West Virginia uses complete effort to beat No. 3 Kansas
In the court-storming celebration that occurred following the West Virginia 91-85 win over No. 3 Kansas, head coach Josh Eilert could have stopped to take in the madness.
But in the biggest win of Eilert’s young career as a head coach, he couldn’t help it. As a Kansas native and Kansas State graduate, it was natural that his thoughts drifted to his late father Jim.
“My dad was a K-State grad, and he didn’t have much of a love affair for Kansas by any means. I lost him six and a half years ago and I started thinking about him and how proud he would have been,” Eilert said.
Eilert grew up watching Big 12 basketball in the Sunflower State and this win had a little bit more meaning to him, especially with the success that the Kansas basketball program has experienced. And for West Virginia, this was exactly the type of effort needed for this team to use moving forward.
Eilert challenged his team to rise to the occasion against one of the top teams in the country.
“That one felt good. That’s what our guys needed for the confidence to start snowballing in the right direction,” Eilert said.
It’s the second time in three games that West Virginia has knocked off a ranked team after beating No. 25 Texas at home Jan. 13. But this one just felt different.
West Virginia shot the ball as well as they have all season hitting 52-percent from the floor and a whopping 57-percent from three. But the Mountaineers shared the basketball with 19 assists on 29 made baskets and won the battle on the glass going plus nine against the Jayhawks.
“I felt like we were quicker to the ball in everything we did and in a game of inches that can be the difference,” Eilert said.
It was a complete team effort up and down the roster with every player that saw significant action making key contributions in a variety of ways across the stat sheet.
The Mountaineers have dealt with plenty of challenges to get to this point and still 18 games into the season have yet to play with their full complement of players for a variety of reasons. That has led to a 7-11 record overall, but the program has gone 2-3 to open Big 12 Conference play.
That could be the springboard needed.
“Hopefully this goes a long way for our confidence moving forward and continue to bring through the Big 12. Because it really is a grind,” he said.
It’s a major feather in the cap for West Virginia who now looks to build on this result moving forward with games on the slate at UCF Tuesday and Oklahoma State Saturday this coming week. That means savoring this win but quickly turning the page to what’s next on the schedule.
An impressive upset win, and a special moment for the head coach.
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