughout the year.
There will also be some NBA to bet on tonight, so make sure to check the NBA injuries along with the college basketball injuries.
Returning to the West Virginia vs Kansas State odds, we’ll ride Kansas State at -9.5 (-120). West Virginia forgets how to play consistent basketball on the road.
The Mountaineers have checked out and will finish the season with a losing record. Conversely, Kansas State needs this win more than anything and could use a blowout win to help their NET Rating and other ratings and rankings that are used for the NCAA Tournament seeding.
For NCAAB news, NCAAB player stats, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
