Most of Bruce Weber's Friday press conference ahead of the matchup with West Virginia was centered around the Covid-19 outbreak within the team. Weber and associate head coach Chris Lowery missed the previous game versus Texas with the illness.

They will not be available on Saturday afternoon in Morgantown.

Since that contest, assistant Shane Southwell has also gone into health and safety protocols and will be unavailable as well. That leaves assistant Jermaine Henderson with head coaching duties and only graduate assistant Zack Price alongside him.

Weber revealed that point guard Markquis Nowell has passed through protocols and will suit up against the Mountaineers tomorrow. Kansas State's head coach added that they will still only have seven scholarship players, though.

That means, with Nowell's return, another scholarship player has been added to the list of players that will not make the trip to West Virginia. That player remains a mystery at this time, as Weber did not want to share.

Kaosi Ezeagu, Davion Bradford and Logan Landers will miss their second straight game, making the frontcourt very thin yet again.

Ultimately, the Big 12 protocols of a minimum six scholarship players and at least one coach available means K-State is forced to play the game.

"I don't think it's right, I think it's unfair," Weber said. "I've expressed that to the league office last year and this year. But that's the rules, you have to play by the rules. I just hope everyone is playing by the same rules."

Supposedly the Mountaineers will be at full strength, according to Weber. Guard Taz Sherman is the leading scorer in the Big 12 and will be a lot to handle for the Wildcats. He missed the Big 12 opener in Austin.

Bob Huggins' bunch crashes the offensive glass hard and find most of their success in the paint. They aren't the most fluid offense, as Sherman leads the team with only 2.8 assists a game.

Defensively, they have held teams to under 30 percent shooting from three-point range. They are prolific at turning teams over and blocking shots.

West Virginia is a physical and big team. A shorthanded Kansas State team will have their hands full on Saturday, to say the least.

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