MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia men’s basketball team that will take the floor at 2 p.m. to celebrate Senior Day against No. 11 Kansas State will look very much like the same team that opened the season on the same floor back on Nov, 7.

The faces will look the same, the names and numbers will be the same, the objective — winning — will be the same.

But the team is very different and for that Bob Huggins and his players deserve a lot of credit, for they have molded themselves into an NCAA Tournament team where one did not exist at the beginning of the season.

“Obviously, I wish we won a couple of more games early on, but that’s just the story of life,” forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. said.. “Not everybody can be perfect and undefeated. That’s just not the way it goes.”

They were a mess as Big 12 play began, losing their first five games. They missed free throws. They missed layups. They threw the ball to people who needed tickets to get into the game.

And Huggins unequivocally called them the worst defensive team he ever coached.

So how does it happen that now they are where they are now?

“We need to win tomorrow just to take all doubt away. I think we’re fine now but I think we will all feel a little more comfortable sitting there when the seedings are introduced if we had one more win,” Huggins admitted.

It looked through that five-game losing streak like they would never win again because other teams weren’t beating the Mountaineers, they were beating themselves.

“When you stop and think about it, we had three free throws to beat Baylor in the first league game and missed them,” Huggins said. “We two to beat Oklahoma with a tie score and no time on the clock and we missed them.

“I don’t think we would miss them now.”

It’s a different group. See Huggins had assembled from junior colleges, high schools and the new transfer portal a group of players who came from all different backgrounds. They had ability but they needed time.

“We lost a couple of games off one or two plays,” Emmitt Matthews Jr. said. “Basketball is a game which can be dictated off one or two plays. One play can lead to a run or a play can cost you at the end of the game.

“I think our team just realized what was at stake. We have a lot of seniors and guys who haven’t been to the tournament. We’ve had team meetings and talked about what we want to do in March. It’s been way more intense when we get into a game or a time out or those little huddles we have on a free throw.”

“Obviously, we have gotten better and better as the season has gone on. I don’t think the games we lost then we would ever have lost now,” Huggins said. “But that’s the way of the world right now. When you take guys and try to fit them in with guys who have been here, guys with another style of playing, it’s going to take some time.”

“I think Erik (Stevenson) has matured at a very quick pace from where he was and how he approached the game and how he approached his teammates. It takes time. If we make some free throws, we are not sitting where we are now. I give these guys a lot of credit because they didn’t lay their heads down.”

They had to grow up and grow together.

“It’s a maturation process for everyone,” Huggins went on. “Think about it. This is the most competitive, physical league in the country, barring none. They haven’t experienced that before and I don’t care where they come from. This is the most athletic league in the country and they haven’t experienced that before. This is an incredibly athletic league and it doesn’t get its due.

“Anybody who doesn’t think this is a contact sport doesn’t watch it very close. It’s a contact sport. Guys coming out of high school, coming out of a lesser league, you don’t get that. Keedy takes a lot of contact every time he takes it to the rim. Our bigs take a lot of contact every time they try to score inside”.

They worked at their mistakes and now are making free throws and protecting the ball and playing together and, yes, playing defense.

“They are a much better defensive team. What happened in Ames the other day, I don’t know if it’s possible for a lot of other teams in this league to do; to make a comeback without their bigs. We had only one big. At the end of the game the only big we had was Emmitt and we don’t consider him a big,” Huggins said.

Kansas State is a tough out. The Wildcats have won four in a row and are 23-7.