Mountaineers Ready to Enter The Phog - WVU Football, WVU Basketball, News - Mountaineer Sports

Pay heed, all who enter: Beware of "The Phog."

The signs are all over the University of Kansas' campus and through Allen Fieldhouse. One of the most historic venues in college basketball prepares to welcome West Virginia on Saturday.

When the move to the Big 12 was solidified, this is the arena basketball fans, and surely the players on the team, looked forward to the most. Head coach Bob Huggins talked at length about the venues in the new conference and the fans who made each environment special and now the best of them all awaits his Mountaineers.

"I am looking forward to it," says sophomore guard Jabarie Hinds. "When I watch Kansas on TV, the crowd, atmosphere, it's crazy down there, so it should be fun playing there this weekend."

It would of course be more fun if they beat No. 6 Kansas (24-4, 12-3) as West Virginia faces its first losing season since 2003 with an overall record of 13-15 with just three games remaining.

Kevin Noreen says that as long as games remain on the schedule and a conference tournament championship remains on the table, he and his team will not give up on what has been a disappointing season.

"That's always a hope," the sophomore forward says. "Huggs, I've never known him to back down from anybody. We're not going to lay it down by any means. He'll say this, he owes it to the state, he owes it to the university, we owe it to him and likewise the state, the university, so we can't just go out to Kansas and be flat and not care."

Heading into an atmosphere like the one they expect to face at Allen Fieldhouse, is it possible to come out flat and not care?

"It's possible, but it's not going to happen," says Noreen. "Going to Phog is a treat. If we had [beaten Baylor], I'd be a lot more excited about going there to play, but at the same time, we're not laying anything down, not going to stop, got to keep fighting.

"Yeah, they have a lot of fans, but they don't have knives, they don't have guns, they can't come on the court. They have five guys, we have five guys on the court, so we're going to play."

The first time these two teams met, the Jayhawks jumped out to a 12-point lead before the Mountaineers woke up and made it a game. WVU got as close as two with 10 minutes remaining, but couldn't put together enough points offensively and stops on defense to get the victory.

Aaric Murray gave the Mountaineers 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots in the 61-56 loss.

"We were with them the whole game, minus our turnovers and just some shots we could have made," says Hinds. "It would've been a different outcome, but now we've just got to put everything together for this game this weekend and try and come out with a win."

Saturday's game promises to be an experience the Mountaineers will not soon forget, but the monumental task facing them is to make their first memory of the Phog a positive one, and not just another in a long list of losses.