Over the past two weekends, West Virginia was chasing down a Big 12 title. That title chase, while successful, slowed down the Mountaineers’ momentum.
Thursday’s win over Cincinnati hopes to have restored that momentum as that winning feeling returned to the West Virginia dugout.
“It felt like we had pressed, and we had pushed, and we had pressed. And there was a Big 12 regular season title on the line. And no matter what you say and how you prepare, when these kids pour this much into being great, they do feel that. And so I felt over the course of the last few weeks, maybe the guys were pressing for hits or trying to have success for the program. That’s all they want, man. These guys go to work every day to do something special for our state, community, and university,” West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins said.
WVU won their first outright Big 12 title last weekend, but this weekend, they are hoping to win their first Big 12 Tournament title. That motivation does not come from Sabins who is in his first season as head coach, but it is player driven for the Mountaineers.
“I don’t think anything I say at this point is going to change how these guys play or perform. It’s their team. It’s been their team for a long time. They’ve taken ownership of this team. Guys like these [Griffin Kirn and Kyle West], these guys will dictate how far this team goes. I’m going to try to put them in positions to be successful. That’s my job at this point. But there’s no rah, rah speeches. There’s nothing that I can say or do at this point,” Sabins said.
That feeling of accountability is something West feels. He’s in his second season as a Mountaineer, but understood what this team went through each of the last two weeks.
“I think coming the last two weeks were obviously not what we wanted. We lost two series. We had time to regroup, think about what had happened the past two weeks, reflect on it for positive. When you start looking into the negative, you get so deep down a rabbit hole, and you try and fix everything. But on the surface, we’re an elite-level baseball team. So, try and regroup, recuperate on what we do well, and take that into this weekend. And I think we showed tonight what we did all season. So I think it’s a great start, and looking forward, I think we’re in a great position,” West said.
The thing that helped West Virginia flush what happened in the regular season is the idea that once the tournament start, it’s an entirely new season.
“But I do think before we came here, we did remind the guys that there’s certainly some doubters. So we just won a Big 12 title, and we tied the most wins in program history, and there’s still a lot of doubters of what that was. And so you have a choice. You can either play with a chip on your shoulder. You can use that for fuel. Or you can ignore it. Those are the options,” Sabins said.
It seems as though West Virginia used it for fuel, as a 10-3 win over Cincinnati put the Mountaineers in the Big 12 Semifinals.
“I have my preference. [Kirn] probably has his preference. Kyle West has his preference. But everybody in that locker room knows how special this team is and what we’ve accomplished. I think the most important thing you hit on, stumbled at the end. Well, this is the beginning. And so we don’t really want to look at it like the end, because if you think it’s the end, then it’s the end. And so we talked about something new, a rebirth, getting to go start a new season basically today,” Sabins said.
TEAYS VALLEY, W.Va (WDTV) – A southern West Virginia man appeared on American Idol Monday night in a moving audition.
Mor Ilderton, 22 of Teays Valley, performed his original song, “Strong,” which helps illustrate the story about his mother dying when he was 2 years old at the hands of his father.
His grandmother Sandy, who raised him & told him she wasn’t able to attend, made a surprise visit at the end of his audition.
Mor received three ‘yes’ votes from the judges & is moving on to the Hollywood rounds in Nashville.
You can watch a clip from his audition below from American Idol’s Facebook page.
Copyright 2026 WDTV. All rights reserved.
HANCOCK COUNTY, W.Va. — Hancock County has become the most recent West Virginia school district to be placed under the control of the West Virginia Board of Education, joining Mingo, Upshur, Logan, Tyler, Nicholas and Boone counties.
“What we do have is that there’s been some problems in terms of accountability,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said. “When you have that many schools systems that are being taken over, that’s not a good sign. You have to be very proactive to get the word out, make sure those dowers are being used effectively.”
Last week, Morrisey named James Paul as the newest state school board member, his first appointee as governor. Morrisey has recently been critical of the state school board on a range of issues, including oversight of county board finances.
“I named a new state school board member, that was my first pick and I’ve asked him to try to get to the bottom of a lot of these issues because West Virginia doesn’t have a spending problem statewide- we’re actually the middle of the pack, between 25 and 27 in terms of spending per pupil,” Morrisey said.
A major question surrounding the situation at Hancock County Schools involves audits. The county had been operating more than 100 positions over state staffing formulas, and the state school financial operations officer told lawmakers in a committee meeting last month that the county failed to appropriately report through the West Virginia Education Information System. An investigation is still ongoing.
“It raises a question of exactly how these audits have been conducted and what else needs to be done to make sure money can’t fly out the door like that or that these districts are going to be run in a fiscally responsible manner,” Morrisey said.
Meanwhile, House Bill 4574 and House Bill 4575 have been held up in committees since Jan. 20. The bills would allow the state board to administer supplemental funds beyond the school funding formula and would appropriate $8 million to fund the shortfall supplement fund.
Asked whether the bills could move before the end of the legislative session in March, Morrisey said, “I’ve had some discussions with some people in the Senate and the House and I know that there is an interest in getting something done. We’ll keep talking about that and I do expect that there will be something that happens in the next few weeks before the session ends.”
Today on MetroNews This Morning:
–Federal judges are raising concerns about detained illegal aliens in West Virginia
–Mon Power seeks a permit for a new gas plant to be built for power in Monongalia County
–Sunday marked the one year anniversary of devastating flooding in southern West Virginia
–In Sports, a loss by the Mountaineer women puts them out of the Big XII lead
Listen to “MetroNews This Morning 2-16-26” on Spreaker.
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