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Kansas State beats No. 7 West Virginia, whose press may be broken

Kansas State v Kansas

LAWRENCE, KS - JANUARY 03: Head coach Bruce Weber of the Kansas State Wildcats reacts to a call during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse on January 3, 2017 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

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Kansas State had five players score between 13 and 15 points as the Wildcats finally landed the marquee win that has eluded them this season, picking off No. 7 West Virginia in the Octagon of Doom, 79-75.

Kamau Stokes and Barry Brown both scored 15 points to lead the way for the Wildcats, who improved to 4-3 in the Big 12 this season.

Here are three things to take away from this game:

1. The Wildcats needed this result so badly: Kansas State has pretty good computer numbers and a record that looks pretty on paper, but entering Saturday, they really hadn’t won all that much this season. They didn’t land a single non-conference win over a team ranked higher than 142nd in KenPom, and their wins in league play were over arguably the three worst teams in the conference - Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

So yes, this is a massive boost to Kansas State’s NCAA tournament chances.

But it’s also a morale boost that they needed. The Wildcats have been on the wrong end of some brutal late game calls, from the no-call on Svi Mykhailiuk’s travel in a loss to Kansas to the referees swallowing their whistles down the stretch in a loss at Texas Tech. Throw in the fact that Bruce Weber is more or less coaching for his job this season, and you can imagine the pressure that’s starting to build in Manhattan. This should help alleviate some of that.

2. West Virginia has played themselves out of the Big 12 title race: With 11 games remaining on the schedule, West Virginia is now three games behind Kansas for first place in the Big 12 standings. I don’t know how much you know about Kansas and the Big 12 - they’ve won 12 straight conference regular season titles, no big deal - but you don’t come from behind on the Jayhawks. You just don’t.

We’re just 12 days removed for the Mountaineers putting together a 21-point beatdown of then-No. 1 Baylor. Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

3. Is West Virginia’s press broken?: In the win over Baylor, West Virginia forced 29 turnovers, or a turnover on 37.2 percent of Baylor’s possessions. After that game, the Mountaineers were forcing turnovers on more than 33 percent of their possessions on the season, which is a number that is totally insane.

But in the three games since then, Press Virginia has been no where near as effective. In a two-point win over cellar dweller Texas, WVU forced turnovers on 26.4 percent of Longhorn possessions, well below their season average. In a loss to Oklahoma on Wednesday, that number was 15.2 percent. Against Kansas State, it was 21.3 percent. If West Virginia isn’t forcing turnovers and if they aren’t getting easy baskets in transition out of it, they are a limited basketball team. Something to keep an eye on.