MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Kentucky has a distinct size advantage, while West Virginia hopes to pose problems for the Wildcats with quickness that makes the team’s trademark full court pressure far more effective.
Yet when the fifth-seeded Wildcats and No. 4 Mountaineers clash at 5 p.m. Monday from Hope Coliseum in a game airing on ESPN2, WVU will also need a fair share of production from its front court, with much of that responsibility falling on senior Kierra ‘Meme’ Wheeler.
Wheeler and Carter McCray, both at 6-foot-1, are the tallest players in the West Virginia (28-6) starting lineup.
UK (24-10) counters with three starters that are at least 6-4 in Clara Strack, Teonni Key and Amelia Hasset.
“It’s very specific for me. I’m a little bit undersized, but I’m crafty,” Wheeler said. “I’m strong all around. Whether you’re 6-5 or 6-1, I’ve played a lot of players, so just coming in knowing if I’m faster than them or stronger than them, will I have to pullout my midrange or mid-post, or am I going to try to attack them down low and use the baseline against them?
“It’s really specific to how they defend. Can I get them to double team or not? If it’s 1 v 1, but she’s 6-5, I might open up versus trying to go back to the basket.”
A graduate student who excelled for three years at Norfolk State before joining the Mountaineers in advance of this season, Wheeler has been a welcome addition and among the team’s most consistent players.
She is second in scoring (13.4), first in rebounding (7.6) third in assists (68) and steals (52) and shoots 50.9 percent from the field. Wheeler has been a double-figure scorer in 26 of 34 contests and has at least seven rebounds in each of the last seven games with 62 over that time.
Wheeler has played in the NCAA Tournament each of her four seasons, though this is her first time advancing beyond the opening round.
“Meme is just going to play the way she does is what I’ve learned about her in the years,” WVU coach Mark Kellogg said. “She’s passionate. She’s aggressive. She loves these moments. She loves those matchups. That’s why she came here. That’s what she talked about throughout recruiting process was wanting to play at this level.”
Often in the Big 12 and in several instances in non-conference play, Wheeler was matched up with taller opponents and maintained her productive ways.
That will again be the mindset Monday night as Wheeler opposes a team leading the country in blocked shots with 225. Strack (87) and Hasset (48) have combined for well over half of that total.
“She’s a little undersized. We knew that, but she’s very productive at what she does,” Kellogg said. “She’ll be excited for this one as she has been for probably all of these games lately. You will probably get the best version of Meme you can. She’s been a great contributor for us. It’s what we’ve needed. Her ability to score in the paint, defensive rebound for us, play with that toughness and that edge that she has just kind of filters through the rest of the team.”
Spacing offensively will be of the utmost importance to the Mountaineers, and hitting perimeter shots with any sort of consistency would in turn force the Wildcats to gear more attention to the outside.
“Dealing with their size, we played a lot of teams that are bigger than us, but we’re a lot faster,” Wheeler said. “We have to be able to spread the floor. Strack is a great player. We want to be able to play to her weaknesses as best we can and keep her off the boards.”
Yet for as much as Kentucky’s game plan will be geared toward handling pressure and slowing the Mountaineers’ talented trio of guards Jordan Harrison, Gia Cooke and Sydney Shaw, Wheeler’s presence has given West Virginia something if often lacked in Kellogg’s first two seasons as head coach — a reliable low post scorer.
It’s also something UK coach Kenny Brooks has taken notice of.
“I was watching, I don’t know if it was a championship game in the Big 12 or one of those games in the Big 12 [Tournament], and I was listening and they said, Mark said, this is probably his best offensive team that he’s had,” Brooks said. “Everything has been defense, defense, defense, but they give them options so it’s not just defense. They don’t just have to score points off their defense. They can run their sets and those kids are crafty.”