Notebook: WVU masters art of steal

West Virginia guard Jaysean Paige (5) celebrates a West Virginia play next to Kansas guard Frank Mason III in the Jayhawks 74-63 loss to the Mountaineers in Morgantown, W.V. Tuesday.

Morgantown, W.Va. ? West Virginia senior forward Jonathan Holton takes pride in the Mountaineers’ ability to swipe the basketball.

WVU entered Tuesday’s game third in the country in steals, and added 12 more to their total in a 74-63 win over top-ranked Kansas.

Holton entered the game with 16 steals, trailing Jevon Carter (30), Daxter Miles (29), Tarik Phillip (28), Esa Ahmad (20) and Jaysean Paige (18).

“You’ve got to slide your feet, be on top of the ball,” Holton explained at Big 12 Media Day.

“I can either go off the pass or wait until he (opponent) dribbles, or just bait him up, wait until he gets to half court and catch him off guard. If you go at him every angle the same every time, he’ll catch on. If you mix it up, it might throw him off a bit.

“I know how to chase that ball. I know how to ball hawk down,” Holton said.

“I learned from last year to not put my hands on the offensive team, keep my hands out,” he added. “I think about that every day.”

Mascot talk: The West Virginia Mountaineer mascot appears in a buckskin costume at the school’s football games, men’s and women’s hoops games and some other events.

“Every time a half closes out or game starts he shoots off that gun,” Holton said. “Or football everytime the team scores he shoots that gun. It’s just a thing for the whole school. It’s cool.”

Depth talk: WVU coach Bob Huggins on the depth of the two teams.

“They’ve got a lot of depth and we have a lot of depth,” Huggins told the Morgantown Dominion Post before the game. “We try to get into people’s benches as best we possibly can. With them, I don’t think (KU’s bench) ever has been (same as other teams). They’ve always had 10 or 11 or 12 guys who were really good.”

— See what people were saying about No. 1 KU at No. 11 WVU during KUsports.com’s live blog

More news and notes from No. 1 Kansas at No. 11 West Virginia