West Virginia can’t be thrilled with Kentucky basketball. It has to be personal at this point, maybe getting back at the Mountaineers for sending John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins home in the Elite Eight back in 2010? Since then, it’s been all Wildcats in essentially every way possible.
On the court, UK has picked up three straight wins — two in the NCAA Tournament. The first was the revenge game with Brandon Knight going for 30 in the 71-63 Round of 32 win in 2011. Then came the absolute beatdown of historic proportion in 2015, doubling up the Mountaineers 78-39 after Daxter Miles stupidly called out the undefeated Wildcats while adding that they ‘don’t play hard.’
“Tomorrow they’re gonna be 36-1,” Miles said at the time. “They’re gonna be 36-1.”
Five Cats scored in double figures in that one while WVU made just 13 baskets in 40 minutes of regulation. Whoops.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the Mountaineers got Kevin Knox’d a few years later, the five-star freshman going nuclear for 34 points on 11-17 shooting in the 83-76 win in Morgantown.
That ended the on-court dominance for now, only to transition into player acquisition dominance.
Remember Oscar Tshiebwe? You may have heard of him. He transferred to Kentucky as a mid-year addition back in January of 2021. The 6-9 forward would go on to become one of the most dominant players in the history of college basketball, earning unanimous National Player of the Year and First Team All-America honors in 2021-22 before returning for his senior season and becoming a unanimous All-American once again in 2022-23.
Bob Huggins called him an “alleged McDonald’s All-American” and said “he didn’t like the fact that we were making him do things that were hard.” Then Tshiebwe went on to terrorize the college basketball world for two seasons. Whoops.
Speaking of Huggins, he was arrested for DUI in June of 2023, and 10 days later, Tre Mitchell was committed to Kentucky. He dealt with some injury issues, but when healthy, there weren’t too many bigs in college basketball better than the WVU transfer. Add him to the list.
Oh, and how about Kerr Kriisa? Another day, another Mountaineer ditching Morgantown for Lexington. He only played nine games for Kentucky after suffering a season-ending broken foot in December, but hey, the memories were fun, right? He was a good NIL/portal mercenary with immaculate vibes on the bench. We’ll call it a success.
Then we get to the most recent example, one that benefits the upcoming Kentucky basketball roster: Braydon Hawthorne, welcome to the show! He committed to West Virginia in October, then backed away from his pledge in the spring following Darian DeVries’ move to Indiana. One of the fastest stock-risers in the class, the new Mountaineer staff under Ross Hodge tried re-recruiting him back to Morgantown and made the final list, seen as a serious contender to land his commitment down the stretch.
Then Mark Pope happened, stealing the top-40 four-star recruit out from WVU’s own backyard, Hawthorne coming from Beckley, WV. He could’ve gotten guaranteed playing time elsewhere — including home suiting up for the Mountainteers — but instead, he’s taking on the challenge of joining an absolutely loaded roster from top to bottom.
Just the way we like it.
Sorry, West Virginia.
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