Quality wins: How Kentucky basketball stacks up against West Virginia

Editor’s note: During the 2017-18 season, Kentucky basketball will play five non-conference games against Power 5 teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season — Kansas (Nov. 14 in Chicago), Virginia Tech (Dec. 16 at home), UCLA (Dec. 23 in New Orleans), Louisville (Dec. 29 at home) and West Virginia (Jan. 27 in Morgantown) — meaning five opportunities to impress the selection committee come March.

In our Quality Wins series, we’ll break down those matchups and make an early prediction on the outcome. Today, it’s West Virginia.

Tale of the tape

Kentucky has zero returning starters and only 7 percent of last season’s points and 15 percent of its 2016-17 rebounds back. The top six scorers from last year’s Elite Eight squad — Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo, Isaiah Briscoe, Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins — are gone. The Wildcats have eight freshmen, three sophomores and no juniors or seniors among their scholarship players.

West Virginia is the anti-Kentucky when it comes to youth. The Mountaineers have two freshmen on their roster. One of those, guard Brandon Knapper, recently underwent knee surgery and is out indefinitely.

The Mountaineers return their top-two scorers from last season: senior guard Jevon Carter and junior forward Esa Ahmad. West Virginia’s third- and fourth-leading scorers from last season — Nathan Adrian and Tarik Phillip — are gone.

Carter led West Virginia with 13.5 points per game and 3.7 assists per game last season. He shot 39 percent from beyond the arc. But Carter’s most crucial contributions come on the defensive end. He’s the third player in Big 12 history to be named to the conference’s All-Defensive Team for three seasons.

Carter led the Big 12 with 85 steals last season and was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.

RELATED: Kentucky’s nonconference schedule complete

Fresh faces

Kentucky signed the No. 2 class in the country, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. It was a class that included 5-star prospects Quade Green, Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Knox, Jarred Vanderbilt, P.J. Washington and Nick Richards. Four-star guards Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jemarl Baker were top-100 players, as well.

RELATED: Sizing up John Calipari’s 2018 recruiting efforts and a fast start on 2019

West Virginia signed the No. 41 class in the country, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. Coach Bob Huggins’ class took a hit when 4-star power forward Derek Culver didn’t enroll. Culver was West Virginia’s top-ranked signee in the class. He’ll attend Brewster Academy in New Hampshire for another year of prep school instead of playing at West Virginia this season.

Two 3-star freshmen and two 3-star junior college transfers represent the four new additions for West Virginia.

The series

Kentucky leads the all-time series against West Virginia, 15-5. The Wildcats have beaten the Mountaineers in nine of their last 10 meetings.

The two teams last played in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Kentucky’s 38-1 squad demolished West Virginia 78-39 in the Midwest Regional semifinals. The last three games between the two programs have come in the NCAA Tournament.

The last time Kentucky played in Morgantown, W. Va., was 1970. Kentucky, then the No. 3 team in the country, went home with a 106-100 win.

Our (way-too-early) prediction

Kyle Tucker: West Virginia 80, Kentucky 77

Joe Mussatto: West Virginia 72, Kentucky 67

Huggins’ program has come to be known as “Press Virginia,” and the Mountaineers could give a young Kentucky squad fits in what will no doubt be the Cats’ toughest non-conference road matchup.

Previously in the series:

• How Kentucky stacks up against Kansas
• How Kentucky stacks up against Virginia Tech
• How Kentucky stacks up against UCLA
• How Kentucky stacks up against Louisville

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