Bob Huggins called this West Virginia team the worst he has coached on the defensive end of the floor.

While it certainly hasn’t been great, the veteran head coach knew what he was doing when he said it. And he was perhaps using a bit of gamesmanship with his team when he made those comments following a win over Iowa State.

Turns out, the message was well received as the Mountaineers put together one of their best efforts of the season on the defensive end in beating Kansas 91-79. After the Jayhawks made 16 three-pointers in the first meeting, many of the wide-open, step-in variety, the Mountaineers allowed only 7 this time.

Huggins believed that West Virginia was better on-the-ball, off-the ball and with help against the Jayhawks as the Mountaineers forced 18 turnovers and held the opposition to 1.097 points per possession. Those turnovers resulted in 26 points for the Mountaineers.

The defensive effort was the biggest difference in the two meetings after the Mountaineers shot 43-percent from three and took control of the game in the second half in a 79-65 win.

“One-hundred percent our defense. Obviously, they were getting step-in threes. They got a few rebounds today and were able to kick them out, but I think we cut that down and honestly I think our defense was way more aggressive than it was back then,” sophomore Miles McBride said.

It was a team-effort from the top down, with the Mountaineers communicating on that end of the floor and preventing as much of the dribble penetration which has haunted them of late. It also didn’t hurt that West Virginia was highly efficient on the offensive end, scoring a season-high 91 points.

“That’s the closest we have team guarded and we were locked in offensively. We were talking and communicating so I felt that was by far our best showing,” junior Derek Culver said.

The head man even went as far to call it the “best defensive performance of the season,” despite the Mountaineers still allowing 79 points to the Jayhawks. And it was exactly the type of response that Huggins had hoped to elicit when he made it a point to mention the struggles.

The Mountaineers led for all but 2:09 in the game and never trailed against the Jayhawks. It was a critical win against a team that had beaten West Virginia five straight times. There weren’t many hiccups outside a rough stretch to open the second half when Kansas whittled a 10-point lead in just over two-minutes to tie the game after leading by 10 at the break.

“A lot of yelling. A lot of yelling but you know he knows the expectations are high in a game like this and every possession counts. When you get a lead, you have maintained that lead and obviously we gave it back to them but obviously a lot of motivation in that huddle,” McBride said of that sequence.

That motivation again, worked. But unlike other matchups against Kansas when the Mountaineers have faded after experiencing adversity, West Virginia responded and was able to hold the Jayhawks off before extending the lead back to double digits late in the game.

“We challenged them. We’ve been there before; we’ve done that before and the results haven’t been good. It was more challenging them and them responding to the challenge than it was anything else,” Huggins said.

The Mountaineers have been a more efficient offensive team since moving to the four-out style and if Saturday was any indication could be turning the corner on the defensive side as well.

Just like Huggins intended.

“I believed a lot of it but I’m not opposed to trickery. If that’s what it takes to get them playing better or harder, I’ll try to trick them,” Huggins said.

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